Jimpa *** (2025, Olivia Colman, John Lithgow, Aud Mason-Hyde) – Classic Movie Review 13,951

Sophie Hyde‘s 2025 drama film Jimpa is based on her own family story after her father came out to his wife as gay when they were married with young children. Olivia Colman and John Lithgow give it their all.

The 2025 drama film Jimpa is one from the heart, desperately well meaning and really nicely done but sentimental and manipulative (as well as depressing) when it is meant to be uplifting and comforting. Best thing is, Olivia Colman and John Lithgow give it their all, and a little bit more, and Aud Mason-Hyde hugely impresses as Frances.

Jimpa puts you through the wringer. Co-writer/ co-producer/ director Sophie Hyde’s film is inspired by her own life. Aud Mason-Hyde is her non-binary child. It is a love letter from mother to child.

Olivia Colman stars as film-maker Hannah, who takes her non-binary teenager Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde) to visit Hannah’s gay father Jimpa (John Lithgow) at his home in Amsterdam. Frances asks to stay with Jimpa for a year, challenging Hannah’s ideas of parenting and forcing her to confront past wounds and generational divides.

The semi-autobiographical film explores historical and present-day queer themes and gay family dynamics with considerable warmth, authenticity, tenderness and, above all, three superb performances. The dialogue is good, realistic and convincing, sometimes, actually often, amusing, and the script tip-toes adroitly through different eras and places to make its points and develop its characters.

But, even so, the film lacks finesse and fine-tuning, though it is very thoughtful and quite challenging in many ways, quite an emotional rollercoaster experience. The warmth and tenderness is what’s going to get us through the bad times, and that’s great. This is a celebration of that and of alternate lives, but, film-wise, some ice and steel would be good here. It’s easy to enjoy it and get involved with the story and characters, but the needed dose of grit is replaced by a big heart and quite a few tears. A film that is rewarding and discouraging at the same time, eh, that’s probably a must-see.

Sophie Hyde is too close to the story to remain objective. But then why should she? The film is based on Sophie Hyde’s family story after her father Jim Hyde came out to his wife as gay when they were married with young children. Hyde has revealed that her father (who died in 2018) had never gone to live in Amsterdam but had left his family.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,951

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