‘Islands’ Review: Sam Riley Experiences ‘L’Avventura’ of a Lifetime in Soul-Searching European Thriller
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic German director Jan-Ole Gerster’s mesmerizing, mostly English-language “Islands” opens with a scene that for many would mark “rock bottom” — reason to check oneself into rehab — as Sam Riley’s Tom awakens in a field of sand dunes.
He could have been dropped from heaven or belched up from below, but most likely just passed out … again. The camera pans left, and there in the distance is the luxury hotel, big as a cruise ship, where Tom works as a tennis coach for visiting tourists.
But mostly, Tom has been living a life of revelry without responsibility, sleeping wherever he can. Over the course of a lean but revealing film of unexpected existential heft, we witness his wake-up call, as a family of three arrives in Fuerteventura, the largest of the Canary Islands, and gives Tom reason to reassess his life choices.
Right from the start, there’s a neo-noir like feel to Gerster’s suspenseful portrait, accentuated by its atonal and slightly disconcerting score.
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