DAPHNE
Daphne is not good. Yes, the character is not good, is not supposed to be good, but really I just mean the film as a whole. I just didn't get it. And quite frankly I didn't care to get it. This film, and its central character may resonate with a few people of our generation, but it feels like a harsh extreme against how people actually are. I'm sure there's a fair few of us who wish we could act that cold and careless, but nobody really is - even Daphne herself. Sort of.
I spent a lot of this film just urging her to tell someone about what happened, explain why she was acting like this. The moment it does come, however, it's a mess. In a late night bar confession, Daphne tells a friend, who we've been vaguely introduced to at the beginning of the film. In a claustrophobic space with cramped camera angles, the dialogue is far removed from the revelatory moment this is supposed to be. It's just weird.
Daphne is supposed to be a "portrait" of a real 21st century woman. It's supposed to be a complex, three-dimensional character study. And according to IMDb it's also supposed to be a comedy. Okay, and a drama, but it lists comedy first. It's actually a pretty sad story really. Sadder still, it's unintentional. Writer, Nico Mensinga, thinks he's written a "vibrant character portrait of a young woman on the threshold of much-needed change."*, really, he's written a two-dimensional, paint-by-numbers, cliche ridden (the irony intentional), hot mess of a character that he thinks 21st century women are like.
Outside of that, there are other issues, which are just my pet-peeves of film (and television). 1) Daphne is a single, 31-year-old line cook at an okay-looking bistro. She also lives on her own in London. Unless she's got a secret stash of inheritance money somewhere, she wouldn't be living alone. 2) In one scene, a woman sits next to Daphne on the bus, with a child in her arms. Not only are there two free seats in front of her (which anyone would sit in so not to have to sit next to a stranger, especially if you have a child and especially especially in London!), but then they progress to having a conversation. Which in turn leads to a big character revelation. Londoners do not do this.
On the note of this bus scene, and the confession to her random friend scene, they feel shoehorned into the script so Daphne can come to some sort of realisation. They don't feel natural at all. Then again, the whole film doesn't feel too natural anyway.
I just didn't get it.
*I'm aware he wouldn't have written the IMDb entry.