Eternal Beauty

While I didn't really rate this title very highly at only 7.0 out of 10, I am bothering to review it here simply because of two things. First Sally Hawkins performance as Jane and second, because I can only be all in favour of anything that helps to raise awareness of mental health problems.

I live now in Thailand where there is absolutely zero understanding of, or interest in, mental health issues. Even in Western societies today, there is STILL such a degree of misunderstanding of mental health problems that it is still common for people to think that mental illness is a fall-back excuse for sufferers' "bad" or inappropriate behavior. The cry of "just pull yourself together" is all too common even these days and even among people who should know better, with education about the matter being so readily available to anyone who cares enough to look for it.

"Eternal Beauty" should be a lesson to anyone who has even a bare notion about what mental illness is. Sally Hawkins' portrayal of a young woman suffering from schizophrenia is an object lesson in how that condition affects the sufferer and those around him or her.

This is not an easy movie to watch but that is really the point. It's not an easy condition to live with, either as the sufferer or as family. Sally gives yet another wonderful performance here, just as she did in "Made In Dagenham" and as the wonderful "Maudie". She has quite a distinguished career already at only 44 years of age. She has, I'm sure, an even more distinguished career ahead of her.

Watch "Eternal Beauty". It's a challenging movie but very worth the effort.

JMV

Ive got mixed feelings for this movie. Acting is superb.

Plot is about seriously ill person. Its very hard movie to watch, after 1/3 of movie I wanted to switch of, because it felt so dark. I watched it till end just because wanted to understand whats in persons mind with this illness and how it affects family and siblings. There was something missing in movie.

But it was emotionally intense, I cried, then smiled. It's deeply touching.

But i don't watch this movie again. It's too " heavy " and something missing to be great movie.

A Sally Hawkins performance is always so enthralling. Her latest role, in Craig Roberts's dark comedy, sees her play Jane a woman living with paranoid schizophrenia. There's a stark sense of isolation here - scenes take place in rooms that are half-empty, but filled with long, hungry shadows.

It has light, funny moments. When Jane falls for Mike (David Thewlis), someone also chewed up and spat out by the mental health system, they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic. However, the movie is never unfaithful to the psychological reality of its central character.

Eternal Beauty shows, we might not be able to conquer our demons, but we can try to live with them. This is a nuanced, evolved take on mental illness than most films are capable of.

Jane (Sally Hawkins) is struggling with her mental illness. Her family had put her in an institution after her breakdown from being left at the altar. She is presently back living with her family who are all dealing with her in their own ways. She begins a romance with Mike (David Thewlis) who has mental illness of his own.

The different tones clash somewhat. It's quirky and disturbing with a general melancholy over the whole affair. The quirky attempts at humor don't really work due to the sadness of it all. The kid getting knocked out is shocking. Through everything, there is the greatness of Sally Hawkins. She is the shining star above all else.

Greetings again from the darkness. There is an odd line early on in which the psychologist says, "Don't fight depression. Make friends with it." What makes this an odd line is that Jane is a paranoid schizophrenic, and depression doesn't seem to be a driving force in her life. Craig Roberts wrote and directed the film (his second feature as director). You might know Mr. Roberts as an actor. He played the lead in SUBMARINE (2010). His approach as a filmmaker is one that keeps the audience off-balance; in fact, we can simply state this one is weird.

Sally Hawkins (THE SHAPE OF WATER, 2017) plays Jane. She lives on her own thanks to medication. Her family is present, though not especially supportive. A flashback takes us to Jane's wedding day where a younger Jane is played by Morfyyd Clark (THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, 2020). Jane is spurned on her wedding day by her husband-to-be, and it pushes her over the edge emotionally and mentally.

An early scene gives us a peek at current day Jane. She brings wrapped Christmas presents to her parents' house, and promptly hands over the receipts to each family member. She purchased her own gifts, acts surprised and grateful as she opens them, and expects her parents and sisters to repay her for the gifts. It's quite a scene.

We follow Jane through her days as she seems to drift in and out of awareness and reality. She periodically hears her phone ring, and by answering she hears the voice of her former fiancé. The red phones match the phone she was on during her last conversation with him on her wedding day. It's her most painful and visceral memory, and one that Jane can't seem to overcome.

Relationships between the parents and the sisters are quite something to behold. Penelope Wilton (THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, 2011) is the mother prone to cruelty and confusion, whereas the father (Robert Pugh, MASTER AND COMMANDER) nearly fades into the wallpaper, though seems more empathetic. Jane's sisters Nicola and Alice are played by Billie Piper ("Penny Dreadful") and Alice Lowe (GET DUKED!, 2020). Nicola envies Jane's ability to collect free money (disability), while Alice is estranged from their mother, and claims her "normal" life is boring.

When Mike (David Thewlis from Charlie Kaufman's latest, I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS) enters the picture, it's like a jolt of electricity from touching the wrong wire. Mike is somehow stranger than Jane, yet they manage to connect. As an example of the film's odd dialogue, when Jane asks Mike how things are going, he responds, "Things were looking up for a few weeks, a couple years back." That's the type of exchange we deal with throughout, and it takes an inordinate amount of energy to process what we see and hear.

One shot from cinematographer Kit Fraser is a particular standout. It comes from inside a microwave, replete with rotisserie base and Jane's face peering through the glass. There are numerous moments we've not previously seen or heard in movies ... like the doctor clarifying if the patient is "fine or good". Ms. Hawkins delivers another strange, but affecting performance ... something she has mastered over the years. She always makes the character hers, and makes us care about her. An added bonus is hearing Ricky Nelson sing "I Will Follow You" ... slightly more soothing than David Thewlis' frantic electric guitar performance. It seems certain that filmmaker Roberts agrees that normal is boring, and he ensures his film and characters are not.