Set in Singapore, MISTER JOHN has a straightforward plot: Gerry Devine (Aidan Gillen) travels to Singapore to find out what happen to his dead brother, the proprietor of Mister John's bar. He encounters various people including John's wife Kim (Zoe Tay), his daughter-in-law Isadora (Ashleigh Judith White), and John's best friend Lester (Michael Thomas), and while doing so discovers something about John's life, which seems to Gerry to be idyllic, unlike his own life back home in London, where he has experienced marital difficulties with wife Sarah (Molly Rose Lawlor). Despite numerous opportunities to carve out a new life, Gerry opts instead to return to London. Directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy create a claustrophobic world of interior and Singapore night life - a suitable backdrop for a penetrating study of Gerry's indecisive character. Tormented by memories of the past, he cannot make up his mind in the present. The camera focuses intently on his facial expressions, suggesting that he is somehow imprisoned by his nature. On the other hand we can see why he should think like that - even though John had carved out a good life for himself in Singapore, the world of seedy bars, nighttime pickups and one-night stands does not seem in any way idealistic. Modestly budgeted yet sympathetically photographed with an eye for color both in day and night sequences, MISTER JOHN is an unexpectedly haunting film.
Review of Mister John
