Directed by Paul McGuigan
2017 Biographical Romance Drama
1 hour 45 minutes
From Sony Pictures Classics
Starring
Annette Bening
Jamie Bell
Julie Walters
Stephen Graham
Kenneth Cranham
Frances Barber
Vanessa Redgrave
This oddly-titled film was also the name of the book which I once found so fascinating that I read it in an afternoon. Fascinating is clearly the word I have long used for the subject of the piece... sultry, 50's noir actress, Gloria Grahame. I was absolutely nuts about her which is why she was one of the first actresses I wrote about when I began this blog. Writing about her was like spending more time with her and so was seeing this film. I have been chomping at the bit awaiting its arrival in these parts and my patience has been sorely tested. Alas, it was worth the wait.
Let's be fair. It would be impossible for me to not like a movie about Hollywood but one about a great favorite... hello? That doesn't mean you'll feel the same. The story is basically a downer and that's a turnoff for many. But if one likes films about the Hollywood scene, bios, Grahame or the star here, Annette Bening, this one's for you.
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| Bening and Bell |
The story takes place only during the last three years of Grahame's life. It's about a faded star trying to keep her foot in the door while suffering from a cancer that's going to kill her. In 1978 in London she meets Peter Turner, nearly 30 years her junior, an actor just starting his career. They begin a romantic relationship that takes them to California for an extended visit and then to Manhattan where they lived together for a while. Then Turner finds work back in England and returns to Liverpool to live with his working-class family. As Grahame's medical condition becomes more obvious, she returns there as well, to be cared for by his family.
It's fine to involve his family in her life but none of hers (she had four children, one from each of her four marriages). The film, the book and apparently real life was about the decency of the Turner family. Their warmth and generosity is certainly a lovely antidote to these troubling times.
I found the casting and the acting to be perfect. Bening looks and acts like Grahame in the film's earliest scenes. She captures the actress' always-present sexuality, her poutiness and her obsession with her looks. When I first heard Bening would play Grahame, I admit I thought no, no, no. But great actress that she is, Bening completely won me over. Frankly, I don't get why she wasn't among the list of Oscar's best actress nominees.
Jamie Bell, whose career I've seriously followed since Billy Elliott, wasn't even alive when Grahame died. He must have hit the internet and caught some of her films. He plays Turner a little more seriously than I remember him being in the book, but it's a lovely performance nonetheless.
He and Bening had a fun scene when he is shown admiring her. You remind me of Lauren Bacall when you smoke like that, he says. Did anyone ever tell you that? She snarls Humphrey Bogart (her nextdoor neighbor for a few years and her costar in arguably her best film, In a Lonely Place), and I didn't like it then.
Julie Walters, also in Billy Elliott as his ballet instructor, is properly matronly and kind as Peter's mother. Vanessa Redgrave and Frances Barber have a single, effective scene as Grahame's mother and bitter sister.
I can't say as I am aware of director McGuigan's prior work but I thought he kept things moving along at a good pace here. I expect that he could be criticized for what he did not include in the film but that's usually always the case from book to movie. The film omits a couple of fun things that were in the book... Grahame's political slant on life (she was a flaming liberal) and some snarky comments about Hollywood types she knew. Inclusion of these things and perhaps more might have allowed an audience to understand more about the actress. But it also elaborates briefly on something that was barely touched on in the book... her infamous marital-sex scandals of the fifties. However, viewers who are unaware of it may miss it altogether in the film.
As it turns out, Grahame didn't die in Liverpool. Her eldest son, Tim, was finally alerted and made the trip to London, collected her and flew her to New York. She went directly to the hospital and died later that same day. She was 57. I noticed Tim (Ray) was thanked in the credits. I'll presume that means he gave the project his blessing.
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| The real Gloria toward the end |
I also found one thing very different here. When there are clips from Grahame's films or photos of her from the good old days, it really is Grahame rather than Bening.
As movie star bios go, this is certainly not run-of-the-mill. Concerning an actress at her life's end and living in a most un-movie star world is unusual... and I liked it.
If you missed my earlier posting on Grahame, click here.
Next posting:
a good 80's movie
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