Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017)

I really enjoyed this movie. It reminded me of the ups and downs of love throughout our lives and especially during the endings. And how brave of Ms. Bening to act with little or no makeup.

I watched this film not knowing what it was about,i watch probably 6 films a week i like films, i love good films,i watch a film because it takes me somewhere else,this film was ok but far too long i saw the point.....i got it,but it turned out too long i dont care about the videographer or this that or the other. i like to go that was amazing film whether it was star wars or somewhere in time, people on here go on about stuff in the film thats not important...question was it a good bloody film,this was ok but at one hour forty five i was looking is it nearly over ...it's romantic its ok jamie bell was great and julie walter well she's fantasic but watching them in billy elliot was a million miles away from this film, it was a ok film....but just ok

Love stories have always framed the narrative of humanity and our hunger for more is never sated. That's why we are fascinated by variations such as gender and age inversions which challenge conventional romantic expectations. They also frame the dramatic bio-pic Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017), a love story of an ageing femme fatale with a film title that evokes the vanity of stardom. Based on the real-life romance between Gloria Grahame (Annette Bening) and Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), the story unfolds through a series of artfully constructed flashbacks over a decade. We meet them in a 1970s London boarding house, when Turner was at the start of a hopeful career in acting and the 1947 Oscar winning Grahame was barely surviving in theatre and television. The over-awed young actor immediately succumbs to Grahame's star aura and they become lovers. Turner's working-class Liverpool family are astonished when the revered Hollywood star visits their modest home and their shock at the age difference soon dissipates. When Grahame is diagnosed with a terminal illness, the family provides emotional support until her American family intervene.While this dialogue-rich character study is not for everyone, Annette Bening's tour-de-force performance is extraordinary for its portrayal of the darkest and lightest side of the same person. Two details mentioned early linger throughout the film to complicate our view of this relationship between an older woman and someone young enough to be her son. We learn that Grahame once had an affair with a 13-year old stepson whom she later married, and both Grahame and Turner confide to having had gay relationships. Through the prism of today's sexual codes, the film could easily be judgemental but is not.Moral and emotional ambiguity casts a soft light over Grahame. It is impossible to tell when she is emoting genuinely or when she is in character, acting the hopeless romantic or ageing cougar. It is only when her health declines and she must confront mortality that we can sense the human being behind the mask. It takes a special actress to hold together this kaleidoscope of emotions and Bening does it brilliantly. Jamie Bell excels as her leading man, beguiled by the charms of an older woman.There is a self-reflexive side to depicting an icon of classic Hollywood who plays a fading star in the modern era. Bening channels several greats like Katherine Hepburn and even Humphrey Bogart to produce a brooding, mercurial woman struggling to accept that she was "once the great Gloria Grahame". In this way, the story dwells on the backstage world where the distance between actors and their roles can become blurred and chaotic. The result is an engrossing study of the demons that lay in waiting, somewhere in the space beyond stardom.

"Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" (2017 release; 107 min.) is a movie about the last years in the life of actress Gloria Grahame. As the movie opens (and Elton John's "Song For Guy" plays in the background), we are told it's "Liverpool, England, 1981" and we see Gloria applying make-up and getting ready for a theater performance. But she falls ill. She reaches out to Peter Turner in nearby Liverpool and asks if she can come stay at his mum's house. Peter agrees. We then go back in time to "Primrose Hill, London, 1979", and we see Peter running into Gloria for the first time. At this point we are 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is latest from Scottish director Paul McGuigan, best known for "Victor Frankenstein". Here he brings the real life memoir of Peter Turner to the big screen. Turner met faded film star in the late 70s when he was 28 and she was twice that age. i shan't say more (biting my lips). Let's be very clear about one thing: leading actress Annette Bening is absolutely fantastic in this movie. You might think that, having been criminally overlooked in last year's Oscar nominations for he outstanding work in "20th Century Women", the Academy would be a bit more careful this time around. But no. Bening is once again robbed by the Academy, which instead once again lazily gave another nomination to Meryl Streep for her ok (but by no means outstanding) work in the very medicore "The Post" (an "All President's Men" wanna-be that is nowhere close to that gold standard). Jamie Bell is equally up to the task, but has nowhere near the stature or screen presence of Bening. Vanessa Redgrave appear in one scene. The movie's set production (recreating the late 70s/early 80s) is immaculate. Last but not least there is a lot f great music in the film, both as to the score and the song placements."Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" has been gradually expanding over the last 2 months, and it finally opened last weekend at my local art house theater here in Cincinnati. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended okay (about 15 people or so). Other than the very basic premise of an older woman's relationship with a younger guy, I knew nothing about the movie beforehand, and I ended up enjoying this quite a bit more than I had expected. But it the end, this film is really about Annette Bening's outstanding performance, and that alone is worth checking this out, be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.