Tag: Jessie Buckley

Wicked Little Letters

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★Wicked Little Letters

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Thea Sharrock

Written by: Jonny Sweet

Produced by: Graham Broadbent & Pete Czernin, Ed Sinclair, Jo Wallett

Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Joanna Scanlan, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Lolly Adefope with Eileen Atkins and Timothy Spall, Hugh Skinner, Paul Chahidi, Jason Watkins and Alisha Weir.

‘Congratulations on your tragedy.’

Based on a true story, Wicked Little Letters opens with the statement, ‘This story is more true than you’d think.’

The pious, God-travels-through-the-just, Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and do-I-look-like-the-anonymous-type-to-you?! Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), newly arrived in Littlehampton from Ireland, are neighbours.

It’s the 1920s and they share a bathtub and privy out the back.

Rose is ah, very natural, happy to swear, pass out on the toilet, and speak her mind.  She lives with her daughter Nancy (Alisha Weir) and partner Bill (Malachi Kirby) – her husband known to have died in the war.

Ms Swan watches her from the window and delights in Rose’s bold nature.  Edith decides to take Rose under her wing – to show the way to the light, of course.

But when child services are called to Rose’s door, she turns to the likely Ms Swan, thinking it must be the God-fearing neighbour, to which Ms Swann adamantly denies.

After the incident, the poison letters addressed to Edith begin.

The letters are vicious and filled with profanities that’s jarring in the quiet house of the Swans – ‘Foxy-assed rabbit-fucker,’ a favourite line.

‘It will be the death of me’ – exclaims Edith’s mother (Emma Jones).

Edward Swan, the stern, captain of the ship, father is outraged and demands the police become involved.

It’s the 19th letter.

The obvious suspect is of course, the riotous neighbour, Rose.

And without any evidence, Rose is taken into custody.

But Woman Constable Moss (Anjana Vasan) is not convinced.

Neither are Edith’s friends who gather every week for a game of Whist.

‘Congratulations on your tragedy,’ says Kate (Lolly Adefope).  She’s the proud mother of several parakeets that can be a handful.

It’s post-war England where the women who were left to work are now expected return into polite society as delicate flowers after driving tractors in the absence of their men at war.

The women have found their strength yet are forced into submission – ‘Let the man speak,’ Ms Swan’s father tells her. Only to interrupt the policeman to say, ‘Carry on.’

Whereas Rose grew up helping her grandfather burgle houses.

It’s a guilty by reputation scenario but expands as the film digs deeper into the characters, the drama shown in the nuanced changes in facial expression, Edith’s pious words overshadowed by the flash of delight in her eyes as she reads about herself in the newspaper.

This is a lighthearted viewing, much of the humour based on the times and language like, ‘butter-my-wig’ juxtaposed with the blunt Rose and of course the delightfully explicit poison letters, ‘Dear Edith, you foxy-ass old whore, you really are a tricksy fucker.’

Not the hilarious watch I thought it would be, but there’s a lot of heart here and an interesting character study of the hypocrisy of those who are forced to deny their true nature.

 

Women Talking

Star Rating: ★★★★

Rated: MWomen Talking

Directed by: Sarah Polley

Screenplay by: Sarah Polley

Based on the Book by: Miriam Toews

Starring: Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Frances McDormand, Ben Whishaw, Judith Ivey, Michelle Mcleod, Sheila McCarthy, Kate Hallett, Kira Gulolen, August Winter, Abigail Winter.

When is forgiveness giving permission?

Being tranquilised and raped and beaten and told it’s just a women’s wild imagination.  That it’s ghosts, that it’s Satan, that it’s…

Until they catch one.

One of the men from their village, who then tells of the others so they’re arrested.  But now, they are being freed and the women told to forgive and forget.

Leaving the women faced with a decision: Do nothing, stay and fight or leave.

Based on the book written by Miriam Toews, Women Talking is inspired by the story of the Manitoba Colony.  Miriam is quoted describing her book as an, ‘imagined response to real events.’

See article here: The shocking true story behind new film Women Talking (harpersbazaar.com)

But rather than focus on the abuse the women have suffered at the hands of the men they have spent their entire lives looking after, this is a film about the discussion surrounding their decision of what is the best way forward.

They’ve never been taught to read or write, they’ve never been allowed to think because they were brought up to believe no one cared about what they thought.

But they know what crimes have been committed against them.

Now, they must weigh-up the pros and cons of each path.

