Film Review: GRAND TOUR: Miguel Gomes’ Character-Driven Postcard From Old Asia is a Delight to Behold [NYFF 2024]

Grand Tour Review

Grand Tour (2024) Film Review from the 62nd Annual New York Film Festival, a movie directed by Miguel Gomes, written by Telmo Churro, Maureen Fazendeiro, Mariana Ricardo and Miguel Gomes and starring Gonçalo Waddington, Crista Alfaiate, Cláudio da Silva, Lang Khê Tran, Jorge Andrade, João Pedro Vaz, Teresa Madruga, Diogo Dória, Manuela Couto, Américo Silva and Giacomo Leone.

In 1918 Eastern Asia lies the setting for much of filmmaker Miguel Gomes’ wonderfully eccentric character study, Grand Tour. The interesting thing about this film being a character study is that it focuses on a man and a woman in fairly equal increments, one of whom we spend time with and know little about (the man) and the other (the woman), we know a little too much about. This delightfully offbeat film has tragic undertones but remains a fresh and vivid look at a couple who end up separated although they’ve been destined to be together through a seven-year engagement. So much for destiny.

Gonçalo Waddington stars as Edward, a British man who decides to escape his fiancee of seven years, Molly (Crista Alfaiate), by boarding a ship out of town. We get to learn about Edward through the first half of the movie but there’s not much to like about him. He ends up on a train that breaks down at one point and it appears his life has broken down and is at some sort of crossroads that he cannot come to terms with. He gets involved with some people but not really. Edward just exists and he floats through his life with no personal goal in mind except to not marry Molly.

Molly, on the other hand, is a different breath of air, if not exactly a fresh one. She’s set in her ways and determined to marry Edward even if it means bouncing around different locations to find him. The highlight of Molly’s personality is her snorting-like laugh which could be that of the character much more than Alfaiate who plays her. Molly seems certain she wants to marry Edward but she’s a bit of a fool for not believing that his departure is a sign that maybe he’s not very interested.

Eventually, Molly, unlike Edward, forms some meaningful connections. She befriends a woman named Ngoc (Lang Khê Tran) who suggests that the handsome and wealthy Timothy Sanders (a well-cast Cláudio da Silva) adores her. Timothy is a real alternative to Edward for Molly but she holds on to what she cannot have and moves forward in her her quest to try to find Edward with consequences that one won’t be surprised to see coming.

There are modern day looks at colorful scenarios found throughout Asia interspersed into the black-and-white film that is Grand Tour. In color, we see a man kicking a Rangoon ferris wheel into motion, for example. Other situations are interwoven into the picture at given intervals, including that of some puppets. These scenes don’t advance the plot much but give the film a sense of modern culture that is definitely welcomed throughout.

This movie is Alfaiate’s to run away with. She’s got a lot of personality and one has to admire that about her. Molly knows what she wants and goes after it. Tran holds her own beside her as Ngoc and the two characters form an interesting bond throughout the latter half of the movie. Edward often feels like a man who is a coward for not confronting his true feelings regarding Molly. Whereas Molly is brave and full of life, Edward is dull and boring even if he has potentially valid personal reasons for doing what he does.

Grand Tour reaches a saturation point in the latter sequences towards the end but continues on for about 10 minutes past its welcome to conclude its story. In the final analysis, it’s not such a bad thing because we come to respect Molly despite her inability to recognize the signs that she was entitled to a better life than the one she got. Edward may have been all one big facade for her and, sometimes, people follow the trail of something that has no possibility of being discovered. That something here is the love of a man who is both selfish and disrespectful whether he means to be or not.

When the classic song, “Beyond the Sea,” plays at the end of Grand Tour, the viewer will be convinced that the characters have found some sort of happiness…in a place beyond the obvious. This film is scrumptiously filmed and beautifully mounted with the inclusion of some very appealing images that are crisp beyond a doubt. Those images could be that of the characters in the clothes they wear or the background surrounding them which is rich in detail.

In a way, if Molly wanted to be reasonably happy, she could have ended up with the rich Timothy. She didn’t want to give up her ambitions to do that and that’s what makes her so admirable as a character. Molly gets no respect from Edward but the fact that she can snort and laugh and just continue on her quest to get that respect is something that can inspire even if most people wouldn’t chart the same course Molly does. Grand Tour is ultimately a beautifully made film about holding on to the impossible despite the other possibilities.

Rating: 8/10

Leave your thoughts on this Grand Tour review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more New York Film Festival news can visit our New York Film Festival Page, our Film Festival Page, and our Film Festival Facebook Page.

Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, our Movie Review Reddit Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page.

Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, and Threads.