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Three
brothers return to the Northern mining town they grew up in
for their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Some long-buried
and painful truths bubble to the surface of this family reunion
as the three grown sons argue over their individual problems
while mum bustles about cluelessly and dad waits uneasily
for whichever crisis might erupt first...
Eeeeeee!
It's grim up N'orth. Yes, yet another movie that illustrates
why you're better off not living north of Watford. Wait! Before
you rush off to find a pen in order to send in a Points
of View style letter of complaint, let me point out that
I am from "Up North" - Rotherham to be exact.
There
is nothing more painful to watch than these drab, dull and
very depressing unrealistic movies depicting "simple"
folk from "simple" backgrounds. Unfortunately In
Celebration has all of the above in bucket loads. They
do nothing for the reputation of Northerners - just making
them out to be a load of whingers who like nothing more than
a good moan and constantly spoiling for a fight. Having said
that, you can't fault the cast, all of whom turn in fantastic
performances.
The
director does attempt to keep the action (or lack of) interesting
with settings and angles that are designed to help you keep
your eyes open for the duration. There is a good story here,
just that it's like pulling teeth out of a dead horse to get
to it.
Extras
include interesting interviews with Alan Bates, David Storey
and Otto Plaschkes and the usual batch of extras that are
on the other The American Film Theatre Collection DVDs
(trailer gallery, AFT cinebill, stills gallery and an article
on David Storey and In Celebration). I really had to
hold my tongue when Alan Bates got on his soapbox, saying
that all plays should be filmed... Really? And what on earth
justifies that? Then he went on to moan about how we should
forget about normal films... Okay... interesting concept.
Plays are designed to be played out in theatres and work very
well in that format, but transferred to celluloid, more often
than not they turn into yawnable affairs. For every Abigail's
Party or Death of a Salesman there are countless
failures.
In
conclusion, this movie is grim and dull, and certainly nothing
to celebrate.
Nick
Smithson
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