Description

From acclaimed writer/director David Hare  (The Hours, Damage) comes Wetherby, the compelling story of Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave), a schoolteacher whose life changes completely when a young man breaks into her home, and then kills himself right in front of her for no apparent reason. As Jean’s friends (Judi Dench and Ian Holm) struggle to help her, Jean is drawn deeper and deeper into a web of memories and deceptions. Vanessa Redgrave (Howards End, Camelot, The Bostonians) delivers a superb performance in Wetherby, a taut psychological drama that will keep the viewer guessing until the film’s final moments. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

One of my favorites from the 1980's
I agree with the reviewer SILVOX, this has been an overlooked film. Saw it when the film was first released in the theatres, I own an VHS copy, and I have been looking forward to a DVD release for quite some time. The movie examines human loneliness through the life and love affairs of the various characters. Venessa Redgrave and her daughter, Joely Richardson, were both spectacular in the movie. The music score, the lighting, ..., everything is excellent.

Ignored Classic
Sad this is so overlooked. It's a well-directed gem, David Hare, I think, and one of Vanessa's best turns in the late 80s as an actress. Yes, it's forlorn and melancholy, but well-observed, too.

Vanessa is a spinster teaching school trapped in a recurring nightmare of unfulfilled romance. The score is quite lovely, too. The film has a curious, Roegian "Don't Look Now" edge to it.
I hope some company releases it on DVD. It's a cautionary tale about grief and grieving, and.... getting on. ... Read more

Description

A unique and disturbing work, "The Designated Mourner" is the feature film version of Wallace Shawn's hugely successful play, which was first staged by David Hare at London's Royal National Theatre with Mike Nichols (whose brilliant performance was the talk of the town) in the leading role of "Jack." The play has now been created anew for the screen by the same cast, writer, director and designer. Told almost entirely in direct address, the screenplay by Wallace Shawn is an astonishing tour-de-force, as enthralling as his earlier cult classic, "My Dinner with Andre" (written and performed with Andre Gregory). Directed by playwright/filmmaker David Hare, starring Miranda Richardson, David de Keyser and one of America's most famous film directors, Mike Nichols, in his feature film acting debut, "The Designated Mourner" is a genuinely original, intimate, and compelling experience. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Can you say pretentious?
It's time someone gave this pretentious film the panning it so richly deserves. First of all, let me say that I have nothing against Wallace Shawn or talkative films - I rather enjoyed "My Dinner With Andre," which somehow manages to hold the viewer's interest with its interesting dialogue and enjoyable setting. This film, however, is a yawn, and it doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense either. Throughout the movie we mostly see three things - the faces of the three characters talking, in front of some nameless postmodern background. As if this weren't visually boring enough, things get worse when we have to use our ears. Each in turn, the characters spew a lot of ridiculous monologues at the viewer in affected, self-serious voices. Somehow this is all supposed to tie together into one of the characters appointing himself the "designated mourner" for western culture (though why this random fool should matter to us in any way is never clearly explained.) All I can say is that if western culture is dead, it was this film that killed it.

how many times one can go in circles
not being sure what/whom lead some to argue about the protagonist's transition from high- to low-brow. if this transition had anything to do with this movie it must have happened before since jack is nothing else but a pretentious low-brow pal who's faking his way around. otherwise a nerve-test: excellent interpretation around a low screenplay.

Something about something
Funny how people revere this movie, using terms like "thought provoking" and "intelligent" and "masterpiece," but no one seems to know what it's about. The acting is impeccable, and the script seems to be about the death of an elite inteligencia and the victory of a shallow, all-surface society where nobody has to do much thinking. But the protagonist, the Mike Nichols character, though he denies understanding the "highbrow," displays the coldest and sharpest mind in the story. Compared to him, Ayn Rand was Danielle Steele!

The ending is moving, and the metaphor of the designated mourner is touching, but when people try to talk about this one they stop short of being specific about what in hell it was they found so interesting. They all sound like Roger Ebert; they use a lot of the lingo of film reviews but they don't really know what the thing was about.

An impressive, intimate, compelling entertainment.
Told almost entirely in direct address to the viewer, The Designated Mourner is the feature film version of the Wallace Shawn stageplay and presents an impressive series of performances by the case which includes Mike Nichols, Miranda Richardson, and David de Keyser. Intimate, compelling, at times disturbing, The Designated Mourner is an original concept that is as enthralling as Shawn's earlier work, My Dinner With Andre and is highly recommended for personal, film school, and public library video collections. VHS, color, 95 minutes,

