One of the great joys of watching movies is seeing young stars arrive. Spotting them as talented young actors in obscure roles, before they suddenly have their breakout moment.

 

Departure – shown as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival – is Alex Lawther’s movie. Lawther has yet to have his own real film breakthrough, but has been successful in the last couple of years, playing the young Alan Turing in the disappointing Imitation Game, as well has having a supporting actor role in the delightful X+Y last year.

 

Lawther is a talented actor, with a natural quirkiness similar to that of Ben “the new Q in the Bond films” Whishaw, which means he’ll never be a romantic lead (who’ll burst onto screen, be amazingly successful, and then flame out by the age of 35), but instead will have decades of interesting roles ahead of him.

 

As such, he makes this rather ordinary coming of age/coming out film more interesting that it should be.

 

The coming of age (and out) sub-genre was at its peak in the 1990s, when these sorts of stories hadn’t really been told on film before. Now, it seems that every possible variation of the theme has been told.

 

Departure tries to be original by setting the film in France, at the holiday house of a couple in the midst of a marriage breakup. This does allow for some nice cinematography, and the desperation of Lawther’s character’s mother (Juliet Stevenson) does allow for a couple of minor twists that also keep the plot just the right side of interesting.

 

Oh, and there are a couple of very funny jokes about carrots.

 

As a nice piece of cinema, Departure works. Its well filmed, Lawther is engaging as the lead, and the story moves along at just the right pace.

 

But it’s also incredibly transient; this is not a film that people will be reaching for in a decade’s time, as they did its cousins of the 1990s.

 

Still, keep an eye out for Alex Lawther; this kid will be something.