Almost Strangers is a BBC telefilm in three parts by Stephen Poliakoff. It follows Daniel, the son of the prodigal son, as he goes to a family reunion where he's never actually met any of the family. He and his father are drawn to unravel the mystery of two pictures, one of each of them as small children, and neither have a memory of the picture or why it was taken.
The film has an absurd kind of logic to it, placing surreal family members and encounters at a fairly normal event. One uncle channels his Robin Goodfellow, while another serves as a voice of reason, a conscious urging Daniel not to follow his heart. Daniel himself seems to be a ghost, filling in the shoes of a long gone relative, even though he does not know it himself.
The film is underscored by a haunting melody. The music, while at times almost melodramatic, is beautiful, and serves to underline important moments, and give a bit more to the mystical quality of the film. The music seems to linger, and where the film could easily have become overly melodramatic, it instead becomes simple melodrama - a story of a family trying to come back together after being driven apart by secrets and shame. And within that story is one of a father and son, long outcast from the family, discovering they have more in common than they had thought to begin with.
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