Nobody Has To Know (PG, 99 mins). Streaming on Neon; renting on AroVision and Apple TV.
Directed by Tim Mielants and Bouli Lanners.
Reviewed by Jen Shieff.
Not a lot happens in this romantic, slightly dreamy tale of a middle-aged couple getting together. It’s an easy watch, in many ways a gentle version of Martin McDonagh’s TheBanshees of Inisherin (2022), without the horrific elements or interpersonal strife.
The remoteness of the Outer Hebrides makes an ideal setting for the slow development of the two isolated main characters, emotionally bereft at the start, passionately involved by the end.
It’s beautifully filmed by Frank van den Eeden, whose cinematography captures the dramatic beauty of the Isle of Lewis. Unsurprisingly, one of the directors, Bouli Lanners, who also plays the male lead, Philippe, was an artist before he became an actor/director.
Opposite Lanners’ Phil is emotionally remote Millie (Michelle Fairley), the daughter of Phil’s farmer boss, Angus (Julian Glover), for whom Phil works alongside Angus’s nephew Brian (Andrew Still).
When Phil has a stroke and loses his memory, Millie goes to collect him from the hospital. He has no recollection of her, or of anything else, and she takes the opportunity to form a bond with him.
For reasons never fully explained but strongly implied, Millie feels the need to lie to Phil in order for him to want to connect with her. She pretends they used to be in a relationship. When he hears that, he asks her, “Are we still together?” He’s dazed and confused but clearly hopeful.
Adding a heartwarming, almost parallel layer to the main plot is the way Nigel, a Dalmatian, who lives in Phil’s house, attaches himself to Brian.
Phil is seemingly aware Nigel is not actually his dog, having no recollection of how Nigel happened to be living in his house, but all the same, he’s keen for Nigel and Brian to end up together.
Issues of the heart reveal themselves at almost every turn but nobody asks intrusive questions; it’s up to viewers to work out what’s been going on and why.
It’s a production with European film-making in its bones: Frank van den Eeden has cinematography skills learned in the Netherlands while Bouli Lanners is Belgian, his character Phil speaking English with a French/Belgian accent, emphasising his dislocation from home.
His French-speaking brother Benoît (Clovis Cornillac) shows up, unnecessarily for the plot but necessarily for audiences to resent his presence the way Phil does.
Michelle Fairley’s understated Millie, mocked by locals for being “as frigid as icecream”, unravels beautifully from an apparently mean-spirited estate agent who doesn’t care if her P.A. takes a lunch break or not to a fully-fledged, emotionally connected person.
People are inserted into the windswept landscape in a way that’s reminiscent of Thomas Hardy’s isolated characters blending with their rural environments, timeless surroundings absorbing them, suggesting aspects of human nature that survive beyond lifespans.
Nobody Has To Know is about the delight experienced by those who find their soulmate after a long time of being alone.
