Dir. Lajos Koltai, US, 2007, 117 mins
Cast: Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Natasha Richardson, Mamie Gummer, Glenn Close, Meryl Streep
Review by Joyce Dundas
Now you would be forgiven for reading that cast list and just booking a ticket on the strength of it alone. After sitting through the film though you might not forgive yourself for such spontaneity. Not that it is a bad film, but it is incredibly slow, sloppily acted in places - hard as that is to believe - and the script is predictable. It is taken from the best-selling novel by Susan Minot, who also co-wrote the screenplay. Minot was screenwriter on Stealing Beauty, the Bernardo Bertolucci film that launched Liv Tyler's career, a film with a subtle emotional depth that is lacking here.
However, for those expecting a high-level, female-driven tearfest on an equal with Terms of Endearment or Steel Magnolias this film will disappoint, but it is hard to see where it could go wrong. Redgrave and daughter Richardson, who play mother and daughter, Streep and her daughter Gummer, who plays a younger Streep – they are so alike it is fascinating to watch – Danes as the younger Ann, an independent, forthright young woman who knows her own mind and the always compelling Collette. What's not to like about those actresses?
The film unfolds as Redgrave's character, the older Ann, is on her death bed and her extremely different, bickering daughters Constance (Richardson) and Nina (Collette) are back in the family home to be with their mother for her final days. Ann is a little wandered mentally and has hallucinations – at one point she sees her nurse dressed in a ball gown – and what might be imagined memories. Her daughters certainly think she is inventing the past when she starts to pine for a lost love called Harris (Wilson).
Now this is where you expect the film to catch fire. It doesn't. The single Nina, who is restless and avoiding commitment, is interested in this new turn of events, where Constance, the married and settled sister, is more keen to dismiss it as the ramblings of a sick mind. A yearning that then seems to become her biggest regret.
This opens the way to a series of flashbacks of the young Ann (Danes) returning home from New York to Newport to attend her college friend Lila's wedding. She reconnects with Lila's brother Buddy (Dancy), who fancies himself a rebel against the Newport lifestyle. Buddy has always carried a torch – and a bit of ripped letter – for Ann and is still in denial that she will not have him. Ann, however, has eyes for Harris. Again, the film falls flat here because Harris, as shown in the film, is just not the kind of man you would pine over for 50 years.
A tragic accident conspires to separate Harris and Ann and the guilt they feel makes it impossible for them ever to have a relationship.
It is a beautifully shot movie as you would expect from Lajos Koltai, the Oscar nominated cinematographer of Being Julia and Max. The locations and stars look wonderful, but as a heart-rending emotional drama it lacks depth and finally comes across as an empty tale. It will be interesting come awards time to see if the names on the cast list can blind the academy to a flawed film. Close and Streep are stand-outs with the very limited scenes they have. Dancy is on the mark too as the lovestruck and searching Buddy. And for purists, yes there is a scene where Streep and Redgrave share screen time.
However, apart from Danes and Gummer, most of the women in the film don't have much space in their trophy cabinets for any more awards. This film is unlikely to make any demands for extra space.
|
