My play on words, that Liverpool is a long way from Oklahoma just means that I felt somehow removed from the last time I watched the legendary actress Gloria Grahame, watching this film of Peter Turner's book of the same title. Not that Oklahoma was what she was best known for as it was the film noirs of the 1940's that made her name but Oklahoma was the only real big blockbuster that she was in and then her star crashed and she never made anything of real significance after that and I couldn't reconcile her Ado Annie with this movie. Another actress maybe, I don't know, Annette Benning is terrific here as always but I wasn't convinced really that she was Gloria Graham, not even as impressive as Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn. I felt that the supporting cast were stronger, particularly Julie Walter's and Jamie Bell as Peter Turner. I read his book and that was fascinating but it's too static to be made into a film and my overall impression is that Benning just looks like an aging version of her Grifters performance 30 years ago, good sexy even but not Gloria. Also there are moments when this film sags and starts to get tedious and boring and I was glad when it was over. The book is much better.
