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Bookmark this pageAlpha Male (2006)
Director: Dan Wilde
Movie review
From Time Out London
Jim Ferris (Danny Huston) is an affable packaging tycoon whose sudden demise strands his doting wife (Jennifer Ehle) and two children in a purgatory of loneliness and suffering. ‘Alpha Male’ then assesses the willingness of each character to accept his or her new role within the family. It’s a well-intentioned, Bergmanesque drama about paternal anxieties amongst the nouveaux riches, and contains some fine performances and an articulate script. The tone is perhaps a little too frivolous to supply the film with any kind of lasting emotional depth, but there are some delightful moments, such as Mark Heap’s comic cameo as a bashful gardener with a penchant for relieving himself on the grounds of the family mansion, and Tariq Anwar’s editing conveys a pervasive air of melancholy. But the modern- day setting is totally out of sync with writer-director Dan Wilde’s distinctly old-fashioned views on male totemism in the modern family unit, and overall, the film feels too thin to warrant a cinematic release.Author: David Jenkins
Time Out London Issue 1877: August 9-16 2006
Cast & crew
Director: Dan Wilde
Producer: Trudie Styler, Damian Jones, David Bergstein
Cast: Jennifer Ehle, Danny Huston, Patrick Baladi, Trudie Styler, Amelia Warner, Mark Wells full cast
Genre(s): Drama
Rated: 15
Duration: 100 mins
UK Release: Aug 11 2006
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