Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
FRAIL DIVA DEFIES HOLLYWOOD GLITZ
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool is based on a book of the same name, a memoir by Peter Turner about his love affair with the actress Gloria Grahame when he was an aspiring actor in his 20s and she was in her mid-50s.
But as the title suggests, Turner’s recollections aren’t about his unlikely but utterly affecting May-December romance; rather, he recounts how, at the end of her life, Grahame sought to reconnect with her then ex-lover, seeking refuge in his working-class home in Liverpool to be tended by his loving, unruly, often tartly amusing family.
As the movie version of Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool opens, we see the middle-aged Gloria, portrayed in a virtuosic performance by Annette Bening, in front of a dressing room mirror, putting on her face.
From these first few moments, it’s clear that Matt Greenhalgh’s script won’t traffic in the artifice of Hollywood glamour, but rather the vulnerabilities at its tender,
Eva Mendes, 44, lets her kids wear what they want. The Ghost Rider star – who has Esmeralda, 3, and Amada, 22 months, with Ryan Gosling – says they “have the right”. “If they want to wear jammies all day or if they want to go in a costume , I let them… I’m trying to get them to eat broccoli.” less photogenic core.
Soon, Gloria is fetching up at Peter’s house, where he is trying to convince his parents to visit one of his siblings in the Philippines. Rather than welcome the frail diva with abashed deference, the Turners take her in as they would any stray friend or relative – with a soft bed, hot tea and no intrusive questions.
Soon, Peter – played in a sensitive, appealing turn by
Jamie Bell – is revisiting how he and Gloria met, and it’s in these transitions that director Paul McGuigan shines, shifting time frames with graceful ingenuity of then-vs-now.
Rather than a pathetic attempt at reclaiming her youth on the Margot Robbie is still wearing braces because she is “paranoid” something will go wrong with her teeth.
The 27-year-old ‘Peter Rabbit’ actress confessed: “The orthodontist, when I got my braces off aged 14, said, ‘You’ll need to wear it for two years, but 10 years later, I’m still wearing them.’” part of Gloria or star-struck ambition on the part of Peter, their relationship is clearly revealed as a meeting of the minds, whether they’re dancing to pop songs or rehearsing lines from the play she’s doing on the outskirts of London.
The simple pleasures of
Film SCOTT Eastwood, 31, doesn’t know what to make of his heart-throb status.
The star finds it bizarre that he is considered to be good looking. He said: “There are a ton of better-looking people than me. It was never about being that. I’m a normal guy. I try to work hard.”