MQFF REVIEW: Dual (2013, Dir. Nejc Gazvoda)

A delayed plane and some winsome chemistry finds Iben (Mia Jexen) a young Danish backpacker, wandering around Prague with Tina (Nina Rakovec), the airline's courtesy bus driver. Navigating both the city and their language differences, the pair bond over the course of the night and the thrill of their tentative relationship gives each of them the strength to start dealing with their personal ruts.

Dual promises a lot at the outset. Director Nejc Gazvoda opens the film with a whimsical shared lip-sync (remember how the 90s were flush with those after Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia?) but he doesn't manage to follow through on that quirkiness, and the spark of his two leads can only take the film so far.

The front end of Dual is definitely the strongest. As the two girls get to know each other, playing their little language games and testing the boundaries of their attraction, it is difficult not to get caught up in the whirl. There are some extremely touching moments that play off the girls' ability to hide behind the inscrutability of language (verbal and body). Iben's emotional revelation (in Danish) of her reasons for leaving home is shattering and uplifting at once, and it's impressively delivered by Jexen.

It is a shame that Gazvoda can't keep the momentum running. Dual derails relatively early on, first through its repetitious music, then through its personality drain. It ends far more flatly than the film deserved.

There's a lot to like in Dual but it's not the film it could have been. It's a bit of Euro-fun and it'll definitely spark fond memories to those who've had the pleasure of cutting themselves loose for a gap year or three. But it's not a film that will stick in the memory for too long itself.

★★☆

Trailer:

Dual screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.