Directed by Paul McGuigan
Written by Matt Greenhalgh
Based on Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool by Peter Turner
Music by J. Ralph
Cinematography Ula Pontikos
Edited by Nick Emerson
Rating: R (for language, some sexual content and brief nudity)
Runtime: 105 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Starring Annette Benning, Jamie Bell, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Walters, Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Graham, Frances Barber, Leanne Best
Cleverly bookended with title graphics blending film head leader at the beginning, and film foot leader at the end, this movie is about Gloria Graham’s rekindled romance with Peter Turner, her junior by almost 30 years, during the last two years (1979-1981) of her life, before she died, at the age of 57, from a cancerous abdominal tumor the size of a football. Who? The actress who won the 1952 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for just over nine minutes of screen time in The Bad and The Beautiful, preserved in 2002 by the Library of Congress for its cultural relevancy, and available for rent at Amazon Video, that’s who. Fortunately, if her name still doesn’t ring any bells, it doesn’t really matter, because the movie is less about her stardom than it is about the ephemerality of fame, the inevitability of death, and the absurdity and value of love.
Tackling such rich themes, it’s not a great film, but not a waste of time, either. Emotionally moving when it should be, respectful of Gloria Graham herself, with original scenes and photos, unphotoshopped with Annette Benning’s image, sprinkled throughout, the movie remembers an actress whom younger people never knew, and those old enough to remember have, most likely, long since forgotten.
Indulging in flashbacks to fill in the backstory, some awkward, some brilliant, the movie is least convincing in its hurried depiction of Peter’s conversion from mild infatuation to full blown love, but it doesn’t irreparably hurt the main story: the painful last years of a woman, in thrall to her past beauty, willfully blind to her own age and illness, and her last affair with the young man who loves her in spite of her shortcomings. All of the actors, in subtle and nuanced performances, bring this sad story of unlikely love, waning fame, and family struggles to life, and death, without the potential histrionics that might have ruined it.
To be sure, the movie is not without its faults: stereotypical lighting (bright yellow for the happy times, dusky orange for the sad times), too many confusing flashbacks without orienting time titles, a misguided use of obvious stage sets against rear screen projections, but it’s virtues, excellent acting, understated direction, and attention to period detail bring honesty and poignancy to the scenes that matter: the lovers’ confrontation with her mother (more Vanessa Redgrave, please!) and sister, the discord and sympathy in Peter’s family, and Gloria’s final few days and departure from Liverpool, on the day she died in New York.
Rating: Worth seeing.
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