Grand Tour (2024) review

Inspired by the writings of W. Somerset Maugham, Gomes tells the story of Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a representative of the British Crown in Burma during the early 20th century, as he journeys around the East - from Bangkok to Saigon to Osaka, etc. - to get far away from his clingy fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate), except she's bound and determined to track him down and rejects the advances of the prosperous Timothy Sanders (Cláudio da Silva), who truly likes her.  The first section of the movie (Edward's perspective) plays like a partially-remembered dream, combining "period footage" with modern recordings of puppet shows, cockfighting, a manually-operated Ferris wheel and shadow play, accompanied by a variety of narrators explaining the goings-on, although when it settles into a more "traditional" narrative for the second half (which is entirely about Molly), it loses a little bit of its luster, since it's clear why he'd be trying to evade her.  In many films, over-usage of V.O. can become distracting - it violates the "show and don't tell" rule - but in this case it actually works by filling in the gaps and allowing the film to glide along wistfully.  It also serves as a reminder that pursuing someone not devoted to you can lead to physical destruction (freezing to death is not an ideal way to check out) ... and yet there's a strong possibility that the material involving Molly isn't "real" at all.