An Inspector Calls

I loved the entire play. The thought of the play was amazing. I loved how the music blended so perfectly with the feelings of the characters and how the lighting always matched the mood. The producers kept you going with the entire thing and knew when to go to a another scene, which they executed it quite beautifully. The camera angles were great, the over the shoulder angles kept a kind of sense that this person was disgusted with them (mainly the Inspector). Also, the actors were a perfect fit. I adored Finn Cole, he was such a perfect fit to play Eric Birling. He provoked such feeling in the character and he just suited the role perfectly. But, all the actors were a perfect fit for their roles. Overall, thee play was phenomenal.

As an English student who recently read thoroughly the play this movie is based of, my main thoughts about this film is that it's a perfectly crafted piece that follows the plot of the play quite accurately, but I also consider myself quite "unexperienced" in the matter because I have only seen this adaptation and not the rest- so maybe by watching the rest of the movies my opinion on the quality of this movie may differ, but I hope that not drastically.

To be honest, right at the beginning when the characters were presenting themselves at the dinner table I found most of their portrayals quite bland and out of character in a sense- especially Eric and Sheila. I found them lacking that strength and uniqueness that had made me strive for them while reading the play, but then again it's true that at the beginning their personalities were much more superficial and that were mostly developed as the play progressed- something which was shown naturally in the film.

Nevertheless, as soon as the plot starting moving the skepticism faded away and I was left awestruck by the actors' outstanding performances; Mr and Mrs Birling were just how I pictured them throughout the story; Gerald was given much more emotional depth than what I had imagined and Eric even though it wasn't how I initially thought of him made me comprehend a completely different interpretation of his character. I am not quite sure of Sheila yet, but I do have to admit that Chloe Pirrie reflected her major character development, but I imagined Sheila as a more immature and naive girl in the beginning. Let's not forget about Sophie Rundell's breathtaking job as Eva: taking only brief descriptions from a dead girl and turning that into a round character with a profound, political and representative meaning behind it.

Even if the characters' portrayals is essential to the film, what really sticks to the audience are the audiovisuals, and I can assure you this film excelled in that job. The shots were beautiful and gave the story a deeper meaning for me as a viewer and indeed hinted many subtle messages that otherwise wouldn't have made much sense. Above all, what most impressed me was the score; from the beginning until the very end the score was used skilfully to match the characters' emotions in certain scenes, but the feeling of strings and a piano matched the main themes of the play, and probably may be the main reason for my passionate liking of this film.

Aisling Walsh's telefilm of the Priestley classic, first performed at London's Old Vic Theatre in 1945, opens out the action somewhat. It begins with a shot of Eva Smith (Lucy Rundle) writing in her diary in a lonely room, followed by a shot of some wooden floorboards, and two or three establishing shots of the Birling factory with a 1912 car moving out of the gates. Through this brief sequence we are given a clear idea of the class-differences permeating the film between the haves and the have-nots, the exploiters and the exploited, that forms one of Priestley's major themes.

Eva Smith does not appear in the Priestley text; in this version she is transformed into a hard-working girl who is not backward about coming forward. Hence she becomes an object of affection for factory-owner Arthur Birling (Ken Stott), his son Eric (Finn Cole), and Gerald Croft (Kyle Soller), the son of a rival factory-owner who is due to be affianced to Arthur's daughter Sheila (Chloe Pirrie). Yet it soon becomes clear that all of them treat her as an object to be picked up and cast aside at will; it's a tribute to Eva's strength of character that she manages to sustain her integrity throughout, until she gives up the ghost and commits suicide.

At the end of the film the floorboards shot is explained, as Eva describes herself as "a crack in the floorboards" - a member of the underclass who is allowed to fall through in a crassly unequal society. No one, it seems, is willing to treat her on her own terms as a human being.

Walsh's version also represents the Inspector (David Thewlis) as a mysterious figure moving slowly in the darkness towards the Birling residence, walking along a narrow slum in shadow, his bowler hat and long coat silhouetted, and visiting the dying Eva in hospital. We are left unsure as to whether he exists at all - especially at the end when he mysteriously disappears. But the question of his being isn't really important: what matters more is his ability to uncover the truth about the Birling family through patient, insistent questioning. Thewlis's expression remains impassive throughout - even if he despises the Birlings' superciliousness, he will never let his emotions get the better of him.

In the central moments of the drama, as the truth about the family was gradually revealed, Walsh used repeated close-ups to focus on the protagonists' changing expressions: Arthur's look of quiet confidence was transformed into an expression of utter despair as he ran his hands through his hair; his wife Sheila (Miranda Richardson) tried her best to retain an impassive exterior, but the tell-tale movements of her cheek and neck-bones betrayed her emotions. Her stoicism in the face of the inevitable truth-revelation was contrasted with Eric's expressions - at first he looked guiltily at everyone in full knowledge that he had been in some way responsible for Eva's death, but as the drama unfolded he acquired a strength of character as he tried to come to terms with his past.

Brilliantly performed and suggestively directed; this was a thoroughly televisual version of the play that reminded us of the persistence of social inequalities today.

An absolutely gripping atmospheric huis-clos, this psychological period drama could remind of an English Zola novelette and it will make you take a good hard look at yourself.

Whatever it might be, you're not going to expect *this*. Make absolutely sure to avoid spoilers! All you must know is that it isn't a "detective" story. It's a whodunit of sorts but who did it isn't the point (while being the only point - it'll make sense after)

An inspector calls onto a wealthy family at dinner time in 1910 to impart some seemingly unrelated piece of bad news. Ensues a flawless story, stunning cinematography, perfect period atmosphere, and absolutely top drawer acting. English television at its very best. 10/10 and I'm ever so glad I happened onto this tonight.

I saw the 1954 version and although I liked it very much I didn't cry. I saw this version and I just couldn't stop crying. The ending was utterly heartbreaking and although I usually disagree with changing the endings of well known books, plays etc (for example Agatha Christie's works that on the newest adaptations it's some kind of a "norm" to change the endings) I hoped down