Mrs Lowry and Son. (PG)
Directed by Adrian Noble.
Starring Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Stephen Lord, David Schaal, Wendy Morgan and Michael Keogh. 91 mins.
The Mrs Lowry in question is the mother of L.S, him that painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cat and dogs. It's 1934, he was a devoted son to a bedridden, joyless, viciously snobbish mother who was constantly putting him and his art down, blaming his late father for having to move out of their middle-class home and live in a back-to-back two up two down in Salford with the proletariat. He's had to put up with this all his life; you only have to do 90 minutes.
Mrs Lowry should have put her son on the stage. Over 80% of it is set in her bedroom (it was originally a radio play) and on the boards, Redgrave and Spall would have had audiences lapping up this sub-Alan Bennett tripe. On the big screen these characters are too small, their emotional range too meagre. By the end, I had become vaguely contemptuous of Spall's wan smile of beaten-dog forbearance.
Directed by Adrian Noble.
Starring Vanessa Redgrave, Timothy Spall, Stephen Lord, David Schaal, Wendy Morgan and Michael Keogh. 91 mins.
The Mrs Lowry in question is the mother of L.S, him that painted matchstalk men and matchstalk cat and dogs. It's 1934, he was a devoted son to a bedridden, joyless, viciously snobbish mother who was constantly putting him and his art down, blaming his late father for having to move out of their middle-class home and live in a back-to-back two up two down in Salford with the proletariat. He's had to put up with this all his life; you only have to do 90 minutes.
Mrs Lowry should have put her son on the stage. Over 80% of it is set in her bedroom (it was originally a radio play) and on the boards, Redgrave and Spall would have had audiences lapping up this sub-Alan Bennett tripe. On the big screen these characters are too small, their emotional range too meagre. By the end, I had become vaguely contemptuous of Spall's wan smile of beaten-dog forbearance.
