Vanessa Redgrave gives a breathtaking performance in this extremely well written and executed 'puzzle' movie. Many of the initial reviews of this film in 1985 pointed out Redgrave's great performance but failed to appreciate the overall quality of Hare's direction and screenplay. This is a great modern film, easily one of the best English language films of the 1980's. Redgrave plays a single teacher who is shocked when a young stranger enters her house and for no rational reason commits suicide in front of her. As she, her best friends (well played by Judi Dench and Ian Holm), a sympathetic yet slightly obsessive detective and a young woman from the dead man's past (a remarkable performance by Suzanna Hamilton) all struggle to discover why the young man chose this woman to witness his death, we are drawn into a beautifully nuanced philosophical examination of the meaning of life in a time of negative social change (Thatcher, Reagan and the spectre of Richard Nixon haunt the film's characters). The examination of the young man nihilistic choice to kill himself is reflected in the seemingly growing alienation of the students in Redgrave's class and her struggle to remain proactive as a teacher and a human being despite personal tragedies and the political/social chaos of the Thatcher years. A really captivating film that deserves a much wider audience.
Wetherby
(1985)
Redgrave gives one of her best performances in playwright David Hare's first film.
9 June 1999
Warning: Spoilers