Mister John (Joe Lawlor & Christine Molloy, 2013)

A man goes to Singapore following the death of his brother there, and tries to come to terms with his loss. This is all that actually happens in a film that is beautifully shot, avoids histrionics and features a subtle performance by Aidan Gillen as the bereaved brother.
But. This is the kind of self-consciously sensitive affair much beloved of critics who pour excessive praise on anything which is quiet and slow and aspires to say something about the complexities of emotion while not actually saying anything at all, because that would be too pat for an arthouse filmmaker (see much of the more high-brow end of French cinema). Hence, after an hour and a half of watching Gillen projecting controlled grief with few words, the experience is just of having stared into a delicately constructed void and having learnt nothing.

5/10