Moments

Figuratively, the story about the length of drop on the rope: a man in an Eastbourne hotel is seemingly rescued from suicide by a young girl. With the Grand Hotel setting, intermingling of past and present (real or imagined), shifting levels of 'reality', and the use of the out-of-season resort as a symbol for inner desolation, it is not hard to see the influence of Resnais. And such pretensions are surprisingly welcome after the sub-11 plus level of most British movies. It's all the more pity that the film's central relationship cannot sustain credibility: the plot depends on too much verbal exposition; explanations are too predictable for an essay on uncertainty; and the characters move from clichéd stodgy middle-age and freewheeling youth to stereotyped fugitives from deadening routine.