Playwright David Hare
came to the attention of many in the film world with the success of director
Stephen Daldry’s adaptation of The Hours,
for which he wrote the much lauded screenplay. But Hare has actually had a long
and notable career in and outside of film as both a writer and a director,
helming Strapless and Wallace Shawn’s
The Designated Mourner. His first big
screen effort, however, was 1985’s Wetherby,
starring Oscar winner Vanessa Redgrave and a young (or youngish, at least) Ian
Holm (The Lord of the Rings’ Bilbo
Baggins).
The film’s story
centers around a teacher, mannered
instructor Jean Travers (Redgrave), whose life is thrown into turmoil when an
uninvited dinner party guest shoots himself in her living room for no apparent
reason. As her friends struggle to help her make sense of the situation, Jean
finds herself drawn into a sticky, complex morass of old memories and
deceptions.
Redgrave is fantastic
as Travers; she deftly and delicately balances a fearful but withdrawn
curiosity with a dawning sense of horror. An interesting thing, meanwhile, has
happened to Holm. It may be the types of roles in which he is cast in American
productions (From Hell, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Day After Tomorrow) and the disparity
between these and his other roles (contrast the aforementioned with Joe Gould’s Secret, eXistenZ and The Sweet
Hereafter), but the less he has to do, paradoxically, the more interesting
he is. Redgrave’s real-life daughter, Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck), plays the character of Jean in her younger years, and
Dame Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson also appear. That so many of the faces on
display in Wetherby are by now
amongst the most esteemed character actors working in film today (The Chronicles of Riddick
notwithstanding) is no accident. The bravest and often most interesting actors —
particularly of the stage-trained variety — gravitate toward fine writing, and
the script for the dark, intriguing Wetherby
is layered and involving in the manner one would except of a playwright making
the transition from stage to screen. Wetherby
is at times too caught up in its own interior head games to make you forget the
staginess of its roots (the filmmaking isn’t going to technically wow you), but
if taut and literary psychological dramas are your game, this is a fine entry
that you’ve likely missed. You’d be smart to rectify that situation
immediately.
Extras on Home
Vision’s DVD debut release are virtually nonexistent, including only selected
actor biographies and filmographies on the single disc. Owing to its roots,
however, there is a written introduction by Hare and an astute liner note essay
by critic and The Encyclopedia of British
Film author Brian McFarlane. Still, the play’s the thing, and Wetherby delivers — chiefly and easily —
on this count. B+ (Movie) B+ (Disc)