Directed by: Suki Singh
Starring: Sam Heughan, Claudia Bassols, Lex Shrapnel
Emulsion begins with a young man desperately searching for his missing wife, but with no leads and everyone telling him to move on, it almost seems like she never existed at all. Set up and delivered as a noir mystery/love story, it has a lot of style that I am sure many will enjoy, but that whole genre has been wasted on me. I have never been a real fan because it seems too set up for me to feel real enough to let me really dig into the stories or characters, and this film is no exception.
The actors do fine; I can’t think of any standouts, good or bad, but this is another aspect that most films like this need: multiple great actors. Other types of thriller mysteries can get away with one or two great performances because their characters are not generic carbon copies of what we have seen before. They are original and stick with you long after seeing them on screen. Lacking this element, the film's already slow pace seems to drag out longer and slower because you don’t have an emotional attachment for any of the characters.
Speaking of pacing, while I know many like what some refer to as “slow burners”, and this is definitely one, I rarely enjoy them because the middle chunk of the film always feels like throw away footage and a waste of the film's time. Then, when the climax begins and all the important information is revealed, it suddenly seems that the filmmakers are more than happy to just end the film because everything becomes overly rushed and the climax ends up disappointing. 
Instead of spreading out information throughout the film, it seems like the film-makers are dead set on confusing the viewer and explaining nothing for the majority of the film. Then they hit you with a couple of big twists and turns within the final minutes just so you hopefully walk away forgetting how slow the bulk of the film is and you only remember the big twist that they believe makes the film worth it. They forget that most of us need well thought out characters that we can relate to in order to take anything real from such a film. If that connection is never made, the film will not be remembered for long.
Ultimately, while Emulsion is a brilliant and interesting idea, it didn’t pan out because it leaves more questions on the table than it ends up answering. Not to say a film shouldn’t leave viewers with questions, but there is just too much work for the audience here when the film could have used its time more efficiently and cleared the air a bit more.
4/10
Andy Comer