jennyrock-70509 Review of The Go-Between

The Go-Between (2015 TV Movie)

Much more moving than the 1971 version...a worthy adaptation

[8/10 · 14 December 2021]

I watched this a day after watching the 1971 version with Julie Christie & Alan Bates...I was out to be very objective with no agenda other than my true response...The novel on which the film is based, ranks among my favourites of all time. So I know the story quite intimately. This version was quite moving where the 1971 didn't touch me in any way.... I don't know enough about film-making to identify why this is so technically....but one thing I would say is casting ....especially Leo, the boy for whom future emotional development ceases with the events that take place in this film...re Jack Hollingtons Leo, he is sweet, endearing, innocent & likeable....you can feel his vulnerability & therefore it's realistic for things to impact on him in the shattering way that they do.....in the 1971 version, I don't like or feel for, or connect with, any of the characters...they are all wooden .... And the story telling is way superior in this later film....much more rounded & it's fuller....the key riveting moments seem fleeting in the earlier film....the later film joins all the dots really clearly & effectively....& mostly, impactfully....the viewer can really get the significance of the cricket match, the significance of the concert, why people were surprised & moved by Leo's singing, the tensions between Marion's mother, & her suitor & her secret lover....and the older Leo also, is a character that is loveable & really plausible as an older version of the younger boy..still showing the same sensitivities & tenderness of heart....and I think it's only in this version of the film, that it becomes clear why the summer of 1900 which was shaping up to be the glorious beginning of a glorious new century, could have such a long-lasting damaging impact on Leo...not an easy story to adapt to screen, bc so much of its drama hinges on the inner subjective world of a boy at the beginning of burgeoning adolescence as he finds himself thrust into a social class beyond his station and this as it's seen through the eyes of his older self looking back for the first time, and for the first time seeing the huge fallout....this later film did a worthy job....as someone already commented, it was much more appropriate to have a Lord Trimington that wasn't attractive....confusing in the earlier film to have the opposite....perhaps the only weakness was Marion.....at least the younger Marion....she didn't, for me, manage the balance of being odious in her exploiting of Leo while remaining likeable....but Ted Burgess actor did manage this well....and don't believe anyone who dismisses the book as drivel....the book excels in explaining how knottedness & desiccation can enter people's emotional life and is exquisitely written (from someone who is very fussy)....if you're cut off from that subjective world of feeling or in denial of it, it would explain why you could dismiss such an outstanding book.