Age just a number in true romance
PLEASE tell me that you remember Gloria Grahame. She won an Oscar for The Bad And The Beautiful. She was the sultry siren of film noir thrillers such as The Big Heat and she played flirty Violet in the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life.
When her Hollywood stardom faded, Grahame could be found treading the boards in Britain and that is where she met a man who became the last great love of her life.
Their story is told in Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool, a tender, touching romance built around fantastic, award-worthy performances from Annette Bening and Jamie Bell.
On the surface, Bening doesn’t look much like Gloria Grahame. She doesn’t have the pout, the smouldering eyes or the smoky drawl. What she does bring to the part is a sense of vulnerability and a complete lack of vanity. She does nothing to disguise the fact that Gloria was a woman in her mid-50s when she met sexy 27-year-old Liverpudlian actor Peter Turner (Bell) in 1979. The age difference was clearly a worry for Gloria who hated the notion of being thought of as an old lady but the film makes us fully understand both sides of the attraction.
An imperious Gloria exudes Hollywood glamour but she is not stuck in the past. She is curious, vivacious, eager for fresh adventures and game for anything. When the couple visit the cinema to see Alien, Peter cowers in his seat while Gloria delights in every stomach-churning moment. She is young in spirit, drawn to a man who has the energy to keep up with her.
Gloria and Peter’s romance lasts for a couple of intense years then Gloria ends the relationship. But when she falls desperately ill, she contacts Peter again to ask if she can stay with his family in Liverpool. “I could get better there,” she pleads. She takes up residence in a household presided over by Peter’s formidable mother Bella (Julie Walters) and father Joe (Kenneth Cranham).
Gliding elegantly between past and present, the film charts the course of a romance that began when the couple met in a Primrose Hill boarding house, then ebbs and flows through their times together in New York, California and Liverpool.
Peter is infatuated with Gloria and only occasionally reminded of her fame. When he asks if anyone has ever told her that she looks like Lauren Bacall, she replies: “Yes. Humphrey Bogart.”
Jamie Bell has not always found the roles he deserves in recent years but here he reminds us just what a fine actor he can be. This is his best performance since Billy Elliot. He is totally convincing as a man both devoted to Gloria and sometimes exasperated by her. He even dusts off his old dancing skills with a Saturday Night Fever-inspired seduction scene in the boarding house that signals the start of their fine romance.
Directed with imagination and sensitivity by Paul McGuigan, Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool is a real heartbreaker filled with laughter, tears and all the authentic rollercoaster emotions of a great and tragic love story. MUDBOUND might have been written by John Steinbeck. Set amid the misery and hardship of life in 1940s Mississippi, it follows the intertwined fates of two families working the same stretch of land.
White man Henry McAllan (Jason Clarke) has set his sights on running a cotton farm and drags his wife Laura (Carey Mulligan) and their two children to live in muddy fields in the middle of nowhere.
Black man Hap Jackson (Rob Morgan), his wife Florence (Mary J Blige) and their five children are a family of sharecroppers all too aware of their lowly status in a deeply unjust world.
An ensemble drama in which multiple voices create the voice-over narration, Mudbound finds its focus in the unexpected friendship between Henry’s brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund) and Hap’s son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell). Both men are war veterans and keenly aware that any public sign of their mutual respect could get them both killed.
Initially slow-moving and measured, Mudbound builds
into a powerful drama in which everyone is at the mercy of a deep-rooted racism.
JuSTIcE LEAGuE HHH (Cert 12A; 120mins)
MANY comic book fans were underwhelmed by the long and ponderous Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. They might prefer Justice League, a less pretentious tale that boils the superhero genre down to its essentials of a dastardly baddie intent on galactic domination and a rum bunch of good folk trying to stop him.
The death of Superman has opened the floodgates to crime. The greatest threat comes from ancient warrior Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his minions the Parademons. So Ben Affleck’s glum Batman and Gal Gadot’s charismatic Wonder Woman form a league of heroes to fight alongside Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash, played by a scene-stealing Ezra Miller.
This efficient blockbuster dutifully serves up frenetic action-packed mayhem with a smattering of wisecracking irreverence but it feels awfully familiar and lacks the goofy fun of the recent Thor: Ragnarok.
HEARTSTONE HHHH (Cert; 129mins)
IN a remote, close-knit Icelandic fishing village, to stand out is to offer yourself as a target. Thor (Baldur Einarsson) is a typical teenager who cannot wait to grow up. He scrutinises his armpits in search of hairs and scans his reflection for any sign of a maturing body.
Teased by his older sisters and often at odds with his mother, Thor has a best friend in Kristjan (Blaer Hinriksson). The boys have a bond that sustains them against bullies, the mysteries of the opposite sex and whatever life throws in their path. Then Kristjan begins to wonder whether his feelings for Thor run deeper than friendship. Heartstone may be overlong but it is a sensitive drama that captures the agonies and uncertainties of adolescence.
INGRId GOES WEST HHHH (Cert 15; 98mins)
SOCIAL media offers fertile ground for an unhealthy obsession in Ingrid Goes West, an appealing mixture of black-hearted comedy and plaintive social satire.
Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) is barely coping with her mother’s death and she is in need of a good friend when she arrives in Los Angeles. Her sights are set on Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), a young woman with a lifestyle that is the envy of her many Instagram followers. Ingrid insinuates herself into Taylor’s world in a cautionary tale that speaks volumes about the false faces and lonely lives concealed beneath our attachment to electronic devices.
KENNy HHH (Cert 12A; 86mins)
DOCUMENTARY Kenny pays fond tribute to ex-footballer Kenny Dalglish, focusing on his long association with Liverpool. Professionally, Dalglish always seemed a dour individual, content to let his footballing skills do all the talking.
The film shows a more relaxed figure, clearly adored by fellow players like John Barnes and Alan Hansen and very much a family man. Football fans will love the footage of his fleet-footed play and there is a deep poignancy in his memories of the Hillsborough tragedy.