British Film Institute - London Film Festival

Film

What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases

Search cinema listings

Browse cinemas A-Z

Search 20,000 reviews

 

The Designated Mourner (1996)

Director: David Hare

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Three people sit behind a desk: an old man (de Keyser), his daughter (Richardson), and his son-in-law (Nichols). They talk, not to each other, but to us, the audience. They reminisce about Judy's relationship with her father, a poet and dissident, and her husband Jack, who wilts under his own sense of intellectual inferiority. Gradually Jack takes centre stage to trace the contours of a narrative, the story of his failed marriage, his political and moral cowardice, his increasing alienation from the world of words and ideas. Hare's subtle, artful film of Wallace Shawn's play exists purely in that abstract, literary world - it is, defiantly, a piece of theatre, pared and minimalist. The film has something of the intimate quality of an actors' read through: what you lose in action, you gain in concentration and insight. Hare says the play is about 'the death of culture, the danger of culture becoming a minority pursuit', which obviously reflects his conviction that 'Keats is better than Dylan', highbrow better than lowbrow; certainly the film fulfils his own elitist criteria. Me? I could barely keep my eyes open.

Author: TCh

Time Out Film Guide


  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields





Top Stories

A Bond a day: No 13 'Octopussy'

A Bond a day: No 13 'Octopussy'

Time Out revisits the 21 Bond movies day by day to celebrate the release of 'Quantum of Solace'

The essential guide to the London Film Festival

The essential guide to the London Film Festival

Get the inside track on the all the films and events you'll want to catch at the Times BFI 52nd London Film Festival

Terence Davies: interview

Terence Davies: interview

Wally Hammond talks to visionary British director Terence Davies about his deeply personal and long-awaited new documentary ‘Of Time and the City’

W.

W.

Read our early review of Oliver Stone's George W Bush biopic, 'W.', playing at this year's London Film Festival

Ten friendly ghost movies

Ten friendly ghost movies

To celebrate the release of 'Ghost Town' in which Ricky Gervais plays a New York dentist who can see dead people, Time Out counts down ten great friendly ghost movies.