WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One of my New Years' resolutions absolutely needs to be to observe holidays both online and off... I didn't mean to forget to wish you a Merry Christmas. Or a happy New Year. I hope you had and have both. It's just that with me and films, it's pretty much business as usual. I am not into films that are especially seasonal. One effect it does have on me though is that I have a bit of a check back on the year and try and catch up with any of the big ones I failed to see this far.

Hence my review of Mr. Holmes. I started watching this thinking it would be something nice and easy to watch one evening. And while it was definitely nice, easy to watch is not exactly how I would describe it. Well, with a legend like McKellan portraying a legend like Holmes, I should have known better...

I better get onto the show. Scroll down folks, and I hope you enjoy!
Essie

A LEGEND LOOKING BACK ON A LEGEND, AS PORTAYED BY A LEGEND... "MR HOLMES"

It’s always a risk to meet celebrities and personal heroes in real life, isn’t it? Who knows what they are like in real life, their public persona is, after all, there to please. In real life, well, they can get away with pleasing a lot fewer people, let’s put it that way. And there you have it, dreams destroyed in instants.

And boy oh boy wouldn’t the long suffering Mrs Munro (Academy Award nominee Laura Linney) know it… She and her little boy Roger (Milo parker) are housekeepers to the famous detective Sherlock Holmes (Sir Ian McKellan). You would think this was an honour, an adventure and a thing to be proud of. The problem is though, that Holmes in real life (unlike his legend) is getting old and he is doing it with very bad grace indeed. He is battling the first stages of dementia, which makes his personal torture double because he is also looking back on his life wracked with regret, regret concerning a particular case that really didn’t go Holmes’ way… The problem is, Holmes can’t exactly remember what happened. And for this reason he can’t figure out if there is a way back from this tragedy… His only source of joy is Roger, a bright and talented boy who adores Holmes. However Roger is only nine and his mother does not approve of this unlikely friendship so his assistance may well be too little too late…

  

I loved this film for so many reasons. First up, amusingly enough, Holmes himself contemplates the legend of Holmes and frankly finds lacking a lot. And quite a few bits added on. It’s a wonderful reflexion on celebrity and the legend created around the famous. It is almost as if celebrities aren’t allowed to be human beings with the occasional bad day and bad mood. More importantly they don’t always have control over what the public imagine them to be and therefore by default “become” something or someone they can barely recognize themselves. Consider the case of Mr Holmes then, who on top of all of that is now also suffering from dementia and having to struggle with his own demons. Or if you would prefer, consider any other star that has to cope with pleasing the public with their performances on stage and off while fighting big and scary personal demons. Think Amy Winehouse or Kurt Cobain…   Sure Mr Holmes spells out the same message in the safety of a nice little whitewashed cottage on the coast, but it is basically the same story and it ain’t pretty…  

On top of all of that, Mr Holmes is an unflinching gaze directed at old age. The skill of Ian McKellan is truly extraordinary as he portrays, in turn, a greying but still very much on form Sherlock Holmes on his last case and contrasts it quite beautifully to the frail old man desperately trying to hold onto his memories, his sanity but maybe most importantly his former self.  As I watched McKellan I couldn’t help but think that it couldn’t have been an easy part to play, not least because he himself is 76 years old. Although he is on top form in the film (and in real life as far as we can tell!) one cannot help but wonder if at times he felt that portraying this aging celebrity looking back at his life and his public persona cut a little too close to home. But then again, this is what it takes to be a truly great actor. You cannot worry about “looking good” if you want to do the part justice. You can only go straight forward, warts and all, and this is what creates performances like McKellen’s where we feel truly sorry for Holmes and feel  - perhaps for the first time – that he has become a real person.

I actually love this last point too. Think for example of Holmes’ more famous modern incarnation in the form of Benedict Cumberbatch. A combination of modern technology and latest fashions means that Holmes is more like a superhero than anything else. Except that his superpowers are quite “human” and even though they are definitely improbable in real life, they are definitely not impossible. In short, the ideal kind of superhero for our disenchanted times… Now we finally see Holmes with the mask off – as it were. And even Holmes (McKellen) cracks a giggle as he watches the “legend of Holmes” in the cinema. There is something wonderfully self-reflexive about this latest addition to the canon of Holmes reenactments watching itself on a (albeit fictional) cinema screen. But I guess this Holmes is slightly different. Just as Cumberbach’s Holmes is a superhero without “super” powers, a more realistic Holmes would not be completely invincible. Old age and death come to us all after all, and Homes’ ultimate battle with his greatest nemesis – dementia – is one that all of us can sympathize with on some level.

For all that though, Mr Holmes is very much an upbeat film. I recommended it to my grandmother and mother, and both are particularly partial to “happy” films. Yes it is melancholy and thought provoking in places, but the friendship between Roger and Holmes – with Roger potentially taking the baton from Holmes in some unseen future – is a sight to behold.    

ESSIE COMES HOME

Well, thank goodness it's Christmas.

I'm back. I finally am. I have taken a few weeks off work, I am being very lazy (I haven't changed out of my pijamas for an inordinate amount of time) and am binge-watching films on various online mediums which should make for a good stash of reviews for the next few weeks.

