Hot Milk

Rose (Fiona Shaw) and Sofia (Emma Mackey) look for a cure on the Spanish coast in Hot Milk (Distributed by IFC Films)

Hot Milk is a character study about two women. One is wracked with emotional and physical pain, frozen in place by trauma. The other is her daughter, put-upon, devoted to her demanding mother and desperately unhappy. The story is about suffering and anger taking over your life until you aren’t really living at all. As awful as staying still is, it is easier than taking a risk to move forward. It is sad, intense, slow-moving, well-acted and, too often, dramatically stilted.

There is a lot to say about these characters, their hopes and dreams buried in the rubble of everything that has gone wrong, but the movie opts to not say much. There are so many things bubbling underneath the surface here. For the most part, that is where they stay. These women have so many fears and resentments the movie keeps bottled up.

There are very few speeches; most of what the audience learns is through simple observation. It is interesting to see how these women, given no release, no catharsis, respond to their experiences and each other. Will things just go on like this? Or will they explode? In the end, it feels too restrained to make a big impact, yet there is a lot to appreciate here.

Rose has a mysterious condition that keeps her in constant pain and unable to walk. Something in her past has made her bitter and broken. She takes it out on her daughter, Sofia, not giving her a real chance to be her own person. In a last-ditch effort to find help for Rose, the two journey to the Spanish coast for treatment from an unconventional doctor. There, Sofia finds the possibility of romance and her dissatisfaction with her life becomes impossible to ignore.

Sofia finds affection from Ingrid (Vicky Krieps)

Rose is self-absorbed to the point of completely neglecting her daughter’s sense of self. She is self-pitying and acts like the world owes her a debt it could never pay back. Fiona Shaw is very good in the role, not softening Rose’s edges, but showing the audience the terrified human inside. She is an unpleasant woman because of how miserable she is. Writer/director Rebecca Lenkiewicz does not treat Rose like a monster and neither does Shaw. We want her to rediscover herself, even if we wouldn’t want to be around her.

As Sofia, Emma Mackey has the tougher task. She doesn’t get to vent or rant about the injustices against her. While Rose hates the world for whatever has happened to her, and lets everyone know it, Sofia says very little. Does she hate her mother? She certainly hates the way her mother treats her, controlling Sofia by making her prioritize Rose at all times. The quiet physicality of Mackey’s performance is captivating, letting viewers see someone who truly doesn’t know what to do about her situation. When she meets Ingrid (played by the always beguiling Vicky Krieps), she gets a taste of what happiness and desire feel like. Though their relationship isn’t developed, their scenes together are compelling and set Sofia on a new direction.

Hot Milk (88 minutes, without the end credits) is a difficult story told in a patient, challenging, way. I never really felt connected to it. However, I was never fully detached from it either. There is something almost dreamlike to the approach here. I admired it more than I liked it. It is worth seeing for the performances, the location and the sensitivity of the writing, despite an ambiguous thread that prevents it from totally coming together.

3¼ out of 5

Cast:

Emma Mackey as Sofia

Fiona Shaw as Rose

Vicky Krieps as Ingrid

Vincent Perez as Gomez

Patsy Ferran as Julieta

Written/Directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz