Date of review: 04 January 2025
August at Twenty-Two is a well-directed film that focuses on the relationships between a few different characters and has an intimate focus on the main character as she catches up with old friends and forms a friendship with her best friend's partner which, as stated in the film synopsis, develops into a more serious attraction.
Unfortunately, this film gives me the impression that the writers didn't quite know how to end it. As the burgeoning attractions (for there is more than one) reach a pivotal point...the characters involved just disappear from the plot entirely. It's not what happened that feels disappointing, but the fact there was no follow-up afterwards.
I strongly believe that with an extra 30-45 minutes of content, following the same steady pace that brought the film up to this point, there could have been so much more to explore in how the affected characters would process those events and bring the film to a satisfying conclusion that way. Instead, those characters disappear in a wisp of smoke and the final scenes feel completely disconnected from the events that led up to that point.
All in all I would rate this film 7/10. It's a beautiful journey let down by its cliff-edge destination, suffering only from the lost potential of the threads of its story cut lamentably short. Watch it for the excellently crafted character drama but be prepared to feel a sense of emptiness from a story unfinished.
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