Islands (2025)

good movie but this is not a thriller it is a drama

“Tom” (Sam Reilly) is the stereotypical handsome tennis coach who spends his time at his Spanish resort teaching the well-heeled children of the tourists during the day and then boozing and womanising of the evening. Then he is asked to teach “Anton” (Dylan Torrell) by his mum “Anne” (Stacy Martin) and then introduced to her husband “Dave” (Jack Farthing) who seem inclined to befriend him. They dine with him and even take him on a tour of the island with them, before “Dave” goes awol. When she reports this matter to the police, they immediately begin to suspect that there is more to the relationship between “Tom” and “Anne” and that perhaps poor old “Dave” has been done in? Sadly, though this is quite a good looking drama, I found the story really quite lacking. Riley doesn’t really impose himself at all on the proceedings - indeed, I kept expecting Paul Bettany to appear instead, and neither Farthing nor Martin really make much impact either as this undercooked mystery fails to get off the ground and really only skirts around the themes that could have been better developed - especially that of the premonition that is hinted at at the start. It’s watchable enough, but I just felt a bit underwhelmed by it all.