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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie SocietyThe Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society   is a Netflix historical drama based on the 2008 historical best-selling novel of the same name by Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Set on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel, a year after the end of the Second World War, we see Julie Ashton (the talented Lily James –Lady Rose in “Downton Abbey”), a London author writing under a male pen name. She yearns for a writing project in her own voice.

Ashton gets a letter from Dawsey Adams, a Guernsey pig farmer, who has a used book with her name and address. Exchanging letters with residents on the island of Guernsey, which endured Nazi occupation, Ashton accepts an invitation to read to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a book club that was actually part of the underground resistance.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Intrigued by how much books mean to this isolated community, how reading kept everyone sane during the war, Ashton decides this book club and its history would be the perfect subject for a London Times article, the writing project of her dreams. But all is not as it seems. There is betrayal, a romance or two, and escape into the world of books for solace.

The original Guernsey novel is completely in a “letters” or epistolary format, mostly letters between Ashton and Adams, so the visual and sense of place is severely lacking. The film’s best moments, on the other hand, provide a keen sense of 1946 island life in a small British community. There is a sense of community after suffering a shared loss during the Nazi occupation.

The Guernsey book club is similar in feel and sense of identity and community as “Downton Abbey”. We see the bravery of the underground as they resisted the Nazis and yet we come to understand the price of war for all involved and the need for forgiveness.

A feel-good movie with three other “Downton Abbey” actors in key roles, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is entertaining, although not as engaging as the “Downton Abbey” PBS series.

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Mr. Mercedes — “Bates Motel” meets “Mr. Robot”

Mr. Mercedes television series

Mr. Mercedes,  an Audience (DirecTV) mystery-thriller original series, is based on the Stephen King trilogy “Mr. Mercedes”, “Finders Keepers” and “End of Watch”.  The macabre master again conjures alarming boundary-breaking drama, this time in economically depressed Bridgton, Ohio.

The opening scene is horrific: a Mercedes sedan mows down a crowd of job-seekers waiting late at night for the next morning’s job fair to open. A few of those waiting in line have babies. A massacre occurs, but the viewer does not know who the driver is or what motivates him or her.

Soon we meet Brady, the toxic male sociopath rivaling Norman Bates of “Bates Motel”, (played by an astonishing Harry Treadaway), pressured by a seething rage, the source of which is a seriously sick relationship with his mother. Brady is part Mr. Robot, dwelling in the basement, plotting cyber revenge on the world. And the main character and investigator who, for the second time, has to solve the crime is a disheveled drunk but nevertheless rather appealing Bill Hodges (Brendan Gleeson), who retired after unsuccessfully investigating the “Mercedes Massacre” years ago.  Mr. Mercedes mini-series

Slowly Brady boldly begins to reveal himself, through cyber messages to Hodges, promising another attack. For the retired detective, Brady provides the opportunity to redeem himself by proving once and for all that the Mercedes massacre can be solved. And as for Brady, he craves validation and recognition, wanting to assert his own dominance over others. The two–Brady and Hodges– play off each other’s unhealed wounds.

As the episodes in the first season progress, viewers learn just how obsessive both Hodges and Brady are. In the second season, now being broadcast (but not completed), we see Brady suffering locked-in syndrome,   a condition in which the mind is aware but cannot move or communicate verbally due to complete paralysis.  What is happening inside Brady’s mind? Will he maintain his sick mental state or morph into a new one?

Visceral and emotional turmoil seem to be sustained in season two, with science fiction strongly inserted as only Stephen King can.   I naturally wonder if Mr. Mercedes can maintain the horror and suspense. Highly recommend season one and will withhold my assessment of the current season until the finale!

 

Note: Only available as Audience streaming to DirecTV subscribers  at the time of this writing.

 

 

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“BlacKkKlansman”: Part of the American Fabric?

 

BlacKkKlansman movie

A  Spike Lee film about white supremacy, BlacKkKlansman is based on Ron Stallworth’s 2006 memoir, which eviscerates the hideous social structures of racism in the US.

In 1979 Stallworth (played by newcomer, John David Washington, son of Denzel Washington) becomes the first black detective in Colorado Springs’s police department. The police chief warns Stallworth:  “We’ve never had a black police officer. So you’ll be the Jackie Robinson of the Colorado Springs police department.”

