The titular fundamental character of “Jimpa” is a person that’s charming one second and exasperating the subsequent. Jim — named Jimpa by his wide-eyed nonbinary grandchild Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) — is a longtime activist for homosexual rights, beneficiant to the folks he cares about, and infrequently as witty and charismatic as any character John Lithgow has ever performed. However as his daughter, filmmaker Hannah (Olivia Colman), notes continuously, he’s additionally cussed and egocentric, with a bent to disappoint the those who depend on him. The film centered round him proves equally irritating.
“Jimpa” is a well-meaning drama with rather a lot on its thoughts about queer elders, unconventional households, and rising to grasp your mum or dad as a human being. However between an over-reliance on woozy indie filmmaking staples — from its delicate lighting to its plodding, overly delicate rating — and a central household dynamic that by no means feels legible, the tip result’s extra irritating than enlightening.
Directed by Sophie Hyde — finest recognized for the acclaimed two-hander “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” — “Jimpa” populates its golden-hued queer Amsterdam streets with a wide range of minor characters, but it surely’s primarily a three-hander between three generations of an unconventional household. Over the summer season, as Hannah begins pre-production on a movie primarily based upon her father’s popping out and choice to go away her, her sister, and their mom behind in Adelaide when she was only a teen, she takes Frances on a visit to go to their grandpa. As Frances awkwardly reveals to Hannah as they’re in line for the airplane, this journey can also be a take a look at run of kinds — bored with their small Adelaide highschool, Frances is craving an even bigger queer group for themselves, and desires to spend a faculty 12 months residing in Amsterdam with Jim to attain it.
Because the pair arrive in Jim’s handsomely adorned townhouse, the person performs the entertainer for his “Grandthing,” introducing them to his pal group of ageing queens and regaling tales of his days combating for queer rights — proven briefly cutaway flashbacks the place a silent Bryn Chapman Parish performs a younger Jim, all of which appear like one thing out of music video for a queer pop artist. As this seduction of kinds occurs, Hannah lurks within the background frightened her little one will find yourself dissatisfied, whereas additionally rising more and more frightened about Jim’s ever-encroaching mortality.
It’s all nice materials for a messy and uniquely queer story of household stress, however the screenplay for “Jimpa” — which Hyde cowrote with Matthew Cormack — appears afraid to let the battle boil to something hotter than lukewarm. The dialogue is overly blunt and doesn’t go away a lot to your creativeness, as Hannah and Jim’s numerous associates brazenly discuss his faults and failings, whereas exhibiting little in the best way of actual anger or harm in the direction of him. The entire stress and resentment is on the floor, and what’s their proves to be disappointingly shallow.
The most effective actors working in the present day, Colman valiantly tries to hold the movie, and he or she wrings some real heartache out of the ache and resentment Hannah buries. However she’s underserved by a script that’s each overly broad and unsure of how charred and tense the father-daughter relationship is meant to be. Hannah can in some way casually chat together with her husband and associates about how her father is a self-absorbed man on observe to harm her little one, whereas concurrently making an attempt to mount a movie primarily based on his abandonment of her that presents their relationship as rosy and uncomplicated.
It’s a central contradiction the movie by no means makes coherent, and a weird vestigial subplot about her attraction to Jim’s assistant (Eamon Farren) solely underscores how unfastened a grasp “Jimpa” has on this lady — and the way her husband Harry (Daniel Henshall) would possibly as nicely be absent totally from how little the movie can conceive a spot for him in its dynamics.
The opposite two factors within the central triangle aren’t a lot stronger. Frances, specifically, is a skinny define of a stereotypical Gen Z child homosexual, and Mason-Hyde lacks the appearing chops to make the character’s half-formed nature really feel like a mirrored image of their youth relatively than skinny writing; a magical night time out discovering the queer scene of Amsterdam doesn’t actually convey a way of pleasure when the characters are busy speaking about polyamory and queerness in a manner that feels tutorial to the viewers relatively than pure.
Jim, as the middle round which these characters orbit, fares higher. And it helps that Lithgow ably conveys the attraction that pulls an entourage towards him, the conceitedness that they’ve all determined to place up with, and the refined insecurities and fears of ageing. On the identical time, the character doesn’t have a lot to bounce off of: his arguments in opposition to Frances (whom he always misgenders and apologizes to) really feel like rote makes an attempt to copy cross-generational queer arguments relatively than something particular to those folks on this second of their lives.
Simply when it appears like their battle has hit a turning level to go someplace attention-grabbing, the ultimate act abruptly pivots into standard tear-jerker territory. It’s a plot level that has roots in actual life — Hyde primarily based the movie on her personal experiences with a queer father and a nonbinary little one — which suggests there may be some actual, uncooked emotion lurking beneath its predictable beats. On the identical time, Hyde’s closeness to the fabric is perhaps why the movie is so desirous to brush thornier, messier emotions underneath the rug in favor of one thing a lot much less attention-grabbing. All through the movie, Hannah has arguments with folks she’s auditioning for her undertaking, insisting that her film will probably be a narrative about “love, not battle” and ignoring criticism of how empty a movie like that will be. It’s to the detriment of “Jimpa” that it makes primarily the identical mistake.
Grade: C-
“Jimpa” premiered on the 2025 Sundance Movie Pageant. It’s at present looking for U.S. distribution.
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