The low-key dramatic mood of this London nocturne may sneak up on you, but for long periods its boy-'n'-girl-on-a-metropolitan-wander merely serves to make Richard Linklater's diptych Before Sunrise and Before Sunset look even more accomplished.
Will (Tobias Menzies) is a singer-songwriter nursing a melancholy secret; bright-eyed Eve (Genevieve O'Reilly) works at the local bar where he performs. Fate brings them together for a night, and as they meander through the London streets we wait – and hope – for them to make a more lasting connection. He's dour and depressed, she's sparky and companionable, and it takes an encounter with her ailing grandmother (Gemma Jones) the next day for the story's buried meaning to surface. Menzies and O'Reilly give performances of likeable modesty and restraint (she is especially good), though the film-makers might have given the would-be troubadour some better songs.
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