Wetherby (B+ or 3/4 stars)
'Wetherby' (written & directed by playwright David Hare) stars Vanessa Redgrave as Jean Travers, a single, stuck-in-life, middle-aged school teacher who lives on the edge of a small English village. One night, Jean hosts a dinner party at her quaint cottage in the titular town. Those attending include her friends, the Pilboroughs (Ian Holm, Judi Dench), the Brathwaites (Tom Wilkinson, Marjorie Yates), & an enigmatic grad student named John Morgan (Tim McInnerny). Jean assumes that John is an acquaintance of one of the other guests. However, the next a.m., he swings by the cottage & admits that he had crashed her party. As Jean is fixing them tea, much to her horror, he shoots himself with a gun at her kitchen table for no apparent reason.
Who was John Morgan, why did he choose to kill himself in front of Jean, and has he inadvertently awoken long-repressed passions of some of Wetherby's residents? An inspector (Stuart Wilson) investigating the case shares with Jean a description of John given by those who knew him: he had a 'central disfiguring blankness'; um, creepy. Then Karen (Suzanna Hamilton), another student, shows up at Jeans' cottage with some further info about John. As time goes on, much more is revealed about the troubled man and, through flashbacks of Jean's own tragic past (Redgrave's daughter, Joely Richardson, plays her younger self), we learn if her past provides a link to her mysterious guest's identity & his dramatic actions at her kitchen table. Revelations ensue.
Well, this movie sure is a downer. A downer: with a dose of hope at the very end ... sort of. Having said that, I tend to luxuriate in quiet, sober downers such as this one. I imagine what it must be like to be these characters; with those inner demons; in that setting, etc. I just think that sad dramas give us more to chew on as a viewer; at least, they work that way for me. At its core, 'Wetherby' is a psychodrama about the dynamics of loneliness. Jean has suffered loss, middle-aged blues, & the carnal repressions that have left her in a somewhat 'dead' existence. Sure, she has a lovely home, a good job & a myriad of friends. But no one knows the darkness that dwells deep in the soul when one goes to sleep at night.
Vanessa Redgrave is superb as Jean, that everyday woman who 'seems' fine, but struggles mightily with inner demons. There is a tenderness & innocence to young Jean {in all the flashback sequences to the 1950s}. She loved her man & had great hopes for the future. But after he tragically died, she gave up that passion. And with the sudden death of this stranger in her own home, it forces Jean to confront the issues that she has grappled with forever so long; like depressingly accepting her passion-less life. Her body language, the dead look in her eye, the longing in her half-smiles ... Redgrave nails the character. Also impressive is Tim McInnerny, who eerily haunts the proceedings throughout. And Judi Dench never disappoints.
You know, it's difficult to know exactly where the plot will go from scene to scene in this film because it contains a timeline that hop-scotches around times {1950s, 1980s} to unveil how various characters come to be how they are. It's an interesting method that is employed to show character motivation, but I think it works. David Hare wrote this original work, and this same year - 1985 - he wrote Plenty, another dreary {yay!} drama about women who were never able to fulfill their lives due to wartime traumas from yesteryear. I admired aspects of Plenty, but think that 'Wetherby' is the slightly more affecting work. 'Wetherby' suggests that someone's death can force us to confront/decide how alive we really are moving forward.
Who was John Morgan, why did he choose to kill himself in front of Jean, and has he inadvertently awoken long-repressed passions of some of Wetherby's residents? An inspector (Stuart Wilson) investigating the case shares with Jean a description of John given by those who knew him: he had a 'central disfiguring blankness'; um, creepy. Then Karen (Suzanna Hamilton), another student, shows up at Jeans' cottage with some further info about John. As time goes on, much more is revealed about the troubled man and, through flashbacks of Jean's own tragic past (Redgrave's daughter, Joely Richardson, plays her younger self), we learn if her past provides a link to her mysterious guest's identity & his dramatic actions at her kitchen table. Revelations ensue.
Well, this movie sure is a downer. A downer: with a dose of hope at the very end ... sort of. Having said that, I tend to luxuriate in quiet, sober downers such as this one. I imagine what it must be like to be these characters; with those inner demons; in that setting, etc. I just think that sad dramas give us more to chew on as a viewer; at least, they work that way for me. At its core, 'Wetherby' is a psychodrama about the dynamics of loneliness. Jean has suffered loss, middle-aged blues, & the carnal repressions that have left her in a somewhat 'dead' existence. Sure, she has a lovely home, a good job & a myriad of friends. But no one knows the darkness that dwells deep in the soul when one goes to sleep at night.
Vanessa Redgrave is superb as Jean, that everyday woman who 'seems' fine, but struggles mightily with inner demons. There is a tenderness & innocence to young Jean {in all the flashback sequences to the 1950s}. She loved her man & had great hopes for the future. But after he tragically died, she gave up that passion. And with the sudden death of this stranger in her own home, it forces Jean to confront the issues that she has grappled with forever so long; like depressingly accepting her passion-less life. Her body language, the dead look in her eye, the longing in her half-smiles ... Redgrave nails the character. Also impressive is Tim McInnerny, who eerily haunts the proceedings throughout. And Judi Dench never disappoints.
You know, it's difficult to know exactly where the plot will go from scene to scene in this film because it contains a timeline that hop-scotches around times {1950s, 1980s} to unveil how various characters come to be how they are. It's an interesting method that is employed to show character motivation, but I think it works. David Hare wrote this original work, and this same year - 1985 - he wrote Plenty, another dreary {yay!} drama about women who were never able to fulfill their lives due to wartime traumas from yesteryear. I admired aspects of Plenty, but think that 'Wetherby' is the slightly more affecting work. 'Wetherby' suggests that someone's death can force us to confront/decide how alive we really are moving forward.