Film Review: Paul Mescal is in excellent form as likeable but troubled Calum in Aftersun

Aftersun stars Paul Mescal as Calum, and his young daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio). Pictures: Sarah Makharine Volta Pictures 

★★★★☆

Aftersun (15A) stars Paul Mescal as Calum, who takes his young daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio) on holiday to a Turkish resort. Amiably separated from Sophie’s mother, Calum seems to enjoy a relaxed relationship with Sophie — the pair are easy in one another’s company, whether snorkelling, playing chess or hanging out poolside in comfortable silence.

Indeed, it’s the little details that render writer-director Charlotte Wells’ film a gripping character study: we see Calum practising his deep breathing and Tai Chi, see anxious frowns when he believes Sophie isn’t watching, and catch a glimpse of his holiday reading material on how to meditate.

Even Paul Mescal is overshadowed by an uncannily natural turn by Frankie Corio.

Something clearly isn’t right with Calum; and once we realise the film is framed as an extended flashback — the adult Sophie recalling the holiday some two decades later — the whole story is freighted with an ominous sense of looming disaster. The effect is enhanced by Gregory Oke’s claustrophobic camera-work, lingering on Calum and Sophie in long close-ups that allow for mixed emotions to emerge: as Calum quietly battles his own demons, young Sophie, on the cusp of adolescence, grows ever more curious about the older boys and girls in the resort, and what they get up to once the sun goes down.

Paul Mescal is in excellent form as the likeable but troubled Calum in what is his most mature performance to date, but even he is overshadowed by an uncannily natural turn by Frankie Corio as Sophie slowly comes to realise that her beloved father is not only flawed but doomed.

(cinema release)