The story follows Lucas, played by Tim Roth (The Hateful Eight, Resurrection) and Edith, by Trine Dyrholm (Festen), an estranged couple who have not seen or spoken to each other in ten years. Their only son, Jacob, died 10 years prior in a road accident. They are brought back together because they have been notified that toxins have seeped into the ground, necessitating the exhumation and relocation of their son's body.
As they wait for a cemetery official, who never seems to arrive, the two are forced to confront the poison of their shared past and relationship. Lucas, who walked out on New Year’s Eve years ago, has tried to move on. He has remarried, his new wife is pregnant and he has written a book about his grief. Edith, conversely, has remained frozen in time, unable to move past the moment their son was killed.
On the face of it, it starts off as a film looking to explore environmental toxicity and bureaucratic procedure but soon turns into the real poison - their unresolved grief. As the pair of them move between taking verbal swipes at each other, walking away, coming back, being temporarily tender and back to spitting poison, it becomes clear that Edith is angry that Lucas has apparently 'moved on' and has a new life, escaping what she thinks should be their 'forever' shared tragedy - while she simply can't.
Edith is clearly happy that she has a fresh audience with Lucas and opportunity to offload a bunch of her grief while they wait at the cold, deserted cemetery. It feels as though she is gloating in the fact that he has been forced, by this situation, to face what, it would seem, she'd been suffering with more severely than him all this time.
The film tries to demonstrate that Lucas views grief as something to be managed and eventually put away. His book and his new family are his way of surviving, but Edith views this as a betrayal and doesn't want him to be given any opportunity to 'forget'. But by the end of the film, the viewer realises that all is not quite what it seems and that nobody can 'recover' from such an event - only have ways of dealing with it. She tried during this meeting for a few hours to 'poison' his new life, but comes to realise that life really isn't that simple.
A surprise or two are revealed in this deeply claustrophobic story by the end, which is very slow, very arthouse-like, but certainly makes the viewer think and reflect. Very nicely shot with interesting cinematography making the most of focusing techniques for impact in this dull and drab location, nicely picked. Great to see Tim Roth, particularly, still willing to get involved in low-budget Indie projects, which has paid off here. It's less than 90 minutes and available now on a few streaming services.
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