Regarding movies, there has always been something about the obsessions and problems of the wealthy that has fascinated audiences. Of course, television long ago drifted into that storyline, with a recent major example being the success of “The White Lotus” streaming series, which is now heading into France for a fourth season starring Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Coogan, and Chris Messina.
Five successful motion pictures that travel along with the rich, and the occasionally famous, are director Jacques Deray’s 1969 “La Piscine” (“The Swimming Pool”) and its cousin, Francois Ozon’s 2003 “Swimming Pool” and its second cousin Luca Guadagnino’s 2015 “A Bigger Splash;” Paul Schrader’s “The Comfort Of Strangers” from 1990, and Woody Allen’s 2005 “Match Point.” All of them are among my favorites. There are a number of unifying elements connecting these films, especially money, menace, and sometimes murder, as well as a heaping helping of sexual tension. The locations are colorful and include, in the order of the movies noted: the French Riviera, the south of France, the Italian island of Pantelleria, Venice, Italy; and London, England.
Joining the contingent above is “Islands.” German-born writer-director Jan-Ole Gerster has set his mystery on Fuerteventura, which is an island in the Canary Islands archipelago about sixty miles off the coast of northwest Africa. The Canaries are controlled and run by Spain. Gerster wrote the screenplay along with Blaz Kutin and Lawrie Doran. The film is playing at the North Park in Buffalo, which means the beautiful sun-dappled cinematography by Juan C. Sarmiento Grisales will look especially wonderful with the theater’s new 4K projection. The upgraded sound system is superb. Fuerteventura is a volcanic island with inviting beaches and rugged cliffs that most assuredly should be traversed with care.
At a luxury hotel, a former professional gives tennis lessons to the guests. He’s been on the island for almost ten years. His name is Tom, and his life might seem enviable to many, what with days spent on the sunny court and nights spent drinking and dancing, with many of the female guests flirting with him, and more. However, he’s becoming tired of the familiar grind. He’s been on the island long enough to know how to fake interest in people who will never really learn how to play tennis. He might be living in a gilded paradise, but the booze-driven hangovers, ceaseless routines, and dull clients are wearing him down and eroding his energy. Tom is well played by Sam Riley, whose good looks offer just the right amount of seedy handsomeness and whose emotion-driven moods deliver pitch-perfect feigned enthusiasm.
Onto the tennis court steps Anne (nicely acted by Stacy Martin), who is an attractive woman with a young son. Anne is a former television actress, albeit a failed one. She is married to Dave, a successful businessman who seems to hold an advanced degree in being obnoxiously friendly. You know the type, a glad-handing good old boy. She engages Tom for lessons for the child, whose name is Anton. The kid is happy, which meets with the approval of the couple, whose marriage isn’t exactly a bed of roses. In their case, wealth truly hasn’t been buying a lot of happiness.
Soon, Tom is playing tour guide and making sure the family has everything they need for a pleasant experience on their vacation. He likes the meaningful private conversations he has with Anne. His boredom drifts away. He’s got a new spring in his step. In fact, Dave, played with flawless unctuous aplomb by Jack Farthing, encourages Tom to go clubbing with him. Everything seems delightful until it isn’t.
In the tradition of the best film noir features, Dave disappears. The police become involved. Anne seems to have more secrets than the audience has been let in on. It’s an island; therefore, everyone except Anton is a suspect, including Tom and especially Anne.
At this point, we’ve jumped into another movie classic. In legendary Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s “L’Avventura,” from 1960, which opened the doors for the cinema of ennui, an early-middle-aged woman and her friends, all comfortably well-off, are enjoying a holiday on one of Italy’s Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. She disappears. Everybody looks for her for a little while, but they get bored and return to the mainland.
Director Gerster has guided his alluring, finely-tuned movie and its attractive, rich people with a calm hand. He’s not a fancy filmmaker, but he is very clever about offering clues. That said, he’s still very capable of keeping secrets. A police inspector has only one thing on his agenda. The truth. What happened to Dave? Unhappy marriages are the breeding ground for people doing things they might never have thought they could possibly do. Or is something else at work here? The main characters are clearly dissatisfied. How many secrets can burden one family?
What I especially appreciate about “Islands” is that Gerster willingly trusts the audience to sift through the clues. Conversations are important, but so are the looks between people. There are a number of peripheral characters who also have a role to play in the goings-on. Some are colorful. Some are opportunistic. The film pulls you into engaging corners, thus causing you to rethink what has come before. Other lives keep intruding as Tom reflects on the direction of his own life. Gerster and his co-writers have set up a puzzle that may not have the answer you necessarily expected or even wanted. I like that the worthwhile “Islands” delivers a package that isn’t neatly wrapped.