My Sailor, My Love (2023)

I watched this on a flight from Sydney to Queenstown, which directly followed a transpacific flight that was brutal, so consider the source. I thought this was a very nuanced film, quiet and yet beautiful in tone, that depicts how trauma ripples across generations and messes everything up if it isn't dealt with. The movie is filmed on Achill island off Ireland’s west coast, and has at its core grappling with the rough currents of late-in-life regrets and resentment. Cranky retired sea captain Howard –who was once content with shutting himself off from the outside world – is forced to open his disorderly home, and subsequently his heart, to Annie, a housekeeper hired by his overworked daughter Grace. What begins as a lighthearted autumnal romance gradually evolves into a thorny study of familial grievances. Grace is unable to stop herself from ruining anything good in her life, and it turns out, in the lives of others as well. She is troubled by her own unhappy marriage, and grows increasingly bitter about her father’s new relationship. The reasons for her disturbing, self-destructive behaviours spring from a traumatic childhood, the details of which are revealed too late to fully flesh out, but she cannot stop herself. It leaves you with something to think about, and is beautifully done.