How can you allow yourself to be happy when happiness is so alien to you?
Johnny (Josh O'Connor) has a tough life, working his family's Yorkshire hill farm. His dad (Ian Hart), following a stroke, is unable to help much, but remains a demanding and domineering presence, while grandmother Deidre (Gemma Jones) is disapproving and critical. Johnny's only outlets are getting drunk, throwing up after, and occasional quick sex encounters with men he has no interest in afterwards. He has no attachments, alienates the few friends he once had.
All this we know within a few brief scenes. There's little dialogue, but the action tells us all we need to know. Later, when the pace does slow, it's with the languidness of awakening.
Into this combustible mix comes Gheorghe (Alec Secareanu), a Romanian who'll give an extra pair of hands for the lambing about to start. Johnny treats him like dirt, unhappy that his role feels under threat. Gheorghe soon demonstrates that he is an experienced farmworker, and has a gentleness in working with the animals that Johnny finds hard to process.
When the two young men are forced to spend a few nights up in the hills together their relationship changes dramatically and Johnny finds that he has more than just a sex partner, but has also found a lover. Can he cope with these new found emotions?
Against a background of family crisis he has to find a way through his own developing feelings. But how does someone who has shut his true self away for so long face seeing who he is? How does someone monosyllabic find a way to communicate when it's vital to his future?
Despite the setting this is an intimate film, almost claustrophobic at times, so that when we are afforded a glimpse of the inspiring scenery on offer it comes as a relief, a respite from the emotional conflicts. O'Connor is excellent in the lead role, a man who wants to change but doesn't know how, subtly conveying the gradual developments taking place. Secareanu is a brooding yet kindly presence, reflecting a very different upbringing. And there's strong support from both Hart and Jones, the latter delivering one of her best performances.
There's little humour to be had, but that's fully compensated for by the joyful ending and Johnny's emotional transformation.
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