Eternal Beauty. (18.)
Directed by Craig Roberts.
Starring Sally Hawkins, Alice Lowe, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Morfydd Clark and Penelope Wilton. In Cinemas. 94 mins.
There's a scene early on that may be a key to why Eternal Beauty is such an awkward, if well-intentioned, experience. Jane (Hawkins) who definitely is mentally ill, is asked by her sister (Piper) to show her how this manifests itself physically because she wants to fake being clinically depressed to be put on sick benefits. This turns out to be mostly leg vibrations. So you have Hawkins doing her pretend “real” jitters and Piper doing her pretend fake jitters and you look from one to the other, the pair of them sitting next to each other on a sofa juddering frantically, and think that sometimes acting is a really ghastly way of making a living.
Because writer/ director Roberts has chosen to show the world from inside Jane's head, his film is vague on most things. (Even a precise diagnosis for Jane’s' condition is kept until the last scene.) What seems clear is that a traumatic disappointment in her early twenties triggered her problems and that her family, particularly the mother (Wilton), have exacerbated it.
Such a viewpoint nullifies the idea of there being objective reality so a viewer never knows what is real and what is delusional. The film is a mix of social realism and moments of low key surrealism, like a Mike Leigh with the occasionally Danny Boyle flourish.
The advantage of this is that it gives the film-makers a marvellous get out clause. Often events or characters will appear in the film from out of nowhere without any explanation. You never know if that is deliberate or the result of trying to edit round something that wasn't working. Thewlis shows up as a love interest, does his turn and then exits the film, and you're left wondering what on earth was that all about?
The film has some striking moments and strong performances. Hawkins has a way of digging in so deep to a character that by the end she's clawed herself clear through to the other side and there is nothing left but all the little nuances and ticks she's painstakingly perfected. It's impressive but doesn't leave anything for the audience to connect with, and that is the issue with the film as a whole. There's a lot going on, but not a lot you can use.
Robert's finest hour and a half was starring in Richard Ayoade's Submarine, a film which managed to deal with depression in a way that was comic but not demeaning. Mostly though cinema is cack-handed with mental illness, making it into a gimmick. Eternal Beauty doesn't shy away from showing that Jane can be hard work and aggravating to be around but it still makes her into a holy fool, with perceptions beyond that of dull normality. The crazy person who sees the real truth is an aggravating clichés, especially in this ostrich period of history where much of humanity is wired into its own interpretation of reality and rejecting dull normality.
Directed by Craig Roberts.
Starring Sally Hawkins, Alice Lowe, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Morfydd Clark and Penelope Wilton. In Cinemas. 94 mins.
There's a scene early on that may be a key to why Eternal Beauty is such an awkward, if well-intentioned, experience. Jane (Hawkins) who definitely is mentally ill, is asked by her sister (Piper) to show her how this manifests itself physically because she wants to fake being clinically depressed to be put on sick benefits. This turns out to be mostly leg vibrations. So you have Hawkins doing her pretend “real” jitters and Piper doing her pretend fake jitters and you look from one to the other, the pair of them sitting next to each other on a sofa juddering frantically, and think that sometimes acting is a really ghastly way of making a living.
Because writer/ director Roberts has chosen to show the world from inside Jane's head, his film is vague on most things. (Even a precise diagnosis for Jane’s' condition is kept until the last scene.) What seems clear is that a traumatic disappointment in her early twenties triggered her problems and that her family, particularly the mother (Wilton), have exacerbated it.
Such a viewpoint nullifies the idea of there being objective reality so a viewer never knows what is real and what is delusional. The film is a mix of social realism and moments of low key surrealism, like a Mike Leigh with the occasionally Danny Boyle flourish.
The advantage of this is that it gives the film-makers a marvellous get out clause. Often events or characters will appear in the film from out of nowhere without any explanation. You never know if that is deliberate or the result of trying to edit round something that wasn't working. Thewlis shows up as a love interest, does his turn and then exits the film, and you're left wondering what on earth was that all about?
The film has some striking moments and strong performances. Hawkins has a way of digging in so deep to a character that by the end she's clawed herself clear through to the other side and there is nothing left but all the little nuances and ticks she's painstakingly perfected. It's impressive but doesn't leave anything for the audience to connect with, and that is the issue with the film as a whole. There's a lot going on, but not a lot you can use.
Robert's finest hour and a half was starring in Richard Ayoade's Submarine, a film which managed to deal with depression in a way that was comic but not demeaning. Mostly though cinema is cack-handed with mental illness, making it into a gimmick. Eternal Beauty doesn't shy away from showing that Jane can be hard work and aggravating to be around but it still makes her into a holy fool, with perceptions beyond that of dull normality. The crazy person who sees the real truth is an aggravating clichés, especially in this ostrich period of history where much of humanity is wired into its own interpretation of reality and rejecting dull normality.
