I love the way I came to see The Awakening. I was probably going to see it anyway, but I put out a tweet which said My Week With Marilyn, Dream House or The Awakening, and wouldn't you know it, the director Nick Murphy tweeted me back and said guess which film I'd recommend. I thought well you can't get better than that, not only someone with a personal interest, but someone who takes time out of what must be a very busy schedule to interact with me (don't care about anyone else, it is all about ME).
Sat down in my usual seat in the multiplex - there are nine screens at my local world of cine and I have a specific seat that I like to sit in all of them - always in the back row. I also love when a movie doesn't attract children and more specifically teens. Whilst there is nothing wrong with a teen at a film, a gaggle of them always ensures stupidity like kicking the back of my chair.
I settled into The Awakening because that is what you do with a good period piece. You revel in the sumptuousness of another time and allow yourself to be transported. The cinematography is stunningly beautiful - it feels velvets, tweeds and oppression - of both mind and spirit. Maybe not oppression so much as a defeated spirit needing recovery time after WWI and the pandemic of the Spanish Flu. Everyone has lost at least one someone.
Rebecca Hall is Florence Cathcart who busts bogus charlatan ghost providers. Dominic West is a Latin teacher at a boys' boarding school who needs Florence's help because it appears that a boy has been scared to death by a recurring ghost at the school. Florence meets Maud the housekeeper and the boys who all appear suitably terrified.
Florence gets to diligently setting up her wonderful equipment - trip wires, cameras with magnesium flashes, etc. One boy, Tom, constantly seeks her out and they form a relationship of sorts. All sorts of weird things happen as you would expect - the most chilling an imaginative dollhouse scene which scared the bejesus out of me. One scene is shown over from different angles, each scarier than the last until we hurtle towards the conclusion.
What I did like about this cinematic directorial debut by Mr Murphy was the score (lush), sense of horror, it didn't collapse 2/3 way through the way most horror/terror movies do - you know ratchet up the tension to where you just can't take it anymore then descends into stupid chaos as if those involved did not have the courage of their convictions to just see it through or they decided ok enough of this psychological stuff, let's bring on the special effects. The audience is treated like adults - always a plus with me.
What I didn't like - the romance - such as it was because when that happened I thought all this shit is going down in the house and you have time for a bit of hanky panky - REALLY? Maybe that's the way it is with adults or maybe it's just characters in the movies. This is the time I would normally mentally leave the picture and think oh well valiant try, better luck next time. But I just let that go, mainly because it was so brief anyway. I am sure that part of the reason for it was a joint overcoming of years of pent up grief, and sometimes sex just relieves the tension.
I admit to getting a bit confused by the whole ending - for me it's a case of I know one person didn't survive, but was that the only one and a couple of other things, but as I tweeted Mr Murphy and said when it comes to Sky, I will figure it out because for me it needs a second viewing.
I also liked that I didn't figure the whole plot out in the first act. This is sadly becoming a recurring theme when I go to the cinema and must admit that it dulls my enjoyment of most films. But I have also pointed out many a time that maybe it's because I see far too many films, and I don't have the wonder of someone who goes to the cinema four times a year or so.
Rebecca Hall is never any less than good, and in this she has a fragile strength. She is fine as long as she can "science" away the ghosts, but as soon as this fails her, she starts to unravel. I liked her in Vicky Christina Barcelona far more than I should have.
Dominic West is actually a very good actor. I say that because you see him in The Wire and he is excellent, but you can't picture him in anything else because McNulty is a classic character, until you see him in something else and he's really good. Imelda Staunton is creepy as Maud just as she was as Dolores Umbridge in the HP films. Isaac Hempstead Wright (I love my Bran Stark - Game of Thrones - the best series ever) as Tom has that haunted look that you get with children in ghost stories. He is also gorgeous looking. The kids in ghost films are either hauntingly beautiful or interesting looking (ugly).
Nick Murphy knows I'll be watching his career from here on out, and I'll bet he's terrified - no really!
One and a half thumbs up for me.
