‘Grand Tour’ review: Colonialist past, vibrant present mix

βGrand Tour,β the latest film from Portugalβs Miguel Gomes, is stuck in the past, beautifully so, and yet, the present keeps creeping in, insisting on making itself heard. But where other directors might look backward to luxuriate into nostalgia β whether out of fondness for a bygone era or an antiquated style of filmmaking β the director of βTabuβ and βArabian Nightsβ questions the very notion of what we call βthe past,β crafting a story in which time periods overlap hypnotically.
In this seductive travelogue, we are not always sure where (or when) we are, but Gomesβ pointedly anti-love story transfixes because of its playful audacity. βGrand Tourβ is an enveloping drama thatβs far more than the sum of its parts β except the parts are pretty wonderful on their own, too.
It is January 1918, and Edward (GonΓ§alo Waddington), an unremarkable civil servant for the British Empire, is on the run. On the eve of marrying Molly (Crista Alfaiate), his fiancΓ©e whom he hasnβt seen in seven years, Edward gets cold feet, fleeing Rangoon to escape his beloved. The filmβs first hour focuses on his restless getaway β on train and by boat, from Singapore to Saigon to Shanghai β while the second hour pivots to Mollyβs far more lighthearted tracking of Edward, her screwball-comedy cackle just one element of Gomesβ movie that feels consciously antiquated. Filmed in silvery black-and-white, shot on sound stages and acted with a knowing theatricality, βGrand Tourβ plays like a lost early talkie thatβs been rescued from some dusty vault.
But from the movieβs first frames, Gomes keeps interrupting his tale, allowing the messy vitality of modern life to flood the narrative. Contemporary documentary footage of different puppet shows across Asia are interspersed with vivid street scenes that offer a present-day glimpse of the locations where Edward and Mollyβs romantic misadventures unspool. The filmβs mix of offscreen speakers often provides context for whatβs happening in the 1918 story when we see modern images that correspond to the action described. (For instance, during a moment in which Edward wanders into a Japanese noodle restaurant, Gomes shows documentary footage of a current one.)
The initially jarring juxtaposition of then and now β fiction and documentary β quickly becomes intoxicating, inviting the viewer to both contemplate the ceaseless passage of time and ponder the seamless temporal transitions. Slyly, the device repeatedly undercuts the supposed importance of Edward and Mollyβs parallel odysseys. From our contemporary vantage point, their minuscule existences have been erased, replaced by the modern-day footageβs bustle of traffic and clatter of the everyday.
Similarly, the Britishβs colonial control of the region is now a thing of the past. Even those in Edwardβs orbit sense the winds of change.
βThe end of the empire is inevitable,β heβs warned. βItβs a matter of years, maybe months. We will leave without having understood a thing.β
The filmβs genesis was accidental, Gomes inspired by a brief passage in W. Somerset Maughamβs 1935 collection of travel writing, βThe Gentleman in the Parlour,β in which the author recounts a story he heard about an Englishman trying to back out of his imminent wedding, traveling across Asia to stay a step ahead of his bride-to-be. (Amusingly, Gomes himself was about to marry when he read the book.) But rather than first write Edward and Mollyβs plot line, Gomes and his creative team retraced the steps of this Englishman β even if the tale was probably apocryphal β filming what they encountered along the way with the help of Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, a frequent cinematographer for Luca Guadagnino and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. After studying the documentary footage, all of it transporting without exoticizing the locales, Gomes and his cowriters penned the period tale based around that visual material.

GonΓ§alo Waddington in the movie βGrand Tour.β
(Mubi)
The result is a movie in which the 20th century and the 21st century continually talk to each other. Sometimes, the two eras bleed into one, making it nearly impossible to know whether weβre witnessing past or present. (After three viewings, I am not entirely convinced that a ringing cellphone in one scene is contemporary or, rather, a coy anachronistic joke incorporated into a 1918 segment.) This temporal blending, far from being a coldly experimental exercise, immerses us in the pure pleasure of storytelling, as light and free as those magical puppet shows Gomes occasionally returns to.
As performers, Waddington and Alfaiate are less timeless than than they are out of time, bringing soul and shading to silent-movie archetypes of the timid man and his brassy gal. Impressively, βGrand Tourβ illuminates the artificiality of its trappings while honoring them, tapping into our collective acceptance of the βrealityβ of cinemaβs unreality. The charactersβ dilemma may, ultimately, be meaningless set against the ebbs and flows of history, but Gomes, who won the directing prize at last yearβs Cannes Film Festival, invests it with such elegance that it becomes nearly mythic: a touching fable of cowardice and devotion with tragic undertones. The scenes may be dreamlike, but theyβre our shared dream of being swept away by the movies.
Sporadically, Gomes goes even further to remind us that everything weβre watching is a construction. (A brief breaking of the fourth wall near the end of the film is stunning.) But as intellectually stimulating as βGrand Tourβ is, the film registers fully as an emotional, ecstatic experience. Itβs also a gas. Few filmmakers would be ballsy enough to swipe one of cinemaβs most famous β and parodied β pieces of music, Straussβ βBlue Danubeβ waltz, forever synonymous with β2001: A Space Odyssey,β and find a fresh, poetic use for it. Here, the music scores an extraordinary montage that includes a lavish ball in 1918, the exploits of a fishing boat and a fleet of mopeds cruising in slow motion. Throughout βGrand Tour,β then and now are joined in a glorious dance, creating something vibrantly new out of remnants of the past β gone but not forgotten.
‘Grand Tour’
In Portuguese, Burmese, Vietnamese and English, with subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 2 hours, 9 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, March 28 at Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles