Celluloid hero
STEVEN Spielberg’s autobiographical drama has bagged seven Oscar nominations, including the director’s first for his screenwriting. And while the film isn’t as hard hitting as his previous big winners (Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan), this quietly poignant film still packs a punch.
It begins (where else?) at the movies. It’s 1952 and pianist Mitzi (Michelle Williams) and computer engineer Burt (Paul Dano) are taking their nervous son Sammy (Mateo Zoryan Francis-deford and, later, Gabriel Labelle) to the cinema.
Spielberg’s alter ego is traumatised by the climactic train wreck in The Greatest Show on Earth. After repeated nightmares, he obsessively recreates it over and over again with his train set.
So the imaginative Mitzi hits on a way to save expensive trips to buy replacement engines. Handing over his father’s 8mm cine-camera, she tells him to film the crash so he can watch it repeatedly on screen.
Over the next two-and-a-half hours, Sammy will use his camera to channel his fears, woo girls, tame bullies and ultimately step out of his successful father’s shadow.
The classy 76-year-old (unlike a certain best-selling royal) waited until his parents had died before turning to autobiography.
While they might have been embarrassed to see their marital woes dramatised on the big screen, there’s a huge amount of affection in this deeply empathetic drama.
The film doesn’t show Sammy as a victim of a troubled marriage but as the happy product of two very different people – a practical father and a recklessly romantic mother. While Williams plays Mitzi with a theatricality some may find jarring, Dano uses a sad smile to devastating effect as the wounded Burt.
They are well-meaning but complicated human beings living convincingly messy lives. It’s a touching, wise and very heartfelt tribute.
‘‘ Sammy uses his camera to channel his fears and step out of his dad’s shadow