Hot Milk

by Mike McGranaghan

Hot Milk has so many alluring individual moments that it’s a real shame they never fully come together. The film is steamy, symbolic, and occasionally haunting. It’s also frustratingly fractured in its storytelling. Writer/director Rebecca Lenkiewicz takes a big swing in adapting Deborah Levy’s novel but doesn’t quite pull off its ambitious themes.

Sofia (Emma Mackey) has put her desire to study anthropology on hold to care for her domineering mother Rose (Fiona Shaw), who has a mysterious ailment that prevents her from walking - most of the time, at least. They travel to the Spanish coast so that she can be treated by an expert. The doctor’s techniques are odd, seeming to suggest that he believes Rose’s problem is psychosomatic. Sofia is frustrated and bitter about having to play caretaker. Then she meets Ingrid (Vicky Krieps), a free-spirited yet troubled woman with whom she begins a sexual relationship.

This series of events brings out repressed emotions in Sofia. Hot Milk is about how those emotions emerge and how she struggles to wrangle them. As she did in Emily, Mackey excels at suggesting the character’s inner torment. Especially effective is how she gives Sofia a tempestuous personality. Any form of disappointment can set off a tantrum. The relationship between the two women is the best part of the movie because it’s clear that Ingrid probably isn’t going to give Sofia what she needs, despite the intensity of their passion. Mackey and Krieps are well-matched, and together they build a fascinatingly off-kilter vibe.

The film runs 92 minutes, which is part of the problem. In that brief time, it’s trying to tell Sofia’s story and Rose’s simultaneously. (There’s also a subplot involving Sofia going to visit her estranged father.) Both are short-changed as a result. The plot jerks back and forth, leading to a disjointed feel. More length was needed to give the two major story arcs their full due. Neither is resolved satisfactorily.

And that brings us to the ending. Hot Milk wraps up with a melodramatic scene that plays quite silly. It might have worked better had Lenkiewicz followed up with another scene or two. Instead, she chooses to abruptly end the movie with a cut to black. The goal was obviously to send viewers away on a shocking note, but it’s just a huge letdown.

Hot Milk certainly has a few things going for it, thanks to a terrific cast. The screenplay unfortunately undermines their efforts, along with the potential power of the story.

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