A man searches tirelessly for his missing son who he has not seen in years. When a body is located, the entire family's life is turned upside-down and they must all learn how to reconnect with one another.
Directed by Carl Hunter and starring Bill Nighy, Sometimes Always Never is an eccentric comedy-drama. The title, interestingly enough, refers to how one buttons a three-button suit jacket; sometimes the top button, always the middle, never the bottom. It may seem like an odd choice for the title, but suits and scrabble are the two main recurring visual aspects of the film.
The comedy isn't the sort to have you on the floor laughing, and it certainly isn't physical nor toilet humour. Sometimes Always Never works because of the stilted disconnected use of dialogue. A feature that reminds me of a Wes Anderson film (along with the general symmetry of the cinematography). The odd sense of timing and lingering lends itself well towards the creation of awkward scenarios, and it straddles that line between unsettling and tedious masterfully.
Bill Nighy's performance brings a surprising amount of levity and positivity to a script that has a fair amount of heavy content within it. The is helped by the visual style, which is beautifully vibrant and almost feels like stop-motion animation at times (specifically during car scenes). This visual style is admittedly rather inconsistent and is replaced by the more conventional style towards the latter end of the film.
The film has two main story elements--both revolving around Bill Nighy's character--looking at his obsession with Scrabble and other such word games, and the search for his lost son. These are of course, largely metaphors for a conversation about second best; the substitute that isn't as good as something else; the theme of making do and appreciating what we have. It is a theme that is constantly referred to.
The tone of the film does evolve over the runtime and takes on a thriller feel at times as they search for their missing family member, but the film is at its strength in the family home, with Nighy's quirky mannerisms serving to be almost endearing.
Sometimes Always Never is a very subdued story. A journey of little steps and miscommunication that has the audience considering how they would cope with a similar loss. Quirky and awkward, against all odds, Sometimes Always Never is lovingly charming.