The Waiting Room

British writer-director Roger Goldby’s first feature is an intriguing exploration of the promises, pleasures and pitfalls of long-term relationships. The twin-track story line focuses on two main characters: Anna (Anne-Marie Duff), who is involved in a frivolous relationship with her married next-door neighbour; and Steven (Ralf Little), whose long-term relationship with his girlfriend is put under strain when she raises the idea of children. A practically wordless chance encounter between Anna and Steven, in a railway station waiting room, leaves both reconsidering their situations and pondering the possibility of love at first sight.

Each of the relationships that constitute this tangled web is well conceived and intelligently acted. Little’s sweet, tacit charms are put to great use, as is Duff’s hard-edged vulnerability. The script isn’t afraid to delve into some quite difficult territory, exploring the gap between what we tell ourselves about our partnerships and what we really feel. But it is hard to engage with the characters’ complex emotional somersaults when it is so obvious where the plot eventually wants Anna and Steven to end up. The inclusion of a sub-plot involving Steven’s work at an old people’s home, in which a stereotypically wise and endearing old lady pontificates at length about the nature of commitment, is heavy-handed and serves to undermine the convincing characterisation on show elsewhere. There is also a distinct lack of any social context to the characters’ stories. These flaws combine to scupper what is still an interesting experiment by an obviously strong new talent.