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movie review
JIMPA
Running time: 123 minutes. Not yet rated.
Earnest sentimentality and a family casually yakking about sexual kinks make for strange bedfellows in “Jimpa,” an off-kilter dramedy that had its world premiere Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival.
Director Sophie Hyde’s semi-autobiographical movie about an Australian mom, dad and nonbinary teen who go to visit their gay grandfather in Amsterdam didn’t have me feeling prudish, though, so much as enormously skeptical throughout.
And often indifferent.
Hyde’s ably and poignantly dealt with beneath-the-sheets topics before. Her “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” with Emma Thompson was a funny, touching and incisive comedy about a stressed-out woman who pays repeat visits to a sex worker.
However, while “Jimpa” is not without its charms, the situations and conversations are difficult to believe and damn near impossible to relate to. For a film that’s very much about connection, it completely fails to connect.
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The overlong and too-steady movie tries to say so much — about the struggles of being gay in the ‘80s, gender identity, nontraditional relationship structures — that it all comes off as white noise. Albeit white noise that has a borderline oppressive desire to make us cry.
That we’re watching John Lithgow express his fondness for oral sex and Olivia Colman chat about polyamory with her teenage child make the film that much odder. How many 16-year-olds still bathe with their mothers?
John Lithgow and Olivia Colman attend the world premiere of “Jimpa” at Sundance. Getty Images
Hannah (Colman) is a movie director who’s working on a project about her unusual parents: Dad Jim (Lithgow), who came out of the closet after she was born, and her mother, who decided to stay with him to raise the kids while they pursued other relationships.
“A drama without conflict,” she explains rather unconvincingly.
The entire movie-production plotline is a poorly integrated means to wedge in backstory. It only contributes minutes.
Free-spirit Jim eventually moved to the Netherlands, while his wife stayed behind in Oz with the kids. The continent hopping is how Lithgow’s zig-zagging accent is explained.
Star Aud Mason-Hyde, director Sophie Hyde, John Lithgow and Olivia Colman at Sundance. Getty Images
Decades later, they’re paying Jimpa — his grandfatherly nickname — a visit and 16-year-old Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde, child of the director) has devised a plan to stay there for a year. Jimpa is a good time and Amsterdam’s more happenin’ than Adelaide.
But Hannah doesn’t trust Jim with Frances. And, to Gen Z eyes, Jimpa’s not all he’s cracked up to be either. He loves to talk about his wild evenings, but insists bisexuality doesn’t exist and gets his grandkid’s pronouns wrong.
The monochrome events in Amsterdam are a muddle of scenes that behave more grandly than they are.
Frances comes of age with the awkward help of a 19-year-old couple. Hannah has a vague flirtation with Jim’s mostly gay assistant. And Jim moves on from a university job. None of this is particularly involving.
Olivia Colman is as good in indies as she is in Oscar winners. Getty Images for IMDb
Clearer in its aim the portrayal of the generational divide when Frances hangs out at a cafe with Jimpa and his older gay chums. The men loudly spout off-color remarks and sing “Don’t Leave Me This Way” — longing for their prime. These scenes are the closest “Jimpa” comes to joy.
Lithgow plays up his part’s flamboyance, which comes natural for an actor who’s been both a sitcom alien and Winston Churchill. His Jim is amusing, yet not someone you’d want to be around for a long stretch. The script doesn’t build enough real affection for the character, and the film’s more serious coda doesn’t land.
And Colman has Lithgow’s skill with oversize parts, as anybody who saw “The Favourite” knows. But she can bring it down to indie intimacy just as deftly. She’s a deep-feeling actress who’s so vulnerable that tears could come at any moment. Or a scream. Colman shines in spite of the role, which is as directionless as the rest of it.
“Jimpa” has got a heart, no doubt about it. But that struggling ticker could use a pacemaker.
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