Details

Roger Hyams | United Kingdom | 2015 | 12 m

Alex and Jane arrive at a Travelodge, somewhere near a motorway, somewhere in England. A few days before, Alex began to suspect Jane of having an affair. She’d told him she was on an Awayday; she wasn’t, and he couldn’t reach her on her mobile. His thoughts turned to the moment he saw Jane and an old friend smoking an illicit cigarette together. Disturbed, unable to stop thinking about it, Alex ended up searching through his wife’s filing cabinet. There he found odd souvenirs – sheets of Travelodge notepaper – and his suspicions coalesced … Now, refusing to explain her actions, Jane takes Alex through a peculiar charade. She buys him burger and fries at the Little Chef, shows him the view from outside (an A-road, a half moon), and leads him on an inconclusive stroll around a darkened business park. Alex is increasingly bewildered, and still terrified that Jane will reveal that this is where she comes with her lover. Frustrated, anxious, he confronts her. Jane snaps back: this is all there is. She comes to chain motels, in unglamorous places, on her own. She has an apéritif of hot water, eats generic food for dinner, goes to bed. There’s no lover. She comes here, in her own words, “to be elsewhere.” Back at home, Alex and Jane drink some good wine to toast the way ahead. Their relationship, and their love for each other, will abide. But Jane warns Alex that she won’t stop living her other life. He knows that a change has come, and that he’ll have to live with it. When Alex is alone one evening, the filing cabinet haunts him again. He approaches it – and resists.