Hampstead (2017)

Directed by: Joel Hopkins | 102 minutes | comedy, drama, romance | Actors: Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, James Norton, Lesley Manville, Jason Watkins, Simon Callow, Alistair Petrie, Hugh Skinner, Phil Davis, Will Smith, Adeel Akhtar, Deborah Findlay, Rosalind Ayres, Brian Protheroe, Peter Singh

‘Hampstead’ is about two middle-aged misfits who meet by chance and perhaps get another chance at happiness together. The film is inspired by Harry Hallowes, nicknamed the ‘Hampstead Hermit’, who won a lawsuit in 2007 to acquire the rights to a plot of land in Hampstead Heath.

Diane Keaton plays Emily Walters in ‘Hampstead’. She is an American widow who lives in an expensive apartment in a nice neighborhood in North London. She’s a little more quirky than her snobbish neighbours, whom she’s friends with, but doesn’t really like. It seems that she ended up in these circles because of her husband, who left her with considerable debts. On the advice of her son, she sees if she might be able to sell things and that’s how she ends up in the (common) attic of the apartment complex. One of the first things she pops up with is a pair of binoculars and she uses them right away. That other strange duck from the film then appears on her retina: Donald Horner.

Donald (Brendan Gleeson) has been living for years in a self-built cabin on the piece of waste land opposite the apartment complex where Emily lives. He is completely self-supporting, grows his own vegetables and washes in the pond. However, he has to leave the site, because the project developer wants to speed up the big plans he has for the site. Donald refuses, of course, but only when Emily steps in does he seem to have a chance of success.

‘Hampstead’ is propped up by the acting of Diane Keaton and Brendan Gleeson, who together experience a predictable, yet touching and believable romance. It’s a shame that the minor characters are so clichéd: Emily’s girlfriends in particular are prototypes of the British upper class, with a fantasy of zero point zero and they are therefore already one-zero behind.

It is typical that a film such as ‘Hampstead’, which is mainly aimed at people over fifty, consists of elements that even young people have seen before. You would expect that middle-aged film buffs would have a need for fresh, original angles, but ‘Hampstead’ is definitely the wrong place for that. Well made, entertaining, but above all safe and too long.