The Winter Guest (1997)

***SPOILERS*** Artsy smartzy Igmar Bergman like British film that takes place in the dead of winter in a small Scottish town involving some half dozen persons who live there.There's mother and daughter Elspeth & Frances played by Phylida Law & Emma Thompson, who are mother and daughter in real life, who have trouble communicating with each other. Frances a professional photographer is sick and tired of living in the town since her husband suddenly passed away and is seriously thinking of resettling in far off and warm Australia. There's also Frances' teenage son Alex, Garry Hollywood, who's haunted by his father's ghost and is so into himself and his problems that he doesn't see tomboy Nita, Arlne Cockburn, is crazy about him and wants Alex to be her boyfriend every time he passes her riding his bike by the local bus stop.There's also spinsters Lily & Chloe, Sheila Reid & Sandra Voe, who find solace in their boring lives attending funerals for people that they don't know just to put some meaning and excitement into their lives. And finally there's Tom & Sam, Sean Bggerstaff & Dougas Murphy, who just happen to be playing hooky from school who, Tom that is, ends up meeting Elspeth by the shore and unconsciously brings both her and her estranged daughter Frances back together by having her photograph them. The two boys also find two kittens abandoned in a sea cave to their frozen fate and end up adopting them. Which in fact makes them skipping school worthwhile in saving the kittens lives.***SPOILERS*** By the time the film is over you get the impression that everything was fine between all those involved in it with Elspeth & Frances together again and Alex & Nita now boyfriend and girlfriend. There's also Lily & Chole finally finding, after checking out all the newspapers obituaries, a funeral to attend and someone, the guest of honor, to morn for. The most confusing thing in the movie was what exactly happened to both Tom & Sam together with their kittens? They just seemed to have happily walked off the edge of the earth, into the frozen Arctic Sea, by the time the movie ended?

The Winter Guest (1997)This has the depth and studious pace and multi-pronged construction of a good play. Which it once was. And like many plays turned to cinema, this carries along some first rate dramatic acting, namely by Emma Thompson and her real life mother, Phyllida Law, playing mother and daughter. As a small twist, the playwright, Sharman Macdonald, is mother to someone else we know, actress Keira Knightley.The scene is a forlorn village in the dead of winter on a Scottish coast. We are shown the first turn of innocent love, a pair of boys playing with the edges of right and wrong, a pair of old woman touching on what death looks like if not felt, and the mother daughter pair who deal with a little of everything. Including photography, which serves as a classic artist's release, a way to take you out of your head and into what is out there in front of you.Don't expect action, or even any great surprising turn of events. At first I went along with the slow, beautiful pace thinking it was all building to something. And I suppose it was, after all, but nothing that will shock you. It's better than that, and more real, and more touching. The movie and play are both quite good, lacking the finesse and originality of the most amazing works around us, drawing even from Ibsen or Chekhov in the realism and power of very ordinary people in faraway places. The acting is tremendous within the cool dry restraints of the plot, and in fact might make more the the play than is there. If you like a bit of reality without sensation, but just tenderness and meaning, this will work.

I loved the cinematography in this movie! The story, however, is utterly boring. There's no catalyst, no actual order of events. Emma Thompson is one of the sexiest, most brilliant stars of her time. Her real life mother, Phyllida Law, was also incredible. Overall, however, there was no drive in the film. Will she go to Australia or not? Do we honestly care? No. Even great actors can't save badly written scripts. There wasn't anything really here... Sorry Alan... Sorry Emma... Sorry cast. You're all beautiful and incredible but you need something to do. Life or death. That makes a good movie. And a decent resolution would've been nice.

Like any great film, this is close to the essence of life. In four poetic,hearthwarming scenes, different generations of characters are entangled in alonging for protection and affection. Two woman wait at a bus stop for a day out to a funeral, but behind their apparent, casual view on death lies a hidden fear for their own end. A new girl in town chases after a local boy, both searchthrough their mutual attraction towards each other. Two schoolboys are playing near the frozen sea and talk about their future. And all this is bound by the main story of a mother-daughter relationship. From the first flight over the seascape, to the final scene with one of the boys walking into the mist, everything is filmed and directed with the same sense for intense images and esthetic realism. And when on the tones of Liz Fraser, lovingly singing the end-credits, the filmends.....and there's a certain sadness that one already has to leave this beautiful universe behind. "The Winter guest" is again (if their ever was doubt) the prove how superior European cinema is compared to the Hollywood-counterpart. I rest my case.