Sailor. Mishima. Britain An ugly story that largely repeats the plot moves 'Alice, who no longer lives here' There seems to be no special intrigue, dynamics.
But when human characters are revealed in close-up, their weaknesses and desire to change life for the better are shown - it is usually difficult to break away from the tape. It happened here. Mom, boy and sailor. Well, that's kind of company. Everything in this triangle is interesting.
It is nice that the story is told with many nuances that allow a variety of interpretations. You can see here a brightly romantic content - a paraphrase of the mentioned 'Alice'. And you can even interpret the finale as a fiction invented by the child’s psyche, assuming a completely different development of events [in that story about a strong storm]. There is an extensive field for discussion both after the cat scene and in the peeping scenes.
So, before us is not an ordinary romantic melodrama, but a serious psychological study of one family, accompanying very important moments in the growing up of a young man. Subtle, exquisite work when viewing which recalls the work of Louis Malle. As for the actors, both Chris and Sarah Miles could well bring this film to their credit. The highest skill - not a single fake moment, as if they were always Anne Osborne and Jim Cameron.
There were just too many hits in the mid-seventies. Because of this, the film did not receive proper ratings in the year of release.
8 out of 10