Alan Rickman`s first film as director comes, not surprisingly from the stage, where he has directed quite a lot. A coastal town in Scotland is the setting for The Winter Guest, which is about four couples. Centre stage are mother and daughter Elspeth and Frances, played by real-life mother and daughter Phyllida Law and Emma Thompson. Frances` husband has died and she is in a state beyond grief; Elspeth doesn`t know how to reach her, they irritate one another constantly. Frances` son Alex meets Nita and perhaps this is the beginning of a relationship; two old women wait at the bus stop for transport to one of the funerals they regularly attend, and two boys wander on the shore pondering questions of life...there`s an existential isolation to each of the lives in the film.... At the beginning of this film I found myself irritated at its staginess, the dialogue seemed terribly stilted, impossible for actors to deliver in anything like a naturalistic way - but as the film progressed I found myself drawn more and more into this emotionally enigmatic landscape, until ultimately I was moved. Rickman has not opted for an easy ride with this his first film. It`s as austere in presentation as it is in concept, with the cold Scottish light bleaching colours almost to monochrome. If you like an easy to read narrative, this film is most probably not for you; but if you are prepared to follow an uneven and occasionally rocky path in your filmgoing, then The Winter Guest may have rewards for you as it did for me.
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