TO OLIVIA PG
OUT 19 FEB CINEMAS, SKY CINEMA/NOW TV
To really earn its telling, a story doesn’t need to be true, just truthful. When it comes to true stories, however, the fact that something happened isn’t enough; it still needs to be told convincingly and – pretty please – compellingly. Falling flat in this and other areas, John Hay’s undoubtedly sincere drama feels like a Sunday-night TV special that’s lost its way. The casting of Hugh Bonneville and Keeley Hawes – both best known for their small-screen work – doesn’t help, either.
In the ’60s, children’s writer Roald Dahl (Bonneville) and his wife, American actor Patricia Neal (Hawes), are bringing up their three kids in the English countryside. When their eldest, Olivia (Darcey Ewart), dies of encephalitis, their marriage is sent into a tailspin.
Although based on the book Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life by Stephen Michael Shearer, the real draw is the chance to step inside Dahl’s famous writing hut, and gain some insight into his cockeyed talent. Instead we get distracting facial prosthetics, Brits playing Americans, and the kind of dialogue (“Come back to us, Roald!”) that makes it difficult to invest in the couple’s grief, no matter that it’s real.
If the domestic scenes are awkward, the ones where Neal jets off to Hollywood to audition for Hud with Paul Newman (Sam Heughan) are embarrassing – all CG backdrops and shaky accents. It may be well intended, but ultimately, you’re left wondering who To Olivia is for. Matt Glasby