God's Own Country

So, God's Own Country is on Netflix and it's lovely. Someone on the Internet called it '"the British Brokeback Mountain" and although I've never seen Brokeback Mountain, people seem to agree with it. Same with Call Me By Your Name, and Moonlight. I saw a lamb on one of the posters for this film and was worried it'd be another John Wick situation but the lamb's fine. The calf isn't though. Anyway, similar to CMBYN and Moonlight, not much happens. It's just a really delicately told story about a young Yorkshireman called Johnny (Josh O'Connor) with a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and he doesn't really know where to, if he can, put it all down. Johnny lives on a farm with his nan (Gemma Jones) and dad (Ian Hart). His dad's not doing too good, and nan constantly worries and it all falls on Johnny, but he deals with it via the good ole tried and tested method of drinking and casual sex. The first thing we see him do in the film is puke, then chug down some whole milk as an old school hangover cure, so Johnny's not really doing too good either.

I think it's set in present day; there are no mobile phones (except one but it's a cheap Nokia), but most of Yorkshire now is exactly how it's shown in this film. The framing of the shots is beautiful and the colours are stunning, and although a lot of people will probably say that the weather in Yorkshire is gloomy and miserable, the grey and blue hues work in this film's favour.

It becomes evident quite quickly that Johnny's not really sure what to do about his being gay. He seems ashamed of himself sometimes and then other times he doesn't. And then he meets Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), who moves into the caravan outside Johnny's house. He's from Romania and worked on a farm there, and has presumably been hired by dad to help pick up the slack. Johnny doesn't like him at first, but they slowly become friends and then lovers. Gheorghe's lovely; he takes care of Johnny even when Johnny's being incredibly rude, and he's good with sheep. One of the lambs Gheorghe keeps upon his person to keep warm, until another one dies and he skins it (gross, yet still pretty) and makes a little lambskin coat for the little lamb. What a great guy. He does steal a packet of bourbons on his first night on the farm but that's completely understandable because bourbons are delicious and that's not his fault. But I digress. Gheorghe and Johnny get close enough that we actually see Johnny smile and be happy for five minutes. There are a bunch of really lovely scenes where they're both nursing a lamb, playing in a river, and eating a pot noodle. Everything looks enchanting, even though I'm sure farming is quite the opposite.

Sadly though as Johnny's life starts to make more sense to him, his dad gets worse. Dad has a stroke and afterwards is too ill to bath himself, but now Johnny's calmer and deals with it reasonably well. He keeps the farm going and Gheorghe cooks and cleans, but Nan reminds him Gheorghe's "only here to work". She knows. And now he knows she knows. Later when Johnny and Gheorghe go out for a pint and in the pub, Johnny notices a former lover sat across the room. Johnny asks Gheorghe if he can stay for longer but Gheorghe says no and Johnny gets annoyed. He goes to the toilet with the other guy and Gheorghe walks in on them after he's told to leave - after an altercation with a racist bloke in the pub. Gheorghe leaves for good this time, and nan is pissed off. Shit hath hitteth the fan. Still, Johnny carries on, trying to look after the farm completely by himself now since dad's incapacitated, but he misses Gheorghe. He finds one of his sweaters and wears it, a nice wee nod to the lambskin coat earlier in the film. There's a lot of tender moments in this film that the camera almost hangs on to. It's sweet.

Johnny decides to go win Gheorghe back, and nan reveals Gheorghe wrote down where he was going before he left: a potato farm in Scotland. Johnny tells his dad where he's going, and he seems to kind of get it. He says something about happiness but I can't remember the line and it's not on IMDb so whatever. Maybe dad and nan don't really get it because of all that deeply entrenched homophobia that loads of people still harbour, but they seem to know Gheorghe makes him happy, so off he goes to Scotland.

When he gets there and finds Gheorghe, Gheorghe's still pissed off. Johnny says something awkward about the lambs doing well, but he eventually gets to the point and it's another sweet moment. They seem to understand each other without saying much. There are no soppy quotes lifted right out of a rom-com, nor is there any kissing in the rain. He's just a lad asking for the man he loves to come home and it's BEAUTIFUL OKAY?

Later, we see them on the coach home. Just Johnny first, but as he moves his head to rest on Gheorghe's shoulder the camera includes him in the shot, too. The end sees the caravan being wheeled off the farm, and both Johhny and Gheorghe walking into the house, content.

Johnny and Gheorghe on the coach

The end scene of Moonlight (dir. Barry Jenkins)

I was impressed by a lot in this film, but mainly the inclusion of the phrases "mardy arse", "muggins", and "yer getting on me wick". Hats off to the writer and director, Francis Lee, especially given that this is his first film. Ultimately it's a softly hopeful film with some solid knitwear choices and beautiful locations (Yorkshire for life, like). And it's delightfully uncynical but not in a corny way. Xavier Dolan gives it a 10 out of 10 so that probably means it's good.