The Randomers

The latest from Irish director Graham Jones poses the unusual question: can you have a relationship by just being with someone, in silence?

According to her ad, Sarah Jane Murphy is “female, 23, seeking male for relationship without speaking”. When she meets Joseph Lydon, the young couple spend 70 minutes experiencing the usual frissons, comforts, dissatisfactions and emotional intimacy – all without speaking. Against a backdrop of waterways, parks and country walks, Jones gives the initially shy encounters a chance to breathe, letting his characters reveal themselves through body language and stolen glances.

As a deeper sense of understanding creeps into their interactions, however, the mood starts to deepen and darken.

Murphy, all coy glances and occasionally furrowed brow, is reticent; her inability to hold long gazes hinting at the hurt that led her to place such an ad. Lydon is more eager, with puppy dog eyes and goofy smiles. Nonetheless, he too has a layer of melancholy exposed when Murphy keeps him at a distance.

Through short scenes and clever editing, Jones skips over the practicalities of their relationship: how they order food, if they text. It’s a clever, necessary choice. As the film becomes thought-provoking rather than literal, it forces us to recognise how exposed we can be without words to hide behind and to examine our relationship with silence and with each other.

Available to watch online (for free!) at grahamjones.ie