Assigned to be an undercover cop at a black power student rally, Stallworth is to gather intelligence in what his boss implies may be a terrorist movement. Stokely Carmichael, Black Panther leader, will be giving a speech.

The rookie police officer is deeply affected as he watches young black college students take pride in what Carmichael is saying. He understands their rhetoric but his superiors are threatened by the Black Panther political movement. Stallworth suggests that the real terrorism stems from the KKK as well as perhaps the Black Panthers. Both are kindling for explosive violence.

With footage from the notorious 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation”,– a homage to the Ku Klux Klan,– we are pulled into a clandestine operation where Ron’s colleague, Flip Zimmerman (an endearing Adam Driver), goes undercover as the white version of Ron at KKK meetings. Scenes of Flip’s own victimization by Klansman for suspecting he is a Jew triggers the empathy he has for Stallworth’s experience.

John David Washington, Adam Driver

Toward the end of the movie, Spike Lee uses original footage of the horrific scenes of the Unite the Right rally and Heather Heyer’s death in Charlottesville, Virginia, to show that little has changed from the racism of the 70s. BlacKkKlansman’s  terrifying message is loud and clear: What you see is a story taking place in 1979, but this is not only a period piece about those days. That was then but also here now too. Little has changed.

BlacKkKlansman is both a conversation-starter and conversation stopper. It will leave you deeply moved!

 

Note: BlacKkKlansman opened in theaters on the anniversary weekend of Heather Heyer’s death.

 

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One Reply to ““BlacKkKlansman”: Part of the American Fabric?”

  1. The review provides a nice outline of a light movie..there was nothing in the movie that had me sitting on the edge of my seat or very thought provoking…however, I did leave the theater
    wondering that this was a very different Spike Lee…my memory of Mr. Lee’s movies is one of more Black vs White…in BK, Lee showcases how people came together to fight evil.

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The Devil’s Backbone–Peter Pan meets “The Shape of Water”

Devil's Backbone

The Devil’s Backbone (2001) (Spanish: El espinazo del diablo), directed and co-written by Guillermo del Toro, was independently produced by Pedro Almodóvar and foreshadows his Academy Award winning “The Shape of Water” (see my March 19, 2018 review).

Set in 1939 during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, we see in the opening scene an orphanage in the middle of a solitary dessert. A deactivated bomb is standing in the courtyard.

An unexpecting twelve- year-old, Carlos, is left by his guardian and almost immediately bullied by two other orphan boys. On a dare to sneak to the kitchen for water, Carlos hears a chilling whisper from an unknown ghost, Santi, appearing as a boy about the same age.

This is a mythic tale of love and revenge, greed, the loss of family, mixed with a potent dose of magical realism del Toro conveys in all of his films (including his masterpiece, “Pan’s Labyrinth”.) Carlos, who fearlessly wants to know the truth, and Santi, whose demise is shrouded in mystery, eventually make a pact. As the war begins closing in on the orphanage, violence and desperation erupt and Santi’s prediction comes true. The abandoned boys must band together if they hope to survive.

Dr. Caseres shows Carlos how the orphanage raises funds: by selling a spiced fluid preserved from deformed aborted or stillborn fetuses that “remedies” many ailments including impotence. The exposed fetuses in fluid are “the devil’s backbone”, an elixir with miraculous power. A visual metaphor illustrating how war entraps, just like insects in amber and fetuses in jars, The Devil’s Backbone exposes the horrors of war and fascism through the lens of fantasy.

This film, after a sagging middle with slow camera movements leading nowhere but to the orphanage basement, eventually evolves into an extraordinary dramatic narrative of tension and dread. It is a coming-of-age story combined with a tale of enormous deception resulting from misjudging human character.

Fantastic cinematography, –some sepia-toned scenes evoking the lighting of a Velasquez painting,– is well-worth viewing on its own merits. The opening underwater sequences will remind the viewer of del Toro’s later cinematic undertaking, “The Shape of Water”. The mark of del Toro is everywhere in evidence. Watching The Devil’s Backbone now within the context of having seen “The Shape of Water” allows a glimpse into the imagination of a very original filmmaker!

 

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“20 Feet From Stardom”–Stellar Performers

 

20 Feet from Stardom

In the wake of the passing of Aretha Franklin, Queen of Soul, 20 Feet from Stardom will resonate more than ever. The mainly female backup singers featured in 20 Feet From Stardom are all daughters of preachers, as was Aretha Franklin, who fine-tuned their extraordinary singing voices in the church choir while very, very young. Director Morgan Neville connects Gospel, Blues, and Soul to these roots of Rock and Roll.

You may not recognize the names or faces of Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Merry Clayton, but you will surely recognize their unforgettable voices. Love has been elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fischer still works as a backup singer, touring with Chris Botti, Sting and The Rolling Stones. However, the heart-stopping climax of the film belongs to Merry Clayton, as we are treated to her mind-blowing performance on the single “Gimme Shelter”. Hearing her raw voice blast out “Rape. Murder. It’s just a shot away” is gut-wrenching.

Twenty Feet from Stardom creates a visual and auditory record of these great soul singers and in the memory of Aretha Franklin, the time to watch this documentary is now. This film is groundbreaking, with the archival footage of performances we have heard but not witnessed. It is a joy to understand the sacrifices that creatives make for the love of their art, even if their dreams are not fulfilled. 20 Feet From Stardom is a documentary about a secret that needs to be told. And unfortunately,  the backup singer is rendered even less significant as music employs advanced recording and sound technology to emulate the gifted backup singer’s voice.

While we see personal frustration, regret, and betrayal we also witness a passion for music and a personal need to share their vocal gift with others. Most importantly perhaps, we understand the underappreciated gift their voices have brought to the music world.  Some of the stars truly recognize the valuable and indispensable contribution these backup singers gave to their success. Interviews with Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Lou Adler, Chris Botti, and Mick Jagger underscore the music-composing elements these virtuoso singers created . We also see Luther Vandross as a back-up singer to David Bowie and Sheryl Crow, who worked as Michael Jackson’s back-up/lead female. These are the examples of the back-ups who became well known later on. But 20 Feet from Stardom is focused upon those whose dreams did not come true.

My only criticism of 20 Feet from Stardom is structural. The first part of the film repeats the performances and sacrifices of the backup singer’s role. Each of the individual stories is very similar. So each singer’s personal story did not have to be told in such detail that it slows the film almost to a grinding halt.

But be patient. The poignant, fascinating sociological study of the cost of pursuing fame instead of excellence is eye-opening and well worth waiting for the personal reflection on the price of success. This would be a great evening’s watch along side Muscle Shoals —see my July 19, 2015 review  and Searching for Sugarman. Even the fictional Birdman ties into the main theme: neglecting the efforts of the team who supports and holds up the main attraction.

Note: Available to stream on Netflix.

 

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The Tunnel–Seasons 2 and 3

 

The Tunnel Seasons 2 and 3 continue the tension from the first season, with a British and French detective partnership (Karl Roebuck and Elise Wasserman respectively) again working to solve a heinous series of crimes. (See my August 7, 2016 review of season 1: “The Tunnel–Turf War or Building Bridges”.) Both season 2 and 3 seamlessly continue the tension, though by different writers and directors.

In Season 2 (“Sabotage”) the main plot is trying to figure out why a commercial airliner was hacked to override the autopilot, crashing in the ocean, killing everyone on board. The crash might be connected to other strange incidents including the abduction of the parents of a five-year-old girl while in the Chunnel.

The Tunnel Season 3

There are many plot twists  and subplots: connecting all the dots and understanding the motivation of each character, including the detective team. The narrative becomes quite convoluted. The sexual lives of Karl Roebuck (the excellent Stephen Dillane from “Game of Thrones) and Elise Wasserman (Fleur Delacour in “Harry Potter”) are revealed to be more complicated than in season 1. A sinister and mysterious mastermind, as well as a chemist who could rival the Nazi Mingele in his experiments, will keep the viewer on edge. No spoiler alerts here, but be prepared for nail-biting terror. Twisted ideologies, revenge, spies, terrorism, “marriage for sale”, sex trafficking, the vulnerability of love and loss, and the insidious nature of high-tech equipment in the hands of malevolent actors all make this second season of “The Tunnel” just as spellbinding as the previous season.

The Tunnel Season 3

Season 3 (“Vengeance”) stands on its own from the previous seasons with again, a new director and writer. In the anti-refugee hysteria of our times, we see the desperation of a mother looking for the  child she gave up decades ago during the war in Croatia.   An escalating refugee crisis and the exiled souls who experienced unspeakable tragedy seek relief from a society which mostly has turned its back.

Playing on the “Pied Piper” who purportedly promised a better life for the children who followed, we see the two intrepid investigators try to make sense of grisly sexualized murders, cyberstalking, a plague of rats echoing the Pied Piper,  and a macabre medieval enactment of murder. There is a subplot of a past cold case that still haunts Elise, also involving a child: missing children, children found, abandoned, troubled, and redeemed overlay the subplots and involve deceit, corruption, and trauma.

All of the disparate strands of this drama come to a tightly woven, shocking climax in the final episode ending this phenomenal three-season thriller. Few hints of what is to come in the finale prepare the viewer for the resolution, part satisfactory and part disconnected.

Highly recommended! And worthy of a repeat viewing, because the plots are so difficult to follow at times.

 

Note: Available on Amazon Prime (first two seasons) and Netflix (all three).

 

 

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One Reply to “The Tunnel–Seasons 2 and 3”

  1. As I said, in an earlier post. I am drawn to this series because of the actors and the writing, but the extreme violence and “grisly” murders, etc. have kept me at bay. You always write great reviews, Diana.

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Calibre–A Bullet Through the Heart


Calibre movie

This bloodpressure-raising thriller opens with two best buddies, Vaughn Carter (Jack Lowden) and Marcus Trenton (Martin McCann), deciding to go on a guys’ weekend hunting trip to a remote village in the Scottish Highlands. Nothing could prepare them…or us… for what happens. Calibre tests the friends’ relationship and their moral character as Vaughan has to deal with his future as a father (with his expectant wife almost due to deliver) and his drug-addled best friend Marcus.   In its best moments, Calibre is part “Deliverance” and part “Dogville”. It attacks your nerves, ratcheting up the tension and suspense.

The hunting trip is Marcus’s idea, a way to celebrate Vaughn’s “last few days of freedom” before fatherhood, but Marcus is also intent upon drinking, having sex with local women, and drugs. Vaughn, on the other hand, is inexperienced as a hunter and doesn’t join in Marcus’s rowdy night-time antics the night before they stalk deer. He does get hungover, however.

Calibre Netflix Original

The opening is a terrifying hook setting the stage for horror and violence the viewer knows is inevitable. The village locals, hopeless men sporting thick beards, thick accents, and even thicker sweaters, begrudgingly welcome the two buddies to their economically depressed town.

From there, Calibre becomes a study in guilt, fear, vengeance, and toxic masculinity. An increasingly hostile and suspicious community leader (Tony Curran) becomes the tribal judge for what comes next. Now, Vaughan and Marcus must scheme and plot at every turn, reassessing what their friendship and survival are suggesting.

The ending is twofold–one expected and one perhaps not so much,– making Calibre a white-knuckle, teeth-clenching film to watch.  Calibre touches on the “me-against-them” classic set-up but with a complex nuance in recognizing the problems of a village where their livelihood is now obsolete, development non-existent and the young are restless and desperate, holding on to their tribe for stability and belonging. This is not a straightforward “evil local-yokels menace innocent city slickers” story, even if Calibre plays at times with those stereotypes. All characters are flawed in this intricately complicated and menacing spellbinder!

Note: Available on Netflix streaming.

 

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“Three Identical Strangers”–Triplets and Eugenics

Three Identical Strangers

Three Identical Strangers raises difficult questions about how a 1950’s and 60’s psychological study was never made public, even to this day. Much of the data and conclusions remain unclear. In this study by respected psychologist Peter Neubauer,  unsuspecting subjects were parents and their adopted sons who were systematically studied and tested. The abuse of power, lasting two decades in the name of science, is the underlying theme of Three Identical Strangers.

Neubauer himself died in 2008 and bequeathed over sixty boxes of interviews, film footage and other raw data to Yale University with the proviso that it be sealed until 2066. His purported goal was to gather empirical data on children with the same genetic background in order to analyze parenting styles (“authoritarian” versus “permissive”) and address the issue of nature vs. nurture. Due to controversies over ethics and public opinion, Neubauer never published his research and the data remains sealed.

The film starts in 1980 when three teenage boys accidentally discover they are triplets. Although they were intentionally placed with families of different socioeconomic classes, in different parts of New York State, the three nevertheless become aware of each other.

The focus in Three Identical Strangers is on parenting rather than genetics. While the study was the only triplet study at that time, which followed siblings from infancy, many twin studies had been conducted in Nazi Germany as well as in the United States.  The Neubauer researchers carefully controlled the assignment of infants to parents, withheld information about their biological parentage, and didn’t disclose that the children being adopted were part of triplets or twins, or had other non-identical siblings. Instead, the adoption agency told the families that their children were being followed for a study about child development. At a time when the zeitgeist is to explore one’s chromosomes through services such as 23andMe or family ancestry through organizations like Ancestry.com, Three Identical Strangers taps into our curiosity about DNA versus environmental predispositions.

The film needed to reveal much more backstory about the relationship between the three sets of parents, and the adopted boys. This omission truly weakens Three Identical Strangers and leaves us wondering: What makes siblings differ radically, even if they share identical DNA?   We also wonder what the ethical and legal standards were at that time. An historical perspective on how psychological studies have changed in the past half-century, as well as the legal rights of subjects, would have rounded out the film. Does Yale have any duty to unseal the study? Should researchers review the findings and share them?  This is worthy of renting, but not leaving the house for the theater.

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2 Replies to ““Three Identical Strangers”–Triplets and Eugenics”

  1. Hey, I want to see this movie. Waiting for a friend who’s in Europe to return. We’ll go together. I know a bit about what happened. Ugh. What about ethics?.

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La Mante–The Praying Mantis

La Mante

This  must-see French suspense thriller focuses on   an imprisoned female serial killer, recruited to help solve a string of copycat murders, but only if her son, Damien, now a policeman, works with her on the case.  The mother is nicknamed “La Mante”,  the praying mantis.

First, it may be helpful to understand the biological nature of the praying mantis: the female camouflages herself and often ambushes the males and eats them live.

The levels of tension just increase from the beginning till the end as the viewer watches the stalking and the violent killing. All victims in La Mante are men.  Is the serial killer a woman?

Mom–Jeanne Deber (the beautiful Carole Bouquet)–is serving a life term without parole for the brutal murders of eight men. We do not know the motivation for her heinous killings. She has been serving a prison sentence for twenty-five years as La Mante opens, and we flash back to her abandonment of her young ten-year-old son as the police drag her her sobbing little boy away. The viewer will understand the motivation and unhealed wounds Jeanne suffered by the final episode’s thrilling climax.

Damien, now a senior investigator in Paris, is ordered to investigate a series of killings nicknamed the “Copycat Mantis”. He is deeply wounded by the purported death of his mother (whom, at first, he does not know was the notorious “Mantis”). Desperate to help catch the killer and prevent future murders, Damien reluctantly agrees to be involved in the police investigation at great cost to his personal life and his relationship with his young and incredibly understanding wife.

The twists and turns in each of its six episodes never fail to be compelling. With echoes of “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Hannibal” this dark and very bloody thriller never holds back with even the most gruesome shots of corpses. La Mante is certainly not for the weak of heart; if your stomach isn’t the strongest, I’d recommend passing – or watching the more bloody sequences with one hand over your eyes. The suspense and performances at their core, however, make La Mante well worth every hard-to-watch scene. The clever red herrings and false starts at identifying the copycat mantis are tightly woven into the subplot of the mother-son relationship and the son’s own misgivings about ever becoming a parent. Very dark, troublesome, and pathological areas of human relationships are explored–sometimes venomous, toxic and unforgivable.

La Mante is another success in French cinema–especially well-focused on the mother-son relationship, or the possible murder of a relationship from lying to those we leave behind.   As in real life, the criminal mind is traced back to events and backstory in childhood. La Mante is an astonishing opening of ruptured wounds traced back over a quarter of a century ago. Astonishing, provocative and gasp-worthy. Warning: not for all tastes!

 

Note: Available to stream on Netflix.

 

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4 Replies to “La Mante–The Praying Mantis”

  1. Sounds great, however, it may not be a pre-sleep thriller! Anne with an E has been my speed lately Thanjs, it really does sound very well acted!

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  3. I can tell from your review that I wouldn’t be interested. Too much gore. I don’t find that entertaining. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, though.

    Best!

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Babylon Berlin–The Fragility of Democracy

Babylon Berlin Netflix series

Adapted from the best-selling detective novels by the German author Volker Kutscher, the highly praised Babylon Berlin begins less than ten years after the Treaty of Versailles. Germany is in turmoil. (Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party would come to power in 1933.) Set in the golden ’20s (1926-1929), Berlin is not so golden for everyone. The Nazi takeover is still a couple of years in the future, but the general turmoil is already evident.

Babylon Berlin is part period drama, part police procedural, and part mystery thriller, but there is always an undercurrent of intense foreboding, drawing on our 100 percent hindsight of what’s to come. Hitler’s name is heard only once and Brown Shirts first appear in one of the last scenes. The era’s troubled Zeitgeist is well-known to viewers but not to the players in this underworld of politics.

Suffering from “shell shock” and addicted to morphine, police detective Gereon Roth (Volker Bruch), arrives in Berlin and connects with Lotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries), a police department typist, nightclub entertainer and part-time prostitute. She aspires to being the first female homicide detective, eager to escape the hardships of poverty and her brutal family life. Lotte manages to become a heroine despite the sexism and corruption of the police force.

Gereon and Lotte soon discover conspiracies and intrigue: hijacked freight trains, smuggled munitions, sex trafficking, police partnering with organized crime, Soviet collusion, Communist (Trotsky) revolutionaries, drug deals, and élite corporate magnates invested in maintaining their grip on the economy. Throughout, we see Berlin as a swamp of contrasts: elegant Berliners fill a debaucherous cabaret as rampant poverty persists in nearby neighborhoods; outright bigotry and violence occur daily and secretly; and ordinary Berliners cling either to a tenuous status quo or to dreams of revolution.

From economy to culture, everything is in the grip of radical change. Speculation and inflation are already tearing away at the foundations of the still young Weimar Republic. Growing poverty and unemployment stand in stark contrast to the excesses and indulgence of the city’s night life for the privileged and well-connected.

Weimar Democracy was under attack both from the Communist Left, as well as by traditional Conservatives, in a kind of unholy alliance. The Nazis did not just arise from nowhere. They were citizens who reacted to Germany’s economic conditions and wanted radical change. Both the government and the wealthy in Germany and Russia use this populism to serve their own dreams of domination.

 Politically and economically, the nation was struggling with the terms and reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles (1919) that ended World War I.  Punishing levels of inflation ensued.

The parallels with today are particularly disturbing. Could this backstory of what happened in Germany in the 1930s and the years immediately preceding the rise and stranglehold of Nazism foreshadow America today? And of course, we naturally speculate how easy it is for an anxious public to succumb to a demagogue.

Note:    This Netflix Original series is in German and subtitled.

 

 

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2 Replies to “Babylon Berlin–The Fragility of Democracy”

  2. Excellent review…You provided a viewers guide and great background information. I watched this series and thought it was very well done. You hit all the main themes. Hopefully, there will be a second season of the same quality. A must see.

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Marcella –Battling Inner Demons

 

Marcella series

Promoted as a Scandinavian noir detective series on the streets of Britain, Marcella is written and directed and produced by Swedish screenwriter Hans Rosenfeldt, creator of The Bridge. Two seasons on Netflix, Marcella  delves into the psychology of a deeply troubled London detective.

In Season One Marcella Backland (Anna Friel) investigates a cold case involving a serial killer who appears to have become active again. At the same time Marcella also has to deal with her disintegrating personal life, where her husband, Jason (Nicholas Pinnock), has made the decision to leave her and take their two children into his custody. In addition, her soon-to-be ex-husband is suspected of being involved with the murder of his former girlfriend, Grace. Due to traumatic blackouts Marcella cannot recall her own confrontation with Grace.

