A three-hander scientific comedy, Universal is about a couple of academics on a romantic hideway who are interrupted by an unwanted visitor, a young woman who claims she wants help with a new scientific formula.
Leo (Joe Thomas) and Naomi (Rosa Robson) feel as if they are a real couple, with strong chemistry, and Ricky (Kelley Mack) , the interloper, is an enigma who clearly comes in to cause imbalance.
We’ve seen this kind of story before, but with a lot of talk of DNA, double helixes, and science, it is a little more than your general light comedy about a couple in peril.
How Ricky, a student, can take charge and disrupt a holiday in this way, also being rude to the hostess (when offered a homemade meal of spaghetti, she goes to make plain toast instead).
There something about her not quite right, and the whole atmosphere of the film starts to feel uneasy. I really wish academia was as cloak and dagger as Universal presents it.
Halfway through the film, Universal starts to get really weird and unsettling. What’s happening with the work Ricky and Leo have started to work on, and what do the odd symbols mean?
Can anyone be trusted in this remote place? Who is Ricky and is she being honest? Can Leo ever bring himself to send her on her way? And will Naomi lose patience with all the digs and slights?
Big business, huge wealth, nuclear power and environmental warnings bubble through Universal, while the frustration of not being able to just relax on holiday is particularly evident in Naomi.
Don’t expect a big reveal, but instead a dramedy that might make you consider afresh the world we live in.
Universal (writer-director Stephen Portland) was presented at this year’s Dances With Films festival.