The first image we get of Tom (Sam Riley) is that of him waking up on a beach, dirty, disoriented, and alone. At this point, we probably know about as much about what Tom was up to that night as he does. In fact, the mere casting of Riley in this role has us already questioning him of any wrongdoing, if its best he does forget everything he may have gotten himself involved in. But despite his bohemian habits, Tom is an incredibly accomplished tennis pro, who is able to reset and recover impressively at the start of every new day for youth tennis instructions over a languid schedule at a resort hotel on the Canary island of Fuerteventura.

When Anne (Stacy Martin) arrives to request Tom’s assistance in coaching her young son Anton (Dylan Torrell), he generously accepts, only dismissing her offers to pay more. Is it that he recognizes her? Is it that he has nothing better to do? Is that he is infatuated with her? Once he begins tutoring Anton, Tom becomes immediately linked to Anne and Anton, as well as Anne’s obnoxious husband Dave (Jack Farthing). They invite him out for trips to the beach and hangouts at their hotel. Any moment he notices they’re about to consume one drink too many, he asks if they’re “sure they want to do that”. He knows what happens when a night can go on too long. Jack takes a unique liking to Tom, dragging him out to a Waikīkī after a bitter conversation between him and his wife. Tom can’t seem to say no. As expected, the night becomes a one he barely remembers. When he awakes, Anne informs Tom that Dave is gone.

German director Jan-Ole Gerster lets the first hour of this sun-kissed mystery wander in a vague and peculiar space. A sense of dread that something is bound to happen to either Tom or the people he’s suddenly surrounded himself. An unspoken history between Anne and Dave, Dave and Tom, or Tom and Anne waiting to be revealed, always bubbling under the surface of their uncomfortable interactions. Once the traditional missing persons plot kicks in, it’s impossible to know if we can trust any of them by their word. Gerster employs a lot of slow-burn tension to each shot, lingering on his characters’ confusion and aimlessness, reading their faces for the truth. The unnerving score by Dascha Dauenhauer creeping in with each new odd revelation.

A missing husband, a femme fatale wife, suspicious law enforcement, and a protagonist caught in the middle of it all with his own strange past, to call the plot Hitchcockian would almost be too on-the-nose. It does carry a lot of that same early-20th century noir flair for most of its runtime, and smartly builds its characters and their relationships to one another before the shoe drops, but it still keeps itself restrained from going full-Hitchcock. The noir-ness is just a backdrop to what is really at the core of the story, which in one case, makes this a less entertaining mystery than some may hope for, but a thematically potent character journey for those burdened by loneliness.

Riley is, as stated earlier, a mysterious presence, but not a threatening one. His relationship with Anton is fairly sweet and charming, often stepping into Dave’s absent place as a surrogate parent figure. Anton seems to prefer Tom to his father almost instantly, though Dave’s smarmy personality, played all-too-well by Farthing, would be less preferred by anyone. Riley’s performance is captivating from the jump. Whatever we don’t know about him doesn’t matter as he reels us in with a sense of nobility and charming assuredness. Whatever sense that the story is playing too aloof with its details, Riley’s own aloofness is far too watchable to not stay invested. A poor soul who can’t even have a vacation in literal paradise.