The downtrodden grandmother meets her granddaughter

If “Grandmother” were a bullbak, the plate would be burnt and the buns would probably be soaked in spilled gin. The story is so far from an arranged sunshine story about a grandmother you can come to. Charlotte Rampling’s Ruth is severely alcoholic, she drinks a pitcher of gin a day but does not gossip about it.

“She has a physique like a goat,” it is said of her. Ruth sent her son to boarding school when he was five and never told him who his father was. She does not seem to have a bad conscience but longs for “one last glorious love story” and does not have the strength for hypocrisy and “human play”.

She arrives at her son’s farm in a breathtakingly beautiful New Zealand after severely injuring her leg. However, their squeaky relationship is not given much space, he escapes to England quite quickly. Instead, the focus is on grandson Sam, played by New Zealander George Ferrier (“One of us is lying”) with a perfect tone. Sam is severely depressed since his mother passed away and starts the story by hanging a snare on a tree and marking a date in his wall calendar.

Dark, was the word. At the same time, there is a certain light in the relationship that the sour but cheerful old lady and the young, sad grandson tentatively develop. In the end, it will be a moving experience to see how they reach each other.

“Grandmother” is a nice little film about life and death by debutant Matthew J Saville. The great thing about it is that it is not about how grandma should stop drinking and be reconciled with her obviously neglected son. It’s so clear too late for all that. Instead, the film preaches how certain things are as they are and that life is sometimes more about stopping dreaming and trying to take advantage of what actually exists.

Suffering and melancholy are constantly in the background – and are reminded – but there is something appealing in how “Grandmother” in an adult and sober way depicts human shortcomings. Then you can look at Ruth – undoubtedly a really bad mother – with softness and forgiveness.

Charlotte Rampling plays a grandmother who drinks at least one jug of gin a day in “Grandmother”. Press image.