Out of Season (film)

Plot

Joe Tanner (Cliff Robertson) returns to Great Britain twenty years after he ended a romantic relationship with Ann (Vanessa Redgrave). He discovers her running the same picturesque seaside resort in Dorset, but now with a grown daughter named Joanna (Susan George).

The principal action of the film is the attempt of the adults to renew their relationship, with interference from the daughter, who flirts with Joe from the moment she meets him, successfully competing with her mother for his attention. Finally, she offers herself to Joe in his bedroom, and he wordlessly accepts her invitation (the sex scenes between them are virtually the only dialogue-free parts of the film). Most of the film consists of conversations between the characters, mingled with shots of the nearby seashore.

At the end, Ann catches the lovers in mid-coitus, and calmly informs Joe that she lied to him when he asked who Joanna's father was, and she said the father was dead—the father was Joe. Neither Joe nor Joanna visibly reacts to this revelation, the strong implication being that both already knew (the names alone told the story), but they didn't want it out in the open. The next day, Joanna has seemingly left for good and Joe has moved in to stay, talking about fixing the place up. He sits down to play cards with Ann, who has no response, and whose face can't be seen.

Cast