Lotus Eaters

Alexandra McGuiness’s first feature immerses us in a vapid world of rich, aimless, fashionable Londoners, mostly in their twenties, whose lives are a whirl of parties, gallery openings and self-regarding conversations outside cafés. Our shy, sensitive guide (and, one assumes, at least partly the filmmaker’s alter ego) is Alice (Antonia Campbell-Hughes, looking more like a rabbit in the headlights than a real, breathing human), a model-turned-wannabe-actress who is looking for new love and meaning in her life. Like its pretty, well-dressed (or, more accurately, acutely styled) characters, ‘Lotus Eaters’ looks good in black and white, but only a few of its most intimate moments convince. Mostly, we’re with a braying, caricatured ensemble which spouts poor dialogue and drowns out anything more tender or well-observed that the film may wish to say about the elegantly wasted.