After 2009's remarkable Dogtooth, anything else coming out of Greece, in a cinematic capacity, is likely to garner more attention. But even though director and writer Athina Rachel Tsangari was an associate producer on Giorgos Lanthimos' film, her second feature fails to impress on quite the same level.

Although being in her early twenties, Marina (Ariane Labed) doesn't have much experience in life. Her circle of friends is less a circle and more a straight line to Bella (Evangelia Randou).

Bella is a little more experienced than Marina, particularly in the sex department, and Marina feels that she's starting to be left behind. She attempts to gain some experience from Bella herself, but it doesn't satisfy her curiosity.

It wouldn't probably bother Marina that much normally, but with her father (Giorgos Lanthimos) suffering from a terminal disease, the idea that her life is passing her by is heightened. She therefore decides to take the sexual plunge and discover for herself what all the fuss is about.

Look at us, the female Morecombe & Wise!

There's one key theme throughout this film and that is isolationism. Marina has very little contact with anyone other than her dying father and her best friend. If that wasn't enough, the script is on the sparse side, making dialogue seemingly floating around in an incredible amount of space. All of this unnecessary space can cause a vacuum between the film and audience at times, which just amplifies the distance between the two.

It could easily be performed as a play, where it would probably be best described as experimental. But on the big screen however, there's just nothing there and it's just too difficult to forge any kind of relationship with it; not only are the characters nordicly chilly, but the environment is also too harsh and unfriendly, leaving nothing left to warm to.

As intriguing as the central character is on the odd occasion, Attenberg spends far too much time being artistic and, by extension, pretentious. Ironically enough it's a little like watching a filming of a David Attenborough wildlife documentary (which the title is a reference to); you can point a camera at a scene for as long as you like, but sometimes you have to admit defeat and move on as there's simply nothing going on that's worth watching.