Alison Oliver is a discovery in Sally Rooney film adaptation Conversations with Friends ★★★☆☆

Normal People, the twelve-part series based on the second novel by Irish author Sally Rooney, ended up in the Volkskrant series top ten of 2020. At a glance: a series from 2019, based on a wildly popular novel from 2018, which ended up on a somewhat obscure streamer (Starzplay) in 2020, but was seen by most people in the Netherlands in 2021 via the NPO. Anyway, one of the best series of recent years, including the heartbreaking lead roles of Daisy Edgar-Jones (Marianne) and Paul Mescal (Connell) as two young people who can’t live with and without each other.

A film adaptation of Rooney’s debut, Conversations with Friends (2017) was inevitable, by the same producers, again as a twelve-part series, partly directed by the Irish director Lenny Abrahamson (of Normal People and the movie Cream). And with another remarkable acting debut at heart; this time Alison Oliver, just out of drama school (in the ‘Sally Rooney’ role).

Conversations with Friends takes place in the same universe as normal people: young people trying to find their way into adulthood, past relational and intellectual obstacles. The ‘conversations’ from the title largely take place via WhatsApp. Evidently a greater emotional honesty is possible through the screen of the telephone than in the merciless reality, where things are turned around.

Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane, known from the movie American Honey) were once in a relationship, but are now friends, who occasionally perform together on spoken wordevenings, in Dublin’s literary scene. At one of those meetings they meet the slightly older glamor couple Nick (Joe Alwyn) and Melissa (Jemima Kirke, known from TV series girls). Nick is a well-known actor and Melissa is a writer and married, so they are just a few steps ahead in everything. Nick and Melissa like the two friends, and vice versa, Frances thinks she has found a soul mate in the shy Nick, eternally unsure of his roles. They start a relationship, which starts in a holiday home in Croatia (think of the Italian scenes in Normal People), because if you put pale Irishmen under the Mediterranean sun, primal forces are released.

Unmistakably Sally Rooney, but still pulls Conversations with Friends in the inevitable comparison with Normal People (the series) at the short end. Perhaps because Frances and Nick are a little too much wallflowers, who prefer to fall into each other’s arms in silence, but maybe also because the role of Joe Alwyn (a kind of indecision made flesh) is a lot less easy for the viewers to get along.

And then those twelve episodes feel quite on the long side. Readers of the book know the detour Frances and Bobbi are taking in their friendship, but viewers of the series must be patient. Where you read the book in a weekend, you will soon be in a series on HBO Max in a few months, perhaps not ideal for the tension.

By the way, Alison Oliver is really a discovery, which is especially apparent in the course of the series when the certainties of her existence are shaken. An episode in which she visits her divorced parents reveals a lot about her complex emotional household. Oliver is already working on her next BBC series (Best Interests), surrounded by top actors.