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Albatross
| Released |
14 October 2011 |
| Director |
Niall MacCormick |
Starring
|
Sebastian Koch, Julia Ormond, Jessica Brown Findlay, Felicity Jones, Peter Vaughan, Harry Treadaway, Thomas Brodie Sangster |
| Writer(s) |
Tamzin Rafn |
| Producer(s) |
Adrian Sturges |
| Origin |
United Kingdom |
| Running Time |
89 minutes |
| Genre |
Drama |
| Rating |
15A |
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Burdensome.
Perhaps it is simply fortuitous that Albatross, a low budget British flick completed in a matter of weeks, should be released when its star Jessica Brown Findlay is having something of a moment as Lady Sybil in ITV's widely popular costume drama Downton Abbey. Indeed, without the relatively small star power that Brown Findlay lends to this slight movie, one can imagine that Albatross would fail to garner much interest amongst the populace at large.
Director Niall MacCormick who is perhaps better known for TV movies such as The Song of Lunch (2011) and his 2009 biopic of Margaret Thatcher, is at the helm of this coming-of-age story, set in a present day jaded English seaside town. Writer Jonathan (Sebastian Koch) owns a guesthouse, run by his unhappy former actress wife Joa (Julia Ormond). While Jonathan spends all day attempting to work through his writer's block in the attic, Joa takes their youngest daughter to a multitude of auditions in the hope that she can escape the life to which her mother is now bound to; their eldest daughter Beth (Felicity Jones) meanwhile, shuts herself away in her room planning her escape to university at Oxford. The family's mundane, quiet existence is thrown off-balance however by the arrival of free spirited Emelia (Jessica Brown Findlay), an aspiring writer with a ribald laugh who embarks on an affair with Jonathan and a friendship with Beth. Great-granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes writer Arthur Conan Doyle, Emelia has led a colourful and sad life beneath her exuberant exterior. Struggling to write something worthy of her forefather, Emelia looks for an excuse not to be taken seriously but when her impediments are unceremoniously revoked she flounders.
Whilst there are quite a few charming moments in Albatross and indeed, it almost gets better as it goes along, there are too many faults to make this movie anything more than just average. The main problem is that MacCormick doesn't seem to know who is target audience is. When Emelia flashes her breast at a nerdy young man in order to get her hands on some wine, it seems a gratuitous empty gesture on behalf of the director to get the other sex interested in what is essentially over sentimental dross. Julia Ormond makes a somewhat tepid return to the big screen as the much put-upon wife and mother but instead of inculcating sympathy in the audience she instead alienates them with her constant exasperation and narkiness. It is Brown Findlay who manages to carry the film-her good looks and 'Jack Kerouac' bop coolness brings a certain flavour to what is otherwise a forgettable production.
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Louisa McElwee |
