Patagonia – review

Duffy makes her acting debut with a small part in this sincere road movie – and looks like she's itching to be in a way cooler, hipper film. In the late 19th century, thousands emigrated from Wales to inhospitable Argentina; here director Marc Evans knots together two modern stories, one from each country. A wily octogenarian Argentine (Marta Lubos) pressgangs a neighbour's son into taking her to Wales, which her mother left in the 1920s, pregnant and unmarried; a couple from Cardiff (Nia Roberts, Matthew Gravelle) travel to Patagonia where he photographs chapels; austere and isolated, they're a metaphor for his remoteness. But a topcoat of enforced lyricism creates an emotional soft-focus that is unsatisfying and unconvincing.