The Souvenir Part II Review: A Tender, Enchanting Sequel That Warms The Heart

[Night hunter]

Raw, powerful, and tonally balanced, The Souvenir Part II brings the fraught tale of a young, grieving artist to a wonderful, empowering finish.
Joanna Hogg’s 2019 arthouse gem, The Souvenir, captivated audiences with its nuanced foray into tragic love, one bound by intimacy entangled in toxic patterns. Set in 1980s Britain, The Souvenir followed film student Julie (Honor Swinton Bryne), who gets involved in a tumultuous relationship with the charming, manipulative Anthony (Tom Burke), who later turns out to be a heroin addict. At the end of The Souvenir, Anthony is found dead in a public toilet due to drug overdose, leaving a traumatized Julie with the burden of unimaginable grief and the hypnotic lull of rose-tinted memories. Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II is a grander, more artistic portrait of a young woman on the verge of untangling herself from the clutches of the past, and this semi-autobiographical cinematic vignette shines brighter than its predecessor. Raw, powerful, and tonally balanced, The Souvenir Part II brings the fraught tale of a young, grieving artist to a wonderful, empowering finish.

The Souvenir Part II opens with a still-aching Julie, who is recuperating at the lovely, idyllic country house of her parents Rosalind (Tilda Swinton) and William (James Spencer Ashworth). While Julie’s parents are unable to truly relate to her struggles as a filmmaker and the acute loneliness after one loses their lover, they remain consistently tender and unflinchingly supportive of their daughter throughout. In an especially heartbreaking scene, Julie visits Anthony’s grieving parents, experiencing a loss of words despite being deeply empathetic to their situation, as she is unable to express her grief or navigate the remnants of memory. While she attempts to fill the void of intimacy within her by sleeping with one of her actor acquaintances, Jim (Charlie Heaton), Julie gradually shifts her focus to her inner calling, struggling to figure out the challenges involved in making her graduation film, which also happens to be a memorial for Anthony.