 In Season Two Marcella investigates a pedophile, who has victimized and murdered her young son’s best friend and other young boys and girls. The suspects include an arrogant millionaire, a 1970s rock star with dementia, and his talent agent. Her estranged feckless husband has become engaged to a nurse, putting their children in the middle of an ugly custody battle. Marcella’s blackouts continue, and she seeks counseling to help her remember –under hypnosis–what happens.

Both seasons of Marcella delve into the psychology of a deeply troubled and flawed character, whom some viewers will find difficult to empathize with. Tortured and battling her own demons while trying to solve some of the most gruesome crimes on the streets of London, Marcella is challenged by doubt and “impostor syndrome”, not believing in her own capabilities to discover the murderers.

In the final episode of Season Two we see Marcella end her denial, admit she is not well, and descend into an abyss. We are waiting to see how she claws her way out in the projected Season Three.

In 2017, Friel was awarded the International Emmy Award for Best Actress. The structure of the narratives in Marcella are so complex that a second viewing is recommended. Could the narratives have been clearer? Yes, but still not so convoluted as to pass on this one. Not as riveting as The Bridge in several of its versions, but nonetheless highly original and psychologically riveting.

 

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“Man in an Orange Shirt”–Thwarted Love

 

Man in an Orange Shirt

Man in an Orange Shirt, commissioned by BBC to celebrate the 50th anniversary of partial decriminalization of homosexuality in 1967, depicts with a modicum of success two love stories spanning seventy years. The first between two gay men hiding their passion and the second involving a duplicitous marriage of one-sided passion. Scripted by novelist Patrick Gale and partly autobiographical, Man in an Orange Shirt revisits prejudice and its impact on all.

Spanning three generations in one family, –from wartime Great Britain to the present day,– Man in an Orange Shirt uncovers secret love letters, a mysterious painting, and deep unfulfilled desires on the part of all characters.

The gently wrenching story of repressed love follows a secret romance between two World War Two soldiers Michael (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and Thomas (James McArdle), and the resulting, heartbreaking impact on Michael’s wife Flora (Joanna Vanderham of “Paradise”). Compounding the heartbreak is Vanessa Redgrave who plays the octogenarian Flora trying to reconcile with a gay grandson.

Flora is furious at her husband’s sexual betrayal, but also frightened for him since homosexuality is a criminal offense. She and Michael share a sibling-like affection for each other, even though Flora wants and expects more. All three–Flora, Michael, and Thomas–are casualties, trapped by fear of prison, fear of marital rejection and fear of being a social outcast. Abrupt truncation of the secretive lives of all three leave the viewer wondering how they muddled through the superficiality of their everyday existence.

Fast forward to present day, when homosexuality is no longer criminalized, but tragedy and hurt still arise. “Gay shame” resides in the breathing space between the beloved grandmother Flora (Redgrave) and her grandson Adam (Julien Morris). Decades removed from her younger self, Grandma Flora has spent the best part of her life pretending her marriage was solid.  In 2017 Adam admits he feels gay shame, even in the present climate of assumed equality and openness. Appearing to function in a gay world, Adam’s terror at intimacy and commitment is palpable, in spite of a seemingly privileged life with dating apps to staunch his boredom.

A Man in an Orange Shirt has some touching moments between Michael and Thomas, and particularly between Flora and Adam, but the pivotal conversation about Adam’s sexuality lacks emotional heft and authenticity. The scene should have resonated deeply for many who are close to their grandparents. Redgrave’s performance as a woman who never had her husband’s love turns too artificial and overwrought as she transforms into an understanding and accepting figure for Adam.

I was disappointed in this dual story of thwarted love. “Call Me By Your Name”, an Academy Award-nominated film for 2018, reflects rejecting love for the sake of social convention with more power, authenticity, and emotion.  In sharp contrast, A Man in an Orange Shirt, is inconsistent and therefore forgettable.

Note:  Available on PBS.com

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One Reply to ““Man in an Orange Shirt”–Thwarted Love”

  1. I see your point about the conversation between the older Flora and her grandson. Do you think her shift was due to learning to be more compassionate over the years? Her earlier scenes were full of anger and frustration.
    i understand why you think it’s artificial. I have to think about it more.
    Thanks.

    Reply