Islands (15) |Close-Up Film Review

Sam Riley plays Tom, a former tennis pro now working as coach to the well-heeled guests at a smart hotel in the Canary Islands.  

For some this would be living the dream – lots of sun, booze, sex, drugs and rock and roll – well that sweaty, bouncy dance people do in clubs these days.  But Tom is now bored out of his mind.  You can tell from the listless way he lobs the balls across the net to his clients.

Things change though when guest Anne (Stacy Martin) persuades him to give lessons to her small son Anton (Dylan Torrell), a rather bright and talented child.  Tom then becomes friends with the whole family, including Anne’s husband Dave (Jack Farthing).  

But when Dave disappears on a beach outing, the high ranking detective Mazo (Ramiro Blas) brought in from Lanzarote to investigate, obviously suspects that Anne and possibly Tom have something to do with it.

From then on it’s a bit of a predictable story but what holds it together is Riley’s many layered performance.  He’s world weary, disillusioned, dissolute but  still very sexy.  You can see why the inspector suspects something’s up with him and Anne.

Anne is one of those annoying women who seem to want to challenge the world all the time – not the most engaging of characters, while Farthing plays Jack as a rather weak and ineffectual character – a bit of a wet weekend bloke.

There are interesting supporting performances from Ahmed Boulane and Fatima Adoum as Tom’s friends, a North African couple who own a small herd of camels, presumably giving rides to hotel guests?    And from Pep Ambrosorge as Jorge, the local policeman, with whom Tom is also best buddies, all of whom help to flesh out his character. 

And the lush look of the film should do really good things for the Canary Islands tourist industry.