Posts Tagged ‘Oliver Jackson-Cohen’

Emily

Director: Frances O’Connor

Cast: Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Gemma Jones, Fionn Whitehead, Adrian Dunbar, Alexandra Dowling, Amelia Gething, Harry Anton, Elijah Wolf

Running Time: 2 hours and 10 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Mansfield Park actress Frances O’Connor makes her directorial debut with the new period drama Emily based on the brief but vivid life of British novelist Emily Bronte who penned the classic novel Wuthering Heights.

Anglo-French actress Emma Mackey takes on the title role capping off a succession of period films in 2022 from Death on the Nile to Eiffel and fortunately Mackey is brilliant as the headstrong Emily Bronte.

Set in the decade before the publication of Wuthering Heights in 1847, Emily focuses on the inspiration behind such an astounding novel and her complex relationship with equally famous sister Charlotte Bronte played by Alexandra  Dowling. Between the sibling relationships, Emily has to contend with a passionate love affair with the dashing curate Weightman played by rising British star Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Lost Daughter).

While unable to escape the influence of her father played by Adrian Dunbar, Emily gets entangled in a bad sibling relationship with her undesirable brother Branwell Bronte, a regular at the local pub and a frequent consumer of opium. Branwell, superbly played by Dunkirk star Fionn Whitehead influences Emily into a range of undesirable activities mostly radical from voyeurism to drug taking, while chanting the mantra Freedom of Thought.

Whilst the sensible Charlotte Bronte has no time for her brother’s antics, Emily is entirely susceptible until eventually their father Patrick Bronte separates the siblings.

Emily discovers how complicated love can be, especially with a devoted man of God. The doomed love affair between Emily and Weightman is expertly captured in the seduction scene on a Yorkshire moor beautifully played by Emma Mackey and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as both actors struggle to untangle themselves from their restrictive Victorian clothing, a cinematic metaphor for the pervading morality which frowned upon acted out on one’s sexual desires.

Actress turned director Frances O’Connor does a relatively good job of directing Emily, keeping it extremely historically accurate while balancing the focus of the friction filled relationship between the two gifted Bronte sisters, both of whom would make a massive contribution to English Literature with the publication of their novels Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. However, the director could have got some editing tips as Emily does linger too long and occasionally loses focus.

Emily gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is saved by a superb cast that does justice to the legacy of the Bronte sisters. This film is recommended for those that enjoy a literary period film set in Victorian England.

The Lost Daughter

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ed Harris, Peter Sarsgaard, Jack Farthing, Dagmara Dominiczyk, Paul Mescal

Film Rating: 8 out of 10

Running time: 2 hours and 1 minute

Taking its inspiration right out of the equally sinister 1990 film The Comfort of Strangers, directed by Paul Schrader, actress turned director Maggie Gyllenhaal directs an entirely unsettling film The Lost Daughter all set on a remote island in Greece, populated by some fascinating characters including some menacing beach goers.

Directors seldom make purely psychological thrillers nowadays which were extremely fashionable in the 1960’s and 1970’s. It is with a stroke of luck that Maggie Gyllenhaal managed to cast the granddaughter of Tippi Hendren, the star of such classic Alfred Hitchcock films such as The Birds and Marnie, Dakota Johnson (The Social Network, Bad Times at the El Royale) alongside Oscar winner Olivia Colman (The Favourite) in The Lost Daughter.

This film is mostly shot in extreme close up, which gives audiences an unsettling intimacy with the characters involved all of whom are slightly off kilter particularly Leda, another stunning performance by Olivia Colman, who plays a lonesome middle age comparative literature professor who travels to Greece to take a break from her daughters back home.

On the exotic and hot Greek island, she has a sinister encounter with the highly strung Nina, a devilishly beautiful performance by Dakota Johnson and Nina’s extended family which are vaguely hinted to be part of some nefarious crime organization.

Leda is an emotionally damaged woman contemplating her own role as a mother, as she often reflects back to her younger self, which are featured in a series of raunchy flashbacks featuring an absolutely superb Jessie Buckley (Doolittle, Misbehaviour) who deserves an Oscar nomination for her role as the younger Leda as she is navigating motherhood and her fractious relationship with her average male partner Joe, played by Jack Farthing. For the younger Leda desires more and yearns for another existence than just being a mother to two very demanding young daughters.

The younger Leda embarks on a passionate affair with a fellow professor, a wonderfully erudite Professor Hardy played by Peter Sarsgaard (An Education, Jackie, Black Mass, Kinsey).

As The Lost Daughter weaves it’s complex narrative between the past and the present, the older Leda must confront her weird emotional impulses and her strange flirtations with the men on the island, particularly Lyle played by Oscar nominee Ed Harris (The Hours, Pollack, The Truman Show, Apollo 13) and the younger beach boy Toni played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

Based on the novel by the bestselling author of My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante, The Lost Daughter is a brooding mix of menace and desire, a psychologically twisted tale of crushing responsibilities, abandonment and reconnection, held together by two exceptionally good performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.

Psychological thrillers generally do not have mass appeal, but director Maggie Gyllenhaal does a skilful job of dissecting a complicated issue around maternity and natural responsibility while casually mixes it up with forbidden sexual desire and pervasive fear.

The Lost Daughter gets a film rating of 8 out of 10 and is remarkable for its haunting unique quality as a cinematic gem.

Going the Distance

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long’s romantic comedy Going the Distance while examining the pressures and joys of 21st century relationships fails to deliver on a solid front with the film undecided about whether the narrative is a comedy or a serious romantic drama. Highlights of the film include great visuals of New York and San Francisco and an awesome soundtrack coupled with some hilarious moments especially the dining room scene, the central premise of the film takes slightly too long to arrive at any serious conclusion.

Meeting halfway – would be the stopover in Jefferson?

Going the Distance is more about the arc of a relationship than the geographic separation that two people feel as they attempt to keep a relationship together across two coasts and timezones. Great Sunday afternoon viewing but Barrymore has done far better films and is immensely more talented than she makes out in this film… Grey Gardens proves that! This film is a coast to coaster but no smooth operator!