FILM STARS DON'T DIE IN LIVERPOOL
Scottish Filmmaker Paul McGuigan’s helmed a broad variety of genre films, a favourite of mine is Push, which features Captain America aka Chris Evans’ and a band of superpowered misfits, he’s also directed several of the early seasons of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock – establishing that shows look and style – and of course his debut, Gangster Number One - which launched the career of Paul Bettany.
His latest feature tells the story of the final years of Hollywood screen siren Gloria Grahame and her affair with 26-year-old struggling actor and Liverpudlian Pete Turner, played by Jamie Bell. Grahame was a big star in the 40’s and 50’s, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in the The Bad and the Beautiful - she starred in several hit films, most notably: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Big Heat with Bogart and Oklahoma!
By the time Gloria met Pete Turner in London in 1979, she’d been through four marriages, including one to Nicholas Ray, director of Rebel Without a Cause. She’d endured some seriously salacious scandals during those marriages – most notably an affair with Nick Ray’s 13-year-old son, who eventually became her fourth husband. So - Gloria is something of a pariah in a lot of Hollywood circles and in the film, she appears to be running from that sordid past, running from her family in the US and in the opening of the film, which is told in a combination of flashbacks – she calls the young Pete Turner at home, after not speaking to him for some time following their initial affair – and tells him she’s sick – and she begs him to allow her to come to his family’s home in Liverpool and recuperate there. Pete complies, though his mother, Bella (played by Julie Walters) - believes Gloria to be a lot more ill than what she’s letting on.
Performances are great - Vanessa Redgrave features in a lovely cameo as Gloria Grahame’s mother, and Bening’s character of this aging golden age bombshell is actually quite complicated – she’s brash and arrogant yet prone to emotional implosions because of her intense fragility – Jamie Bell and Bening have great chemistry and he’s really great here – but there’s also something of a strange balancing act where you’re aware of his deep feelings for her but also that she is a very broken individual with some serious predatory issues where young men are concerned. Oddly though, I felt like it crept up on me – the ending felt inevitable, but it was incredibly moving and sweet. Definitely worth checking out.