Barry Keoghan in Mammal

'The compelling story of a woman who has lost her son, and develops an unorthodox relationship with a homeless youth with whom she unwittingly falls in love.'

In 2016's Mammal, actress Rachel Griffiths plays Margaret, a woman who is filling her days more than actually living a life.  She works in a charity shop, and her only joy seems to be the solitary pleasure in swimming at a local pool.  Her only friends are stray cats, and she's mostly detached from the rest of the world.

This changes when her former husband Matt, (Michael McElhatton) gets in contact to inform Margaret that their teenage son has gone missing.  Margaret didn't have a relationship with her son, having abandoned him when he was still a baby.  Her emotions over his disappearance however, begin to surface leading her to decide to give shelter to homeless teenager named Joe. (Barry Keoghan).

'As Margaret and Joe grow more comfortable in each other’s company, the film wades into tricky territory where it is uncertain whether Margaret is attracted to Joe as a surrogate son or a potential lover. When Matt donates the son’s old clothes to the charity shop and Joe starts wearing them, there is even an echo of Hitchcock’s Vertigo with Margaret either consciously or subconsciously trying to makeover one teenager in the manner of the boy she never knew.'

As much as I loved last years 'May December', the May December relationship in Mammal is much more complicated.  It's also fascinating to watch it evolve, and see the ways in which the filmmakers uses small everyday events to depict the growing intimacy between Margaret and Joe.  Both Griffiths and Keoghan are perfect in their roles, even if the couple they are portraying are most certainly not.

'The raw vulnerability of their performances creates a rock solid centre to this delicately handled immersion in love and grief.'

Screen Daily

Keoghan has several nude scenes in the film, including a quick, but dark frontal.  The nudity seems a little more grounded than it was in Saltburn, and needed in the telling of the story.  I could not find a platform where Mammal is streaming, but if you do, or have a way to watch, I would not miss the opportunity.