This film was my wife's choice for her birthday. A bit of cinema relaxation on a Friday night. Mmh.
This film is NOT an easy watch. Relaxing it is not. However, it is worth seeing and experiencing. It is based on a true story, and clearly was dear to Joanne Froggatt's heart because she produced as well as starred in it. It is hard to talk of this movie's power without giving away the narrative, but it is worth a try.
For me, Froggatt's performance was what made the film work. Yes, hers is the showy part, with the emotional opportunities to demonstrate her acting chops, but her portrayal of a wife faced with challenges with which she could not cope painted over the cracks in the movie. I will no longer associate her with Anna in Downton Abbey, and will forever think of her in this story.
I do not know if the opening idyllic set-up was deliberate so as to throw later circumstances into sharp relief, but I cannot see how she and her writer husband would have been able to afford the house in which the production team had located them. I therefore found it hard to commit to the film's introduction.
The references to Tom's childhood added nothing for me, although they were supposed to explain some of his motivation. The film did not need them.
However, as the movie progressed, none of this mattered. As events overtake them, we directly share in the frustrations and pain that Tom and Nicola Daly encounter. There is an especially moving, poignant moment when Nicola (Froggatt) is making an appeal to a social gathering; it deliberately unsettles and makes the viewer uncomfortable, as if we are also sitting in the room with her. In many scenes, Tom Daly himself acts as a body double for his screen alter ego Tom Riley.
The raw outpouring of emotion when Tom and Nic finally face the reality of their future, their enduring love, and pent-up hurt and pain is a heightened version of what every couple will have at sometime felt. So although theirs is a moment in extremis, it is a moment to which we can relate.
At a time when one of our institutions is receiving so much public support, it is interesting to see how this couple were so badly failed by the initial inattention they received at its hands. The film is a strong reminder that we should review the performance of such organisations on an ongoing basis, and make improvements where we can.
This is a British independent movie that it would be so easy to miss. I am glad that I did not, and encourage you to see it too. I suspect BAFTA is already pencilling in Froggatt's name on its nomination list right now.