The Ace Black Movie Blog

Showing posts with label Lindsay Duncan. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 December 2023

Movie Review: Made In Italy (2020)

Genre: Father-Son Drama Comedy

Director: James D'Arcy

Starring: Liam Neeson, Lindsay Duncan, Micheál Richardson, Valeria Bilello

Running Time: 93 minutes

Synopsis: In London, Jack (Micheál Richardson) is going through a divorce and needs to raise funds for an art gallery purchase. He convinces his reclusive and formerly famous artist father Robert Foster (Liam Neeson, Micheál's real-life dad) to sell the Tuscany villa they co-own. In Italy, real estate agent Kate (Lindsay Duncan) advises Jack and Robert that they need to repair the derelict property before it can sell. As the work proceeds, Jack meets local divorced restaurateur Natalia (Valeria Bilello), while father and son start to confront the many unspoken issues between them.

What Works Well: The familiar male inability to properly communicate and express emotions anchors the drama, while most of the moments of humour, many revolving around an angry wall-sized painting at the villa, find their target. The Tuscany locations are idyllic, Liam Neeson carries the tortured artist load with suitable annoyance, and the running time is short and sweet.

What Does Not Work As Well: Almost all the underlying issues - divorce, death, guilt, disappointment - are familiar in the extreme, and layered onto a traditional father-son relationship defined by self-applied inadequacy, emotional abandonment, and mistrust. The only surprise is the almost complete absence of originality. Some of the climactic moments are theatrically cringey.

Conclusion: Made with conviction but lacking inventiveness.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Thursday, 13 July 2023

Movie Review: Blackbird (2019)

Genre: Dramedy

Director: Roger Michell

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, Mia Wasikowska, Sam Neill, Lindsay Duncan

Running Time: 98 minutes

Synopsis: Suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease), Lily (Susan Sarandon) has decided to end her life. She invites her family over for a final weekend reunion. Joining Lily and her supportive husband Paul (Sam Neill) are their grown daughters Jennifer (Kate Winslet) and Anna (Mia Wasikowska), Lily's life-long best friend Liz (Lindsay Duncan), plus Jennifer's husband and son, and Anna's girlfriend. The weekend features a mix of sadness, celebration, humour, and no shortage of flashpoints.

What Works Well: This remake of a 2014 Danish movie enjoys a stellar cast in top form, with Susan Sarandon, Kate Winslet, and Mia Wasikowska shining brightest. Director Roger Michell embraces the theatrical setting (most of the scenes take place at Lily and Paul's home), but the performances remain organic and subdued, capturing the awkwardness familiar from most family gatherings. Lily's life-ending decision casts the most obvious thematic shadow, but other issues are also explored, including a dysfunctional sibling relationship, murmurs of resentment between daughters and their mother, and a life-long friendship with a twist. Dashes of humour, brisk pacing, and idyllic cinematography add a quiet sense of quality.

What Does Not Work As Well: The sorrowful melodrama knob is steadily turned up in the final act, overwhelming more subtle family dynamics.

Conclusion: A reunion weekend enriched by the complexities of life - and death.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Wednesday, 20 January 2021

Movie Review: Le Week-End (2013)

A drama about the twilight of marriage, Le Week-End is limited in scope and unsettled in tone.

Birmingham-based couple Meg and Nick (Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent) arrive in Paris for a weekend trip to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary. He is a college professor of philosophy and she is a teacher, both are approaching retirement and money is tight. The tension between them is significant, and Meg is infuriated by the cheap room Nick booked. She instead decides to splurge and checks them into a suite at an expensive hotel.

The passion has seeped out of the marriage, Meg and Nick no longer have sex, and she does not even want him touching her. They bicker and fight but also have some fun as they enjoy the sights and restaurants, sometimes skipping out on paying the check. With Meg's resentment rising, the dynamics of the weekend are altered by a chance meeting with Morgan (Jeff Goldblum), Nick's friend from their Cambridge days and now a celebrated author.

Featuring a tortured central relationship oscillating between cold and frigid with an abundance of awkwardness and just occasional hints of playfulness, Le Week-End offers little to attract. Director Roger Michell and writer Hanif Kureishi lean heavily on the performances of Lindsay Duncan and Jim Broadbent, but forget to create characters worth caring about. Meg displays a particularly acidic brand of meanness, still embracing her rage from a 15-year-old straying incident. Instead of emerging as a couple worth rooting for, this bickering pair is best served by having their gasping union shot behind the shed.

The introduction of Morgan is late in coming, and intended as a dual jolt: one class behind Nick at Cambridge, Morgan is now a successful author surrounded by beautiful people in a fancy Parisian apartment, while Nick is fading into a tainted retirement in Birmingham. And maybe to make matters worse, Morgan treats Nick as his inspiration, which reinforces Nick's insecurities and supports Meg's contention that Nick never fulfilled his potential.

The misery ends with a couple of speeches about failure and love, neither very convincing and both filed under too little and too late. Le Week-End was intended to celebrate an anniversary, but should instead denote the necessary demise of a tiresome marriage.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.