The story has an intriguing structure as there are three storylines:
--Young Sophie: While spending the majority of her time with her father Calum, she also explores her emerging sexuality, specifically in…
The story has an intriguing structure as there are three storylines:
--Young Sophie: While spending the majority of her time with her father Calum, she also explores her emerging sexuality, specifically in her brief connection with Michael. Both of those aspects of her journey over the course of the week are infused with excitement, confusion, and personal insights.
--Calum: He begins with the best of intentions -- to spend quality time with his daughter and provide a perfect holiday together. But the fact the first moment they arrive in their hotel room and discover there is only one bed, not two for which he paid ... that right there presages a downward spiral as far as Calum's experience is concerned.
--Old Sophie: Dredging through her memories of the trip to Turkey with her father and most pointedly showing up as an adult in the rave scenes.
The storylines combine to create something akin to three-act structure:
Act One: The first few days of the holiday introducing key characters and the initial sense of dynamic tension between father and daughter, arising from Calum's jumbled emotional state.
Act Two: While Sophie carves out her own experience, either with her father or on her own with some older peers, Calum continues on an erratic downward spiral. It culminates with Calum unable to join Sophie singing karaoke, then Sophie's night alone.
Act Three: Their final day together ending in a reversal: Whereas Calum wouldn't sing with Sophie, Sophie won't dance with Calum. The next day, they say goodbye to each other. I doubt Sophie knows that Calum is aware ... this is the final time they will see each other (presumably the reason for the trip in the first place).
Throughout the story, Old Sophie appears leading to her attempt to extract Calum from the rave and his dangerous "dance" with death.
The script very much has a "slice-of-life" feel to it, not a story with a strong narrative drive. Other than wanting to spend time together and the day to day father-daughter activities, the plot moves forward at an incremental pace. It is the arcs of the three characters -- Young Sophie, Old Sophie, and Calum -- which provide a sense of growth.
We will discuss the characters in Part 3 of the series.