Alternately powerful and aggravating because of its uncinemat- ic approach, "The Designated Mourner" is a well-intentioned but commercially negligible film record of Wallace Shawn's 1996 play that was successfully staged at London's National Theatre.
The First Look Pictures release opens Friday in New York and next month in Los Angeles.
Comparisons to Shawn's "My Dinner With Andre" and the films of Spalding Gray are appropriate, but "Mourner" as directed by David Hare ("Strapless") is so lean and static that theater fans may come away satisfied, but less-disciplined audiences will be squirming in their seats.
Featuring the cast of the stage version - Miranda Richardson, David de Keyser and Mike Nichols in his first major on-screen performance - "Mourner" is set in an unnamed country in the grips of a repressive regime.
Jack (Nichols), a student with low-brow attitudes about culture, is married to Bohemian blue blood Judy Richardson), and in the opening moments it's clear that he's is resentful of her intellectual father, Howard (de Keyser).
With the actors seated behind a table in an unadorned room and speaking in turns directly to the camera in close shots, a little history and a lot of their personalities are quickly revealed.
There's a tragic, cautionary tale to come, but the power of the work comes from the way the performers recount and interpret events and their feelings through Shawn's superb dialogue.
"Mourner" is about the death of culture and the way the guardians of such higher human aspirations often unwittingly help the process, with Jack emerging as the most vital character.
Howard is a critic of the regime and is eventually imprisoned - along with many others when a reign of terror occurs.
Losing his mental balance, Jack isolates himself and confronts his shortcomings, coming to the conclusion that the "trash" he prefers - TV, pornography - is as legitimate as high culture.
But when Howard and Judy are murdered by the regime, Jack is devastated and Nichols' deeply emotional performance results in his character becoming a "designated mourner" - the last person left who remembers Howard, Judy and their clan.
Verging on the apocalyptic, "Mourner" shifts moods swiftly, and the frequent use of dissolves provides a much-needed structure to the unfolding monologues.
THE DESIGNATED MOURNER
First Look Pictures
A BBC Films presentation
A Greenpoint film
Director David Hare
Writer Wallace Shawn
Producers Donna Grey, David Hare
Executive producers Mark Shivas, Simon Curtis
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production designer Bob Crowley
Music Richard Hartley
Editor George Akers
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jack Mike Nichols
Judy Miranda Richardson
Howard David de Keyser
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
The First Look Pictures release opens Friday in New York and next month in Los Angeles.
Comparisons to Shawn's "My Dinner With Andre" and the films of Spalding Gray are appropriate, but "Mourner" as directed by David Hare ("Strapless") is so lean and static that theater fans may come away satisfied, but less-disciplined audiences will be squirming in their seats.
Featuring the cast of the stage version - Miranda Richardson, David de Keyser and Mike Nichols in his first major on-screen performance - "Mourner" is set in an unnamed country in the grips of a repressive regime.
Jack (Nichols), a student with low-brow attitudes about culture, is married to Bohemian blue blood Judy Richardson), and in the opening moments it's clear that he's is resentful of her intellectual father, Howard (de Keyser).
With the actors seated behind a table in an unadorned room and speaking in turns directly to the camera in close shots, a little history and a lot of their personalities are quickly revealed.
There's a tragic, cautionary tale to come, but the power of the work comes from the way the performers recount and interpret events and their feelings through Shawn's superb dialogue.
"Mourner" is about the death of culture and the way the guardians of such higher human aspirations often unwittingly help the process, with Jack emerging as the most vital character.
Howard is a critic of the regime and is eventually imprisoned - along with many others when a reign of terror occurs.
Losing his mental balance, Jack isolates himself and confronts his shortcomings, coming to the conclusion that the "trash" he prefers - TV, pornography - is as legitimate as high culture.
But when Howard and Judy are murdered by the regime, Jack is devastated and Nichols' deeply emotional performance results in his character becoming a "designated mourner" - the last person left who remembers Howard, Judy and their clan.
Verging on the apocalyptic, "Mourner" shifts moods swiftly, and the frequent use of dissolves provides a much-needed structure to the unfolding monologues.
THE DESIGNATED MOURNER
First Look Pictures
A BBC Films presentation
A Greenpoint film
Director David Hare
Writer Wallace Shawn
Producers Donna Grey, David Hare
Executive producers Mark Shivas, Simon Curtis
Director of photography Oliver Stapleton
Production designer Bob Crowley
Music Richard Hartley
Editor George Akers
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jack Mike Nichols
Judy Miranda Richardson
Howard David de Keyser
Running time -- 94 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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