Cottontail

The title of the film comes from Beatrix Potter’s, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and the name of one of his siblings. It’s also a reference to Potter’s love of the Lake District, Lake Windemere in particular. They both held fond memories for Akiko (Tae Kimura) who went as a child and whose last wish is for her ashes to be scattered at a particular area by the lake.

These instructions are passed to her widower husband Kenzaburo (Lily Franky) and son Toshi (Ryo Nishikido) who decide to honour them. However Toshi and Kenzaburo have barely seen eye to eye since his mother was diagnosed with dementia, which is presented here through Kenzaburo’s memories.

Through them the viewer sees their courtship, marriage, diagnosis, and death. They aren’t subtle and some could find some scenes distressing. All the time Kenzaburo keeps a distance from his son, refusing help.

An agreement of sorts is reached and the family (Toshi’s wife and daughter are join them) and they travel from Tokyo to London before travelling north. However it doesn’t hold and when Kenzaburo takes the train early he gets lost.

Eventually he arrives at farm where John (Ciarán Hinds) and his daughter Mary (Aoife Hinds) take him in. They can empathise with him having lost their wife and mother recently. The rest of the family arrive and set about finding the spot and repairing their relationship.

Patrick Dickinson’s debut feature is fairly straight character study of a family that from an early stage doesn’t function as it should. Even before Akiko’s illness, Kenzaburo had difficulties with Toshi, then virtually cutting him off when her condition worsens refusing any help.

Yet however deeply flawed Kenzaburo is there is a level of sympathy for him as there is for Toshi and his frustrations with his father. Deeply in love with his wife her gradual disintegration creates confusion, panic and eventually the loss that he can’t handle very well or talk about.

Lily Frankly is outstanding in a complicated role that relies on showing Kenzaburo in several lights. At times playful – his theft of octopus in Tokyo, frustrating insisting on getting the early train, and the despair and grief caring for Akiko.

However while everything up on the screen is very good and to some profoundly relatable, there’s an emotional hollowness about it. The sympathy and understanding don’t quite translate to empathy. The flashbacks and memories do well as background but don’t establish the various relationships deeply enough. Other than Kenzaburo, and that is down to Frankly.

Cottontail is in UK cinemas on 14 February.