Review of God's Own Country (2017) by Endaugust — 15 May 2018

The best thing about GOC is Josh O'Connor's detailed, searing performance. The direction is to be applauded also for its minute attention to details of the farm life (though it feels a bit too fetishistic at times with long takes of skinning the animals.

..). But the film feels imbalance in its treatment of the two characters. The handsome Romanian is there to service the British rural farm boy and to bring him out of his repressed stoic way. What's in it for Gheorghe especially when Johnny was nothing but a brutal charmless bloke? A chance to be away from his poor country? Would he be doing this mainly for economic reasons? This would have been more acceptable if the movie weren't so hung up on its being a "love story" b/c I don't see what's to love about Johnny from Georghe's perspective.

Johnny is more like a project than a love interest for someone who's as well-rounded as Georghe. Writer/director Francis Lee can't have it both ways, portraying a gritty and sentimental romance.