Andrew Haigh's sweet, swayng take on relationships will be released in UK cinemas on 4th November 2011.
In Weekend, writer-director and - crucially – editor, Andrew Haigh does away with plot to comb through the inner workings of two men after a one night stand as they reassess themselves, their politics and their futures. Yes, the basis of this film sounds heavy and maybe a little irksome, but in Haigh's hands it is funny, intimate, bordering on invasive and somehow always affectionate. He allows his characters to examine the very core of a relationship and more interestingly, the state of the world that it inevitably absorbs.
To intensify the gradual osmosis of the world outside making its way into their lives, Haigh uses Glen, an artist, and an extrovert who is refreshingly aware of how pretentious artists can sound when they talk about their work. He speaks in a mixture of frank, friendly statements and blunt questions. His honesty is almost charming and his candor draws out the complexities that exist within Russell. Chivalrous and sensitive, Russell is the kind of guy who speaks when he's spoken to but would rather just listen. So he becomes painfully uncomfortable when Glen asks for a recorded account of their hook-up for his art project.
Thankfully this is only a functional moment, cleverly used to facilitate more funny, naturalistic discussion of everything their lives encompass. Their conversations spill messily into confessions, histories and debates. Are straight people interested in Glen's work? Is it important that Russell never knew his parents so never came out to them? Is Glen's flatemate a cow? Does it matter?
There's something about the fluid close-ups, the swaying frames and the long shots around Russell's high-rise Nottingham estate that pits the intimacy and warmth of their relationship against everything else they must at some point encounter. Through his contrasting characters, and his near perfect script, Haigh shakes up the muddy water of their existence and allows their old, settled layers to rise to the surface in this disarmingly shrewd film.
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