Hot Water – BFI London Film Festival Review
Nineteen year-old Daniel (Daniel Zolghadi) has been held back at school twice already – then he gets expelled for hitting another student over the head with a hockey stick. Understandably, Layla (Lubna Azabal), his mother, is at the end of her tether. The two decide it might be best if he go and live with his estranged dad Anton (Gabe Fazio) over the other side of the country, so he can finish school and get a fresh start. On the long, eventful trip to get there, Layla and Daniel discover a myriad of new sides to each other.
Road trips across the United States are far from new cinematic territory, but there’s a reason they’ve endured. Putting an intense relationship in the close confines of the car and contrasting it with the wild, vast American landscapes makes for immensely satisfying movies, both visually and emotionally. In his debut feature, writer-director Ramzi Bashour has added another great example to this illustrious canon.
Hot Water’s central relationship is a beautifully drawn one. Though he is prone to violence, Daniel is a very sweet kid; it soon transpires the incident that got him expelled was him coming to the defense of another student. Layla loves him madly, and is also exasperated by him. She has recently stopped smoking and started eating clementines whenever she feels the need for a cigarette, and it doesn’t take long before the car is littered with peels. Bashour, Daniel Zolghadi and Lubna Azabal do an excellent job at painting the push-pull of any close familial relationship; the ones you love the most are also the ones who have the power to irritate you the most greatly.
The movie is slow to reveal the cause of the dissolution of Layla and Anton’s relationship, although we can tell from her reactions to him on an early phone call that their split was not an amicable one. After being unable to meet them when he intended to, Anton sends Layla and Daniel to stay with his friend Sadie (Dale Dickey), which is when the frayed pair start to mellow. Dale Dickey is always wonderfully watchable, but the way Bashour uses her here is particularly lovely – her combination of earthiness and otherworldliness makes her a kind of hippie oracle, and just the person that mother and son need to meet at that point on their journey.
A road trip is full of transition in the literal sense, yet there are all sorts of other transitions going on here beyond just moving from motel to motel. Neither Layla or Daniel know what they’re going to find when they meet Anton – if she doesn’t like what she sees, Layla has reserved the right to turn around and take Daniel back with her again. Meanwhile, back in Beirut, her mother is sick, and she is in constant contact with her sister. She misses her home. Bashour is deft at naturally progressing these emotional beats, while leaving plenty of time for moments of goofy humour, and to revel in the gorgeous scenery.
Across the trip, as they get nearer to their final destination, Layla and Daniel’s relationship transitions from parent and child, to two fellow adults, trying to make it through difficult patches the best they can. It’s a pleasure to join them on the journey.
★★★★★
