moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (06/21/85)
DANCE WITH A STRANGER (Great Britain, 1985)
Director: Mike Newell
Screenwriter: Shelagh Delaney
Cast: Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, Ian Holm
[American Premiere]
There's been an argument raging on net.movies for the last
week concerning how _The_Return_of_the_Soldier_ is a film
depicting rich people being miserable throughout the entire
length. Well, I haven't seen that movie (I'd like to), but let me
warn you here: I suspect that if you disliked
_The_Return_of_the_Soldier_, you will hate with
_Dance_With_a_Stranger_; in fact, if you liked
_The_Return_of_the_Soldier_, you'll probably still dislike this
film. I wasn't all that crazy about _Betrayal_, other than the
technical aspects of it, but this film makes _Betrayal_ look
like _Chariots_of_Fire_. I am almost beginning to wonder
whether for every two very good films coming out of Britain, a
quota exists requiring a film to be made about the tedious and
unpleasant lives of the most worthless, nasty, depressing sods
imaginable.
_Dance_With_a_Stranger_ tells the true story of Ruth Ellis,
the last woman sent to the gallows. It takes place in 1955 (I
admit, the sets were amazingly authentic -- the feel seemed
very mid-50s), and describes an obsessive relationship
between Ellis, a nightclub manageress, and a titled, amateur
racing driver David Blakely. The affair is followed for a period
of about 3 years, during which we see Ruth lose her job, be
raped, be depressed, smash up a bar, and lots of other fun
events. Blakely is one of the worst slugs imaginable, and he is
obsessive around Ellis, saying he cannot sleep without her next
to him, and then mistreating her at all other times. We are told
that Ellis would have given him up long ago, but, she, too, is
obsessive in her relationship with Blakely. Ian Holm plays a
friend of Ellis, who is in love with her, but too straight-laced
to even consider asking her to marry him. He pulls her out of
each of the dilemmas she gets into, puts her and her son up in
his townhouse, and later rents them a room. He constantly
bails her out of every jam she gets into with Blakely, because
he seems to be the only nice, decent chap in the whole movie.
His mooning over Ellis seems somewhat pitiful, but compared
to the rest of the characters in this film, he comes out looking
like Sir Lancelot.
The gist of this film is that, by the end of the movie, the only
sentiment one can raise over the two main characters' deaths
is that it couldn't happen to two nicer people. I realize that
this is a famous murder case in England, but it seems basically
an exercise in two stupid and nasty people getting themselves
into one problem after another due to the unpleasantness of the
other. Pfui.
"I'm going to have you wrapped in a U.S. flag and burned personally by the
President, in high octane American gasoline!"
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc.
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