Movie Review: JIMPA

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: February 8th, 2026 / 09:05 PM

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Olivia Colman, Aud Mason-Hyde, John Lithgow, Daniel Henshall, Kate Box, Eamon Farren, Zoë Love Smith, Deborah Kennedy
Writers: Matthew Cormack and Sophie Hyde
Director: Sophie Hyde
Distributor: Kino Lorber
Release Date: February 6, 2026

Hannah (Olivia Colman) defines herself as a filmmaker, mother, and woman, usually in that order. We meet her as she’s teaching a class in directing, giving good advice to her students.

Adelaide, Australia is where Hannah was born and still resides with her husband Harry (Daniel Henshall) and their sixteen-year-old Frances (Aud Mason-Hyde). Frances has come out as queer and nonbinary. Hannah is very good with Frances’s they/them pronouns; Harry still occasionally refers to the teen as “daughter.”

Hannah wants to make a fictional film based on her parents, Jim (John Lithgow) and Katherine (Deborah Kennedy). They have two children, Hannah and her older sister Emily (Kate Box). Jim came out as gay in the ‘70s, not an easy thing to do at that time anywhere, let alone in Australia. However, rather than the expected hysteria and recrimination, Jim and Katherine decided to stay married and simply redefined their bond. They co-parented and continued to live together while both seeing other people.

Then, when Hannah was thirteen, Jim moved to Amsterdam for a job, leaving his family behind. Katherine has maintained that it was her decision not to uproot their daughters from Adelaide.

Now Hannah is taking Frances and Harry to see Jim, who long ago decided Frances should call him “Jimpa” (as opposed to either “Jim” or “Grandpa”). It’s a visit that’s been years in the making. Hannah wants to tell Jim about her movie. She’s worried about what he’ll think and is so confrontation-averse that she insists there’s no conflict in the story she wants to tell, which strikes her producers as unlikely.

Frances idolizes Jim and surprises their parents by saying they’d like to spend a year in Amsterdam with him, going to school there and experiencing the city’s queer culture, which is much broader than that of Adelaide.

Hannah and Harry are both doubtful about allowing Frances to relocate, not least because Jim has a tendency to disappoint loved ones. Jimpa is delighted to see all of them and would love Frances to stay, even though he is skeptical of Frances’s (or anyone else’s) self-definition of nonbinary, or even bisexual.

There’s a lot going on here, with a whole panoply of parent/child dynamics. Hannah and Frances have an easy familial intimacy, though there are matters Frances would rather discuss with Jimpa. Frances is also coming of age, falling in love for the first time and dealing with the gaps between a political stance and undeniable emotions.

JIMPA also deals with personal agency. Jim has spent years recovering from a stroke and professes a desire to be allowed to die if he has another debilitating event. At the same time, he hasn’t put anything in writing.

Jim is also a hero of the AIDS pandemic, a tireless fighter for gay rights in general and the rights of those with AIDS and HIV specifically. Like some others of his generation, he views later activism in other areas as lesser and ripe for critique.

Director/co-writer Sophie Hyde and co-writer Matthew Cormack tackle a rather familiar subject – someone of great magnetism who unapologetically always puts their own wants and needs above those of others – in a new way. Everyone has different coping mechanisms for Jim’s whims, and somehow it never rises to the level of screaming matches or threats of abandonment. It’s less like movies and more like real life.

Colman and Lithgow are virtually impeccable (as if that has to be said of either of them at this late date), extending warmth to those in their circle as if they really are related. Oddly, though, Colman doesn’t do much in the way of an Australian accent. Mason-Hyde is full of heart, with innocence and innate wisdom in equal measure. Henshall provides knowing support.

Like Hannah’s producers, we think Hannah is in denial about the nature of conflict, but that’s part of the point here. JIMPA is largely about how people cope with the contradictions of human individuals and of life, depicted in a most affectionate manner.

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