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Why didn\u2019t we hear more about this film during end of the year awards voting? Annette Bening is certainly worthy here for her raw and impactful performance as Oscar winning actress Gloria Grahame. \u201cFilm Stars Don\u2019t Die in Liverpool\u201d contains performances bigger than the film itself, but the movie is also a solid take on the waning years of an aging Hollywood film siren.<\/p>\n
Taking place during the late 1970s and early 1980s, we meet Brit Peter Turner (Jamie Bell) as he is seduced by American film star Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening). She\u2019s just moved into his English apartment building, and even though she\u2019s quite a bit older than him, he\u2019s immediately taken with her. Part of his fascination stems from his interest in acting. But when he initially meets her, he had no idea who she really is or that she had won the Oscar when she was younger.<\/p>\n
\u201cFilm Stars Don\u2019t Die in Liverpool\u201d is based on a true story. It\u2019s adapted from the memoir by the real Peter Turner.<\/p>\n
Gloria is a free spirit. Almost immediately, her charisma captures Peter\u2019s heart. And before he knows it, he\u2019s completely in love with her. And the May-December romance develops over a number of years. At one point, Jamie travels to America and meets who I thought was Gloria\u2019s mother Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). Jeanne cautions him about Gloria. Apparently, this isn\u2019t her first dalliance.<\/p>\n
Aside from Bening\u2019s winning performance as the troubled film star, who died in 1981 of breast cancer, the film works on a romantic level. Bell, like everyone in the cast, plays his character with a measured level of conviction that flows like a ribbon through the narrative. Julie Walters plays Peter\u2019s mother Bella, and instead of a distrustful and protective parent, Bella is written as a person with a loving heart. She welcomes Gloria into her home with open arms. It is the sincerity of the characters that makes them utterly real, but unfortunately, it might make them boring, as well.<\/p>\n
Instead of a film where arguments boil over regarding the unconventional love affair, for the most part, everyone around the two star-crossed lovers are understanding and forgiving. And when Gloria begins to really get sick, even Gloria\u2019s son is kind to Peter. I found this aspect of the story refreshing. There\u2019s little frustrating gnashing of teeth and irrational anger here, just thoughtfulness and love on the screen. And it is heartbreaking in places.<\/p>\n
Director Paul McGuigan (\u201cLucky Number Slevin\u201d and TV\u2019s \u201cSherlock\u201d) shows great range here. Venturing out of the genre trappings that were strained terribly in his disappointing 2015 feature \u201cVictor Frankenstein,\u201d we get a genuine well-formed drama that also contains many of McGuigan\u2019s visual trademarks. The set design features lots of detailed wallpaper that, although more subdued than his other films, is still vibrant and interesting. The texture of the production breathes authenticity right down to the lines captured in Bening\u2019s beautiful face. She pretty fearless here, and it should be noticed.<\/p>\n
I suppose that \u201cFilm Stars Don\u2019t Die in Liverpool\u201d suffers from the small, not showy handling of this tiny footnote in Hollywood lore. But the theme here is real and important, live life the way you want, but hard living certainly might catch up with you. Age doesn\u2019t define beauty any more than it restrains love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bening is great, with love all around in this heartbreaking romance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","no-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5038,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5035\/revisions\/5038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyfilmfix.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}