Grand Tour - Film Review

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Grand Tour won Winner of Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Portuguese film director Miguel Gomes. Rated M and 129 minutes long, it's in black and white and subtitled. Set in 1917 - though along the way it traverses through time and takes you on a journey that refuses to be pinpointed to any particular era, its black and white projection being the only accent that attempts to resemble the era it's set in. Your only hope is to give in to the magnificence of the storytelling and get lost in the jungles of Asia with it. It begins in Rangoon, Burma as it was known (Yangon, Myanmar - current), where Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire is waiting for his fiancée Molly to arrive by ship from England, to get married. His nerves get the better of him and he runs away that same day before he even sets sight on her. His journey takes him from Burma to Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan and China.

Starring Gonçalo Waddington as Edward, Crista Alfaiate as Molly, Cláudio da Silva as Timothy Sanders, and Lang Khê Tran as Ngoc - Molly is amused and determined to get married to Edward. She follows his trail on this Asian 'Grand Tour'. At the start of the 20th century, the 'Asian Grand Tour' began in one of the major cities of the British Empire in India and ended in the Far East (China or Japan), and was by far the journey most in demand in its time. Many European travellers made the grand tour and some of them wrote books about their experience. Portugal's official submission to the 2025 Academy Awards Best International Feature, the film will be released on 13 February 2025. Of his colonial travelogue, during an interview, Miguel Gomes has said, "It’s a mystery to me why people tend to think that what characters express is what the film is trying to express" - and that simple expression encapsulates the film completely in one sentence.


The first half of the movie is a concentration of Edward's journey, fleeing from one Southeastern Asian port to the next, while the second half travels with Molly as she closely follows Edward's journey in time - so close in fact, there were moments she missed him just by hours, in spite of having no advance knowledge of where he might be, because he doesn't either. Watching this film depends on your outlook. Seemingly not a lot going on in a distinctly simple storyline - fiancée flees, bride-to-be chases, not action-packed in the conventional sense, in black and white and subtitled. Like the jungles they travel through, the guts of it is filled with so much content, there's a lot going on, on many levels. I found this film subtly beautiful in many ways, and it's left up to the viewers to flesh out the richness within, to read between the lines of the journey Miguel Gomes is taking you on. Reading between the lines is all you've got sometimes, as it tells of stories it doesn't always show. The scenery is lush, exotic, and filled with destinations yet to be explored.

Amidst its simplicity 'Grand Tour' captures your attention and demands engagement as its stylistic representation reaches new peaks, and every frame, a visual beauty, wild and seductive at times. Those close-up knowing looks, filled with thoughts that swirl around on its own journey - perfectly expressed by the leading actors is unflinching in its rich offering. Even Molly's annoying odd spluttering laugh seems to work like a timer that 'ticks' and gives the tempo a kick and timing that keeps your emotions swirling with unexpected reactions. It's a rather artistic film, and I loved the authenticity of the places it visits, and the languages it uses, especially scenes in Burma and Thailand when the voice of the narrator is speaking its own language. Speaking both languages I was super impressed by its authenticity, having watched films in the past where they're meant to be speaking one language but they're not, and it's either a totally different language or gibberish. It was also nostalgic to see the old-time scenes of countries I've lived in, and the way the puppetry typical of its own country (string pulled, shadow puppets etc) were reflecting the plight of the bride and groom to be in its storytelling. This film is filled with imagery and content that adds to the richness of the story in its subtlety, its qualities far from meagre.


Miguel Gomes' Far East is displayed as the protagonists see it, filled with an exotic charm in an unknowable culture, where uncertain fates lie in purgatory in a state of semi-delirium. Even Molly's conviction is shaken through her own personal journey filled with what begins with a joy of adventure and the unknown, which slowly gets eaten away and worn down by the sheer magnitude of what's happening for her on a personal level - her initially extraordinary enthusiasm depleting over time. Her fate makes her even more demanding - setting her on a dangerous journey with no real regard for the life of others. Edward on the other hand, starts to appreciate Molly's unique tenacity as a woman of her time, in praise of her strength and determination, and for a moment wonders what has become of her. Edward's journey is interesting enough, but Molly really ramps up the film in the second half with her performance and ability to masterfully portray her emotions, as subtle as they may be at times.

Beguiling, yet a tiny bit exasperating, this is quite unlike any film you may have seen, with its rich undertones that will perhaps leave you a little bemused. A unique and valuable experience that's a dreamy, delirious time-swirling travelogue through East and Southeast Asia, it bristles with life, adventure and a journey, both physical and emotional. Leave all expectations at the door, and abandon yourself to this rich offering that is packed with so much content, adventures and setbacks, in spite of its simplistic storyline. Enjoy rich Asian representations of excellent, authentic puppetry, a rickety old Rangoon ferris wheel propelled the old fashioned way unmechanised - by hand and foot and a worker who operates it that defies the laws of flexibility. Workers in Saigon working atop telephone poles that would have OH&S in a spin as they walk unharnessed, unsafe. Local Filipinos riding tuk-tuks, Chinese men playing mahjong, a portly man at karaoke, singing an unintelligible 'My Way' that moves himself to tears - it's an overflowing cornucopia of visual variety and richness - so much to see, so much to feel in this extraordinary film of richly complex experiences, and of two Europeans in a colonial land, losing themselves amongst its hostility and seductive temptations. Love it or hate it, don't miss opening yourself up to the experiences and the unknown.



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