Reawakening
Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson unite in an unconvincing drama about loss, grief and self-deception.
Believe it or not: Jared Harris and Juliet Stevenson
Image courtesy of Eclipse/Jade.
The French drama The Return of Martin Guerre was made as long ago as 1982 but it's a film that lodges in the memory. It was set in 16th century France and was based on real events concerning Martin Guerre, a man who married when a youngster but subsequently disappeared until he unexpectedly returned years later to his village and to his wife. Or did he? That was the question that arose when another view was expressed, namely that the man who claimed to be Martin Guerre was an impostor. This question of identity was the central thread and yielded a film that fascinated its audiences as they themselves took a view one way or the other: was he a fraud or a man unjustly suspected?
A comparable question is at the heart of this new British film written and directed by Virginia Gilbert and in theory it could easily have surpassed the impact of The Return of Martin Guerre because the story it tells also incorporates another key element. It's not just that this new work is a contemporary tale that echoes painful headlines but that it brings in issues of great emotional power. That arises because in this case the person who turns up claiming to belong is not a husband but a daughter. The 24-year-old woman (Erin Doherty) who arrives at the suburban home of John (Jared Harris) and Mary (Juliet Stevenson) presents herself as their daughter who ten years earlier in her troubled teenage years had gone missing. All attempts to find the child had failed and she had in effect disappeared without trace. It is just after a fresh appeal for information has been put out that the young woman appears and immediately prompts conflicting reactions: Mary at once declares that she is indeed her prodigal daughter but John instinctively takes the view that this is not the real Clare.
The publicity for Reawakening includes statements from Gilbert and her leading players and from what they say it is patent that they were hugely committed to exploring a situation that has confronted numbers of parents. As with Martin Guerre’s story the tale does encourage the viewer to speculate about the identity of a central figure, but it is the experience of losing a child who may be dead or alive and the impact of that on parents whose lives will forever be influenced by it that is even more crucial to this narrative. One senses too that Gilbert not only wants to portray this honestly and in depth but is also keen to posit a view that will enable the tale to conclude in a manner that finds something positive to say rather than leaving it as a downbeat tragedy.
One would hope that such aims would have resulted in a film as impressive as it is sincere and some early reviews suggest that Gilbert has indeed achieved that. For my own part, however, I sadly have to record that for all the good intentions I found that Reawakening never came across to me as a work that felt authentic. There is no doubt that this is a story about a couple who might well be able to say that after Clare’s disappearance never a day would pass without them thinking of her. Theoretically that may justify the many brief insertions of scenes from Clare’s childhood but in practice it's a style that is too self-conscious, too evidently a reliance on editing, for it to support the sense of realism that the film requires.
But, if that is for me a stylistic weakness, the more serious failing that troubles me is a screenplay that all too often doesn't really ring true. Even the immediate contrasted reactions of John and Mary to their visitor feel too insistent too quickly and Reawakening is a film which calls out for convincing realism because it makes John and Mary ordinary working-class parents and thus far from fictional characters acting out some melodrama. If in the film’s first half this sense of it being less easy to suspend disbelief than one would wish never quite goes away, the second half involves not only some plot contrivances but a sudden switch regarding the behaviour and beliefs of one character which totally fails to convince. In addition, a big speech seems to come out up out of nowhere. This lack of conviction is never down to the players involved but is so much a feature of the film that it undermines the effectiveness of the piece generally and of the positive theme that is built in as it reaches its conclusion. Given the sincerity of the project, I do hope that despite my own doubts there are plenty of viewers who will more readily believe in the story as it unfolds here.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Jared Harris, Juliet Stevenson, Erin Doherty, Aliona Baranova, Nicholas Pinnock, Niamh Cusack, Aiofe Gaston, Noni Stapleton, Michael Monroe, Ethan Roberts, Harriet Kelleher.
Dir Virginia Gilbert, Pro Barry Castagnola and Virginia Gilbert, Screenplay Virginia Gilbert, Ph Giles Harvey, Pro Des Aimee Meek, Ed Derek Ryan, Music Torquil Munro, Costumes Holly Smart.
West End Films/Light Film Productions/Rustle Up Productions-Eclipse/Jade.
90 mins. UK. 2024. UK Rel: 13 September 2024. Cert. 15.
