The Waiting Room (15)
This charming modern-day romance hinges on a chance meeting in a waiting room at London’s Wandsworth Common train station.
In this unlikely setting, retirement home carer Stephen (Ralph Little) and single mother Anna (Anne-Marie Duff) listen dreamily as Stephen’s elderly patient Roger (Frank Finlay) reminisces about his wife, whose train never seems to arrive.
The two strangers separate without exchanging names or telephone numbers, haunted by the memory of one another. Anna returns to her daughter Charlie and the fallout from her failed marriage.
A messy affair with next-door neighbour George, who is married to good friend Jem, leaves Anna feeling empty. Meanwhile, Stephen feels pressurised by his girlfriend Fiona and her parents into marriage and starting a family.
Standing at crossroads in their respective lives, Anna and Stephen make bold decisions about their futures, hoping to meet again one day in the waiting room.
Blessed with strong performances from the two leads, Roger Goldby’s ode to love at first sight has wistful romanticism in every scene.
Little bares everything for his art, generating sizzling screen chemistry with Duff in their handful of scenes together, as the protagonists endure trials and tribulations and jealous significant others who tell them: “You won’t get better than me. The grass may look greener but the perfect relationship does not exist.”
The Waiting Room begs to differ.
RATING: ***
Damon Smith
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