LFF 2010: 'Womb'

Matt Smith is already a superstar, known to kids the world over as The Doctor. Eva Green is also used to the flashbulbs, having re-imagined the Bond Girl as Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale. Those facts make both of their decisions to star in Benedek Fliegauf's quirky low-budget drama an interesting one. Womb mixes a dash of just-around-the-corner speculative fiction with every knowingly artsy director's favourite techniques - drawn out shots, moody music, miserable landscapes and painfully sparse dialogue.

Young Rebecca and Tommy meet when she goes to stay with her grandfather by the sea. They strike up a friendship but she soon leaves when her mum gets a job in Tokyo. Just over a decade later, Rebecca (now Green) returns, immediately re-sparking her friendship with Tommy (now Smith), with hints of maybe more. After a completely unearned plot device crashes its way into the film, Rebecca consults with Tommy's parents (Mike Leigh's faves Lesley Manville and Peter Wight), before deciding to clone Tommy. She then proceeds to carry, give birth to and raise the genetic duplicate of her lost love.

The under-the-surface quasi-Oedipal tension between Rebecca and Tommy Jnr. is fascinating and truly unsettling, especially when his new girlfriend (a neat turn from Chatroom/Skins's Hannah Murray) upsets their bubbling equilibrium. But despite some great - if stagey - acting all round, what lets Womb down is its slow-to-the-point-of-complete-tedium pacing (especially in the first half), and finicky way it's stuck together. Instead of adding layers to the story, all too often the self-conscious artsy-ness distracts you with its clumsy metaphors and languid lingering of the camera.

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