A cerebral, engaging, fascinating film.
David Hare's The Designated Mourner starring Mike Nichols, Miranda Richardson, and David de Keyser, is based on a play by Wallace Shawn. Told almost entirely in direct address, the film is a genuinely original, intimate, and compelling viewing experience of the sort as Wallace Shawn's earlier triumph, My Dinner with Andre (written and performed with Andre Gregory). The Designated Mourner is a cerebral, engaging, fascinating film that will be reflected upon long after the closing credits run. Color, 95 minutes. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In this poetic tale, acclaimed playwright and director David Hare explores the eternal enigmas of love and desire. An American doctor living in Britain, Lillian (Blair Brown), who is almost 40 and newly single, is romanced by a charming entrepreneur named Raymond (Bruno Ganz) during a European vacation. What seems to be an unlikely coupling blossoms into love as the seductive, spontaneous Raymond teaches guarded Lillian about the joys of pure passion. But is the cryptic Raymond all that he seems to be? Is their whirlwind, fairy-tale courtship simply based on a desire to escape the banality of everyday life? And can independent Lillian truly commit to him with the reality of a looming doctors' strike and her single, freewheeling sister's (Bridget Fonda) pregnancy? Exquisitely photographed by Andrew Dunn, Hare's intelligent film uses subtle flourishes to explore Lillian's fear of commitment, Raymond's obsession with everlasting romantic love, and how his deceptions ultimately transform both their lives. --Bryan Reesman ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Pointless
I have great respect for playwright David Hare, and I'm a big fan of Blair Brown (and Bridget Fonda too, for that matter), but despite the engaging performances of these two actresses, this movie goes nowhere, slowly. Bruno Ganz's character is too cryptic, and his performance too expressionless, to ever provide any suggestion of real love between the two leading characters. Ms. Brown plays a doctor who is smart enough to run from the altar once; but she later goes through with it just because her shiftless sister calls her a coward. Later, when he disappears and she starts paying off his gambling debts, she seems foolish, not loyal. Reviews of this film talk a lot about the political significance of the story and its commentary on Thatcherism and single women, but those writers must have gotten that mumbo-jumbo from a press release, 'cause it ain't on the screen.

the straps might help
This obtuse romantic drama from writer/director playwright David Hare is a major misfire after his debut with Wetherby and the underrated Paris by Night. Anyone that knows Hare as a playwright, knows that he specialises in doomed relationships, which was a feature of both Wetherby and Plenty. It is said that Plenty came out of Hare's real life relationship with actress Kate Nelligan who did the London and Broadway runs but lost the film role to Meryl Streep. It is said too that this film is Hare's paean to Blair Brown who won hearts on her cable TV series The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. However while Fred Schepisi made Streep look great in Plenty but failed to help her overcome her basic miscasting, Hare as director does the opposite for Brown, by lighting her unflatteringly but still managing to let us see her skill as an actor. Like Susan Traherne in Plenty, Brown's American doctor living in England is meant to be emotionally fragile and therefore vulnerable to the exotic gambler "Mr Forbes" (Bruno Ganz) who urges her to "jump" in his use of horse metaphors. Hare likes his portents, giving Brown a terminal patient, so when Brown meets Ganz gazing at a crucifix with him picking up her dropped handerkerchief, things don't bode well for them, (the handkerchief is a particularly corny touch), and having a sign at a registry office "No rice or confetti is to be thrown on council premises". Hare's screenplay is lumbered with lines that are embarassing for a playwright of his stature, like "I'm totally in love with you and old enough to know I always will be", "I don't have it in me to have a baby", "He was running on empty", "He went to the heart of me", and "You have certain feelings and then you have to pick up the bill". This is the kind of movie where someone flees to a storeroom for solace and gets a succession of visitors, and being set in England, where a cup of tea is the answer to all problems. The setup actually comes across as a conceit that might work better on the stage than in film, highlighted by the explaination of the title with models dressing in hospital curtained spaces. Hare continues his misuse of over-orchestrated music that blighted Wetherby, even beginning the film with Nat King Cole's syrupy version of When I Fall in Love. The best scenes involve Bridget Fonda as Brown's sister, even if Fonda's character is the irresponsible uninhibited free spirit that Brown is not. (Since she is Brown's sister, we know Brown has the potential). It's a pity that Fonda is used as a character obstacle when she is the most likeable of the actors. Hare's only resonant image is a couple to be married, she in yellow and he in blue, each with an arm behind the other, as if the colours will merge into green at any moment. And he even denies us the sight of the models parading their strapless gowns in the fashion show fundraiser that ends the film. Instead he freezes behind the back of someone about to enter the catwalk.

Man wants falling in love to last forever, & his lover.
Hare creates a man who insists on the romance that comes with falling in love to be the essence of BEING in love. His women fail him because, in despair, ``I don't need all these presents. Don't you understand? You've GOT me; we're married''. Hare fails his women because of his extravagant, reckless, obsessive focus on the relationship. Brown finally accepts him as-is, & he rejects falling in love anew and reverses, returning to her. Strapless gowns at a charity benefit are the metaphor for Brown's recognition that their love requires her to stand on her own, to have the strength to accept his love, however unusual. (This was written spontaneously and will be replaced by a more rational review.) The film needs a wider audience. The opening credits triptych is worth the price of admission alone (Nat King Cole's ``When I Fall In Love''). ... Read more