Islands 2026 Movie Review
“Islands” is a fantastic and at the same time highly entertaining psychological thriller that breaks with classic structures. Tom (Sam Riley) is a bored tennis coach at a hotel in Fuerteventura, where he spends the years after his professional career-drinking in the clubs at night and having one-night stands. He meets the Maguire family, whose son Anton he trains. Soon, Tom develops a fascination for Anton’s mother, Anne (Stacey Martin), and the two can be seen as the film’s polar opposites.
When Anne’s husband Dave disappears for a few days, Tom supports Anne in her search and lovingly cares for Anton. Anne seems liberated and relieved that Dave is no longer burdening her with his presence. When Dave reappears, Anne falls back into her old patterns in a mysterious and strongly dependent way.
For me, the film is a profound psychological drama in which two people meet whose loneliness is so strong that, as a viewer, you want to stand up and shout to the characters: Now, right now, you have to change your life-just take a small step toward each other.
While Tom is empathetic and kind, Anne appears rather cool and unpredictable, yet Tom falls in love with her. When the family flies away again, Tom begins to look at his life from a different perspective, realizing how his routines and rewards-along with the sea and the sun-have kept him trapped.
Sam Riley and Stacey Martin deliver outstanding performances. Riley always seems to have a little too much emotion, too much vodka, too much coke, which contrasts with his inner diligence and the responsibility he takes on. Martin plays her role reservedly, minimally, coolly. Only in one moment, when her husband still hasn’t been found after four days, does she reveal her underlying emotions in a restaurant by the coast-downing her drinks, laughing loudly, and arguing with Tom, who tries to bring her back to her restraint because the police have Anne in their sights as the main suspect.
I really enjoyed the film; it was a big surprise because, for a European feature film, it has an astonishingly ambitious narrative scope, is cast with outstanding actors, and repeatedly steps away from the strictness of a tight script to focus on the spaces in between, the unspoken, and the very subtle tones.