There are many bitter-sweet moments in this film, the patience of old mother Agata (Judith Ivey), the righteous anger of Salome (Claire Foy), the wanting what’s best from Greta (Sheila McCarthy), the tolerance of Ona (Rooney Mara), Mariche’s (Jessie Buckley) need to forgive because of fear.

I liked the balance, the analyses, the discussion.

They believe if they fight or leave, they won’t be forgiven by God.  If they leave, they leave their sons, their husbands.

It’s women talking, yes, but there’s the addition of August (Ben Whishaw) taking the minutes of the discussion.  He loves Ona.  His family was exiled.  He went to college.  He’s returned and now teaches the children.  His mother spoke against the power dynamic of the community.  He’s passive.  Like the women have been taught the goodness of being passive.

But what is the misuse of forgiveness?  When is forgiveness, permission?

This is a thoughtful film that wasn’t as expected, that wasn’t the traumatic film I thought I was walking into.  I related to the characters in this film.

It was refreshing to hear a woman explain if she was married she would no longer be the woman he wanted to marry.  She would be no longer be her.  And I liked the wilfulness of these trapped women, the sometimes off-kilter humour where some wonder why some cope and keep moving forward while others, don’t.

There are moments of beauty, with a soundtrack opening the door to insights shared, but what a strange soundtrack to finish such a poignant film.  Which highlighted the slightly off-tone at times, like the strangeness of the outsiders driving with music blasting through the community in an attempt to take the census of the population.

How strange to hide.  To not want to be counted.

A thoughtful and bittersweet film that I hope will lead to a wider discussion.  To lead to a better understanding of the soul searching required to take oneself out of an abusive situation caused by those who are supposed to care and love.  To decide to continue being trapped by a society that has led to abuse.  Or risk being unforgiven.  And what it means, to forgive.

 

Judy

Rated: MJudy

Directed by: Rupert Goold

Written by: Tom Edge

Produced by: David Livingstone

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Finn Wittrock, Jessie Buckley, Rufus Sewell.

I’ve often wondered how those lucky souls who have an inborn gift, the ones who are so effortlessly feted and adored, so often come undone. So badly.

For Judy Garland (Renée Zellweger) there was a price for ‘earning a million dollars before you’re twenty one’, and the dark side of her gift slowly becomes apparent as she vainly searches for a way to leave London and return home to her children.

Shown in a combination of flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie alternates between a fifteen-year-old Garland filming, The Wizard of Oz and the final months of her life spent performing in London at the height of the swinging 60s, with surprisingly close parallels between the two very distant eras of her life and her role in the famous film.

When the Judy opens, Garland is strolling through the set of ‘the yellow brick road’ with a faceless studio executive. She’s not sure that she is ready to take on the role of Dorothy Gale and the man in the grey suit, while appearing to have her best interests at heart, is slyly grooming her, as he both soothes and at the same time subtly threatens: ‘Judy, you give those people dreams . . . ‘The rest of America is waiting to swallow you up’.

Winning the role away from Shirley Temple, Garland finds that her contract has reduced her to nothing more than studio property, at times working up to eighteen hours a day and watched over by a pair of the studio’s henchwomen. Beneath the pair’s unforgiving gaze, even sneaking a single fried onion ring, or maybe two, as she sits in a café attempting to flirt with Mickey Rooney is taken as a serious breach of the rules. Lonely, sleep deprived and starving, the price of Garland’s success is to wage a war on her body that denies the most basic of human needs. And to ensure that her needs stay denied, the Wicked Witch of the West and her eagle-eyed sister are prepared to do whatever it takes: whisking away hunger with amphetamines and granting sleep with barbiturates.

In any contest, the man in the grey suit was always going to win.

Flash forward thirty years and Garland is alone in the bathroom of her hotel suite, unable to finish dressing and barely able to raise a croak from her damaged vocal chords. She is a broken woman. It takes a fairly brutal shove from her production assistant Rosalyn Wylder (Jessie Buckley) to get her onto the stage. But when the lights come up and the beat counts in, Judy sings. And the audience is entranced. Until the lights are dimmed, when once again she is a broken woman surviving on pills and unable to sleep.

While Garland might have been one of the first to succumb to America’s amphetamine epidemic, that’s not the focus of this drama.

Woven through the story of Garland’s titanic struggle with her gift is a very personal search to find love and her pursuit of it eventually does bring a sense of what love is for her. In the title role, Renée Zellweger is unflinching and her portrayal of Judy Garland deeply affecting, while Finn Wittrock is irresistible as Garland’s dashing lover and husband number five.

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