Review: NINA FOREVER Heralds New Directors, the Blaines

You know you're not in Kansas anymore when one of the first lines of dialogue in a movie is "I'd love it if my boyfriend tried to kill himself if I died." Welcome to NINA FOREVER, the first offering of Ben Blaine and Chris Blaine, produced by Cassandra Sigsgaard and released by Epic Pictures. A UK offering that had its world premiere at SXSW, it sounds like a horror film, and it looks - given dark, grainy, awe-inspiring cinematography by Oliver Russell that telegraphs mood wildly - like a horror film. However, as that opening dialogue tips off, we're in the world of morbid comedy, a scenario that Gomez and Morticia Addams would adore coming to life for a working-class guy and his girlfriend, not prepared to handle the fun.

Nina, it seems (played with great good humor by Fiona O'Shaughnessy) is the dead girlfriend of Rob (Cian Barry). She emerges - quite literally - from his bed when he brings his new girlfriend, Holly (Abigail Hardingham) to it, jealous as, of course, all hell. Nina isn't just dead, she's jealous, and she's also class-conscious - she's really perturbed that Holly works at a supermarket. Perhaps women made of lesser stuff would run screaming, but Holly, who's got her own dark streak, decides to take on the challenge of having a boyfriend with a dead girlfriend in his bed.

There are some moments of delightful absurdity - Nina arrives in bed every time with a blood trail accompanying her, so Rob and Holly go for waterproof sheets to deal with it - and some of inspired tension, as when Rob allows himself to be treated like a grieving widower by Nina's parents (Elizabeth Elvin and David Troughton).

The message is simple enough; it's one of trying to reconcile past and present, to convince Nina to go away so Rob and Holly can move forward. The humor, though sophisticated for the genre, is equally straightforward, and perhaps not terribly subtle, which is probably to be expected in the area of macabre humor. Again, it's an Addams Family sort of domestic problem, and, as with the show, some of this film is played too broadly (especially O'Shaughnessy's Nina) when the best thing about the film is the restraint shown by the directors and cast that keeps the production human and humane.

Be prepared, as so often with Brit flicks, for somewhat explicit and very realistic sexual encounters between Holly and Rob. They're natural, plot-relevant and important, however, and no more over the top than most of the film, so there's no need to wince or to wonder why they're there. And yes, it does feel peculiar to state that a film with this sort of plot isn't over the top, but the Blaines' directorial skills hold it in check and prevent events from devolving into a lampoon.

It's by no means perfect - the Blaines don't write yet quite as tightly as they direct - but it's very good, and more particularly it feels fresh. It's not another zombie comedy; Nina's not a zombie. It's not one more ghostly romance; Nina isn't a ghost. She's simply alarmingly there, wanted or not, and, considering that she's dead, much the worse for wear. It's worth extra butter on the popcorn to enjoy this one, and we can but hope that the Blaines, like the Coens, will continue together to evolve and to bring us more films with this sort of elegant direction.

Photo credit; Epic Pictures

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