故事发生在一所英国学校之中,古典文学课教师哈里斯(阿尔伯特·芬尼 Albert Finney 饰)即将迎来自己的退休日。塔普洛(本·西尔弗斯通 Ben Silverstone 饰)是哈里斯非常喜欢的学生,然而,塔普洛却告诉哈里斯,自己决定放弃古典文学,转而学习理科。 之后,校长找到了哈里斯,告诉了他一个噩耗,那就是学校并不准备付给他退休金,当哈里斯的妻子劳拉(格列塔·斯卡奇 Greta Scacchi 饰)得知了这一消息后,和丈夫之间爆发了一场激烈的争吵。实际上,劳拉早已经背叛了哈里斯,她和名叫弗兰克(马修·莫迪恩 Matthew Modine 饰)的男子保持着不正当的关系。退休典礼即将临近,哈里斯的生活似乎再也回不去从前了。
Facing a long winter of lockdown and combating a bad case of writer’s block, filmmaker Eric agrees to get a dog with his girlfriend Allie. A modern couple – vegan, ethical, millennial, neurotic – much research and negotiation leads to the arrival of Milly, a rescue from the Dominican Republic. This sets off a riotous chain of new challenges on how to best deal with this addition to the household. As Eric contends with a sinister dog-training programme, his introspection spills out onto his film work, with poor Allie and Milly taken along for the ride. The couple each pursue their own deepheld individual questions surrounding trust, purpose and roots, while wrestling with the idea of what it means to be a modern family. Milly, in the meantime, has a lot on her paws with these two!
Part rom-com, part rescue-dog story, part autofiction, part self-indictment, part family scrapbook, this debut feature was made with remarkable economy and displays a disquieting amount of (often hilarious) emotional authenticity. Filmmaker Ben Petrie and creative collaborator Grace Glowicki play the young couple and in doing so, capture nothing less than what it means to be human.