THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR
The product of a four-day shoot over a span of three years, on a shoestring budget (£50,000) with no script, no stars and a DV handheld camera, THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR is British commercials director Danny Scheinmanns accidental break into feature filmmaking. Its a sex comedy of errors as my screening notes delightfully inform me and admittedly makes for an entertaining enough piece for Friday DVD night, light entertainment.
The film, for the most part involves a group of lost, lonely and desperately love struck thirtysomething Londoners whose lives are intertwined with one another following the titular incident - that is a result of an eventually sadistic get-together at a farmhouse, set in the said South coastal village. Anna (Sarah Coomes) is a self-conscious fudy-dudy who is desperate for a shag (and possibly a relationship) and invites her emotionally vulnerable girlfriend Natasha (Rebecca Cardinale) along for support and guidance when she sets up a dinner date at her country resort to wrangle in the interest of neurotic, prissy type Jamie (Danny Scheinmann, brother of director David).
After avoiding the dastardly burnt dinner that Anna has prepared the three get drunk easily on wine, talk and dance around hopelessly until the awkward moment arrives when its time to hit the sack. Anna attempts to make a move on Jamie but to little avail and goes back to her room for video-diary consultation. Then Jamie hears the sobbing moans of Natasha in her room and decides to console her and ends up giving her a foot-massage in an attempt to relieve her emotional pain. Hours later Anna wakes up in the middle of the night to get some light refreshment but bumps into Jamie - emerging from Natashas room - and subsequently draws him into her bed. This is the end of the affair set-up and what follows is a sequence of conversations between these characters and others that fill in the blanks and reveal (in sub-Christopher Nolan style) the narrative consequences that have occurred as a result of that pivotal evening.
In an attempt not to disrupt your integral enjoyment of the movie I wont divulge too much of the intricate occurrences here, but let me at least inform you that gradually everything that might have appeared misty and faint falls into place through a back and forth narrative structure that will either irritate or provide comforting surprises. Aside from the three characters who we have become intimate during the affair, we also meet a faintly pretentious equally love-lost psychiatrist who also shares interest and is caught up within the menage a trois set-up, and who seeks to cheat his way into learning the exact details of what went on during and directly after that infamous evening.
Recalling to mind the aesthetic and narrative consequences of early Michael Winterbottom (particularly WONDERLAND) and the free-wheeling style of the 90s TV drama series THIS LIFE, THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR is made all the more audacious for its daring blend of improvised dialogue and soap operatic storyline. I mentioned before that his is Danny Scheinmanns accidental break into feature filmmaking, and this was not fully intended as any critical put down par se, but to hint at the fact that the film was originally conceived from a short sketch that eventually evolved into a possible short TV movie that was then fattened further into feature length format. Though this is daring in itself with the scenes that follow years later in the narrative world having the authentic resonance of actually been filmed years later in reality the film does fail as a satisfactory full-length feature and serves more purpose as an interesting experiment (see also Steven Soderberghs FULL FRONTAL) then anything else.
Theres a real, organic free-thinking feel to the style - and indeed the director did generously encourage his actors to flesh out their characters themselves - but the film is more prone to play particularly to BIG BROTHER audiences (giving extra nunance with Annas regular diary room consultations), and certainly doesnt cling to the mind like the similar shoestring debuts of other british directors like Christopher Nolan (see FOLLOWING) or Marc Evans (MY LITTLE EYE). I will be looking forward to Scheinmanns next feature with some antisaption but for now WITTERING is remembered as an engrossingly, however slight affair.
rating: 2.5
THE WEST WITTERING AFFAIR is available to buy on DVD from February 25th from retailers such as Play.com for £9.99. You can find the official trailer for the film HERE and the official website HERE.