by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
A PG-13 117 min
Writer / producer, Susan Minot wrote the book and screenplay on which this film is based. Helmed by Lajos Koltai, the scenario involves a dying older woman, Ann Grant (Vanessa Redgrave), who on her death bed recalls a peak time in her life when she fell in love with her dream man, Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson).
For fortuitous reasons, Ann did not marry Harris, but went on to have a full and satisfying life. The premise of Minot’s story focuses on how our memories of the peak moments in our lives are distorted by time and idealized as fantasy. In Ann’s mind, she kept Harris alive as her perfect man, perpetually young and handsome, although he married, had children, and became an old man. Ann also married and had two lovely daughters, Nina (Tony Collette) and Constance (Natasha Richardson), who are with their mother during her last hours in their mother’s house.
Most of the film is consumed with the young Ann (Claire Danes). She attends Lila Wittenborn’s wedding (Mamie Gummer plays the young Lila and Meryl Streep plays the older) in the 1950s where Ann meets Harris. The wedding takes place in a mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where the old-money snobs inhabit the shoreline in regal splendor. Ann meets her old college pal, Buddy Wittenborn, who is wallowing in alcoholism and self-pity. He adores Ann and wishes she could reciprocate his feelings, but he will always be just a friend to Ann.
Amid this grandiose setting, Lila confides to Ann that she has doubts about marrying her fiancé, and is still in love with Harris. Ann tells her that she will help her get out of the wedding if that is what she wants. Ann tells Lila that she will take her away and deal with the relatives and her fiancé. But, during a dance before the wedding, Lila asks Harris if he still loves her, and he says no. She goes ahead with her wedding–for better or worse.
Susan Minot’s script is masterfully written and uttered by a dream cast of esteemed actresses. Claire Danes portrayed Ann with convincing dynamics keyed to the period. Danes brings that seething sexual tension of the strict mores of the period with skillful tact. In a key scene, Ann kisses Harris for the first time, and in those days, a kiss was like igniting an atomic bomb of sexual repression. It sent megawatts of hormonal energy through the couple’s bodies.
In fact, for me it was refreshing to view the bygone 1950s era when couples didn’t immediately jump into bed with one another, they actually courted each other in an erotic dance of love. Later, of course, they went on to use and abuse each other like today, but behind the scenes, it was much more steamy, because the titillating prelude to sex heightened the anticipation before the bedroom gymnastics.
On her deathbed, Ann was loaded with morphine, so it was difficult for her to tell what was real or what were dream images caused by the drugs. Her daughters kept hearing her speak of Harris but they didn’t know him. Later, when Lila visits, she tells Ann’s daughters about Harris, but she didn’t glamorize the story as Ann had done.
Nina is married to a musician and is pregnant. When she finally tells her husband, he is ecstatic, which surprises her. She had been through a couple of husbands and various lovers, but her mother told her there were no mistakes. You make decisions based on how you feel at the time and you go from there. The screenplay is chock-full of philosophical debate about the Zen of living and being happy in that moment. In the end, all of the past doesn’t matter, just the love of your immediate family. Minot takes the viewer into Ann’s mind as she thinks about what could have been if she had married Harris. Of course, she is remembering the experience as a young woman. Interestingly, these memories seem to be locked in a time warp.
This is an old-fashioned movie that mature people will enjoy. Minot’s point is: memories are distorted by time and should not be looked upon as missed opportunities, but joyous happenings in the flash of the moment.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