We should be ok from now on. Although, of course, I have said this a good many times before, I can only show in time and with my actions that I mean it.

It has been a strange winter. I have really pushed myself hard. To the point that friends and fellow cast members have taken me aside and expressed concern. Strangely enough I was not aware I was pushing myself. I didn't even realise I was tired until I began to rest. But if you happen to be one of the lovely people who worried about me, please relax. I am resting. I am eating well (well, I am eating a lot which is... ok it's not the same thing but I am eating actual food, not coffee and sugar so that's a start right? Baby steps guys, baby steps...). I am making sensible plans about my future. It involves writing on a regular basis, so please keep watching this space. But above all I am fully aware that burnout is a real thing (I have actually suffered from it before and have actually lost my last white-collar job because of it. I was trying to balance a full time office job and two freelance type jobs all at once which "broke" me. But that's a story for the pub). And I fully intend to not go there again.

Ehm. Well that was a little more personal than I expected. Ok I'm going to work on those reviews now. Then I will email my editor (looking at you Adam) and see what's going on over in other websites. In the meanwhile here's a review of a play. Check it out.

much love and seasons greetings,
Essie

THE HOMECOMING (Jamie Loyd company )

I don’t know if you guys remember what I did when I first got into film… I actually made it my business to watch a film a day. It’s a habit I plan to get into once the nightmare that is working in catering during the Christmas period is over and done with for one more year. My point though, is that I would genuinely have loved to have been able to do this for theatre too.

I have several problems in doing this though. I mean first of all, you have to make a substantial chunk of time for it. Which is fine, except if you have a million commitments and only one of you –a situation you are barely sustaining already -  so really barely have time to shower every day much less factor in trips to the theatre. Cheap tickets aren’t that hard to come by really – there are a million and one discount ticket websites all around and with a bit of careful planning you can find a ticket of some sort – but the thing is I rather do prefer getting “proper” seats, i.e. not the nosebleed seats. Well what can I say, that’s my little luxury… In short, I genuinely wish I could, but I can’t. I nearly missed this twice. Got on the bandwagon with a bunch of friends at the 11^th hour, three weeks went by, I forgot we had booked the tickets and had to do a lot of wriggling out of work to be able to attend.

Well, the guys had certainly picked a good one. The Homecoming is considered one of Pinter’s best plays and Jamie Loyd one of his best interpreters of our time.  With a stellar cast to boot, this has to be one of the stronger productions of the play… It is the story of Teddy (Garry Kemp) who returns from America to introduce his new wife, Ruth (Gemma Chan) to his family. His mother has long since departed this world and his cantankerous father ( Ron Cook), his uncle, Sam (Keith Allen) and brother Joey (John MacMillan) and Lenny (John Simm). This is a thoroughly masculine household, clearly marked by a lack of warmth and love. And from the moment she arrives, Ruth’s very presence changes absolutely everything… But how will this strange power struggle – with Ruth as the ultimate prize – ever end? 

We went to this play as a mixed group of friends – most of the women came out of the play crying “Misogyny!” – and of course strictly speaking this is true. The entire power play in the game (for it is, in all but name, a game) is based around sex and gender. The portrayal of the household before Ruth as uniquely male and therefore cold, full of resentment and loveless is a very old-fashioned way of determining gender roles . And when it boils down to the final confrontation, the entire power play is based around sex. That and – for those who know the play – the final position Ruth ends up in puts the whole dialogue between the genders onto a purely sexual plain – not even an emotional one. In this sense, the character of Ruth is clearly reduced to her gender and nothing else. But herein of course lies the talent of Gemma Chan who is very clever at hinting at the hidden depths – and not all of them particularly pleasant! – of Ruth that has been suppressed by circumstance and ‘50s society. Yes, without a doubt Pinter’s story is a misogynistic and reductionist portrayal of a woman. But the other point to remember is that this is by and large the reflection of the society the play was created in. Art and life are, at the end of the day, pretty much inextricable.

The other thing worth pointing out is that in this particular universe Ruth does – in my opinion – end up as the boss. True, her control over the men is purely sexual (although the final scenes of the play do hint at a lack of more motherly affection that is the key problem as well) but the point is that she is, in one sense, the one calling the shots. The only problem is that apparently she cannot exert any kind of control without using her sexuality. But she is the boss, nonetheless.

This is a brave production. I loved the minimal and stark décor and the permanent air of uncomfortable cold and resentment that runs through almost every single line exchanged between the mail characters. The music, the décor (or indeed the lack thereof) and the whole story marks it out, at first at least, as a very “male” story made for a man’s world. I guess what we should see it as is what happens if you insert one strong and provocative female character into this very male world. It definitely provides a lot of food for thought.

The Homecoming is not one of the faint of heart. It is not a bit of light entertainment of an evening. It is strong, it grabs you by the throat and forces you to look at some stuff that is not necessarily that pleasant to look at. It is however a wonderfully talented cast performing a story that is – whether we like it or not – strangely relevant to our present day, at least definitely at some parts of the world and of modern society. Also – from personal experience – a good introduction to Pinter, if you haven’t been introduced yet!