An Inspector Calls (2015)

Good mystery, well acted. A stylishly captivating period piece.

I stumbled across this title while browsing a streaming network and decided to watch it based initially just on the fact that one of my all time favorite actors (David Thewlis) was in it. The film turned out to be a beautifully shot, well staged story with a well chosen cast. Exhibited was a complex emotional range by all involved which led to an organic, believable and authentic journey into the lives, hearts and minds of the main characters. Having worked for many years in the industry makes me notoriously hard to please and with that being said, this film passed my scrutiny with flying colors.

'An Inspector Calls' is a wonderful play written by J B Priestley and first performed in the mid-1940s. It was transformed into a brilliant film, starring the great Alastair Sim as the Inspector, in 1954 and against which all subsequent performances have to be measured. That said, this version comes close.As the Inspector, David Thewlis is wonderfully cast and Ken Stott makes a great contribution as the rich and selfish Mr Birling. Miranda Richardson is a marvellously arrogant Mrs Birling, while the rest of the cast play rather more sympathetic characters. Poor Eva Smith is pretty and doomed, her life destroyed by the Birling family whether through malice, selfishness or because they simply don't understand 'how the other half lives'.Eva Smith does nothing wrong; she simply tries to survive but at every turn she seems destined to collide with some member, or near member, of the Birling family. Sacked by one, sacked again because of another; abandoned by a third and left pregnant by a fourth, she is finally turned away by the local poor law committee, chaired without any sign of sympathy or compassion by Mrs Birling. The poor girl is left with only one way out, and she takes it.This is a fine adaptation of a great play. Wonderfully cast, superbly acted and truly gripping; my one and only criticism is of the occasionally too loud and quite unnecessary musical accompaniment. The way in which the various members of the family react as their parts in Eva's death come to light reflects their different attitudes to life. The senior members remain aloof and in denial while the younger ones show far greater sensitivity and feelings of guilt until the Inspector's credentials are called into question; then they start to regain their confidence as it seems it was all a rather nasty joke. When they discover that there has been no such death reported, joy is almost unconfined.And then the telephone rings and the only question left unanswered is 'Who was the Inspector ?'

After watching this movie adaptation of An Inspector Calls, I felt that this remake turned into a great success. At first the characters weren't what I expected, most of them seemed quite simple and bland and thought that the actors weren't suited to to their roles. But as the film progressed my attitude towards the characters changes, Eric and Sheila aren't the spoiled brats I thought they were- they actually care about the death of this young woman. Gerald, I realized has more emotional depth Han I gave him credit for, but Mr and Mrs Birling we're exactly what I thought they'd be like and their attitudes towards Eva didn't really change. As for the Inspector I thought that David Thewlis did a great job being the Inspector and his character was also amazing but what I didn't like about the Inspector was that towards the end of the film, he starts time traveling (Priestly hinted that the Inspector was supernatural) but I started getting very confused and became unsure of if he was there before she died and it was a flash back or he is the reason she is dead... I have no idea. But overall this was an amazing movie and I really enjoyed it.