Mrs Lowry & Son

I got very lucky on this one as I wandered into a senior cits viewing. At the beginning they tittered and the ones who felt they always should get their money's worth - guffawed. Oh, she was so sweet & humorous the old Lady in the bed with just harmless jibes at her son. But then when it never stops, and we hear things like (to paraphrase): "it is important to always be seen in a good light by your neighbours" as well she only began to see her son's talent when a recently entrenched neighbour with bourgeois pretensions said his seaside painting was delightful - did she then consider it. This is a deeply ingrained bourgeois-ism in the English psyche and not say like Gerard Depardieu not wanting to appear in a Truffaut movie because he felt he had 'gone bourgeois' - you don't go bourgeois - it is a heavily sanctioned part of the society you grow up in. Luckily through all the turmoil he kept at his painting because near the end of his life they were worth a fortune. And as we learn about how little support he had as an artist the audience quietened down considerably - reflecting you would think on bourgeois pretensions of their own.

This marvelous film is steeped in Beckettian tropes and style. The mother son relationship is akin to Hamm and Clov in 'Endgame', or it might be Winnie in 'Happy Days'.

Even the reality of Lowry and his mother is not so far from Beckett and his own fractious relationship with his mother. Vanessa Redgrave even resembles Beckett as an old man with his spectacles.

The film echoes Beckett's maxim, 'to fail again, fail better' almost with the same sense as Lowry follows his own path against the odds and faces years of rejection and hostility, not the least from his mother who lacks imagination and only understands what she sees, not the meaning. Indeed the film has a very strong layers of social history in it as it reveals the neuroses and social anxieties of the period in England.

The excellent script is matched by admirable directing and editing together with technical features to make the 1930s flat and town vivid.

And then there are performances from Spall and Redgrave which are the pinnacle of skill and empathy. It is a consummate and perfectly poised interaction between the two.

If only other films gave their audience as much.

Interesting insight to one of Britain's great artists, and worth the watch to see a master class in acting by Redgrave & Spall. It's not a feel good movie by any means, largely set in Lowry's ailing mothers bedroom. It's clear he loved actually worshiped his mum, and her affect on his life is profound. Even when she finally died. I did enjoy the film, mainly as I said because of the acting and story however be warned it is a biopic, not a feel good movie at all .. enjoy!

This story is heart wrenching! The mother is a woman who uses every opportunity to put her son down, and I feel genuinely sad and sorry for Mr Lowry.

If you go to see this... see it for the performances, and know it's one of those films which will stick with you more than when you viewed it itself- if that makes sense. It's a worthy film alone if you're also an art fan. The film mostly takes place in one room and with that most of its merit I feel is born.

See Spall in his better artist film 'Mr. Turner', however if you must see more- this is a nice companion piece of sorts.

7/10. (Maybe 7.5 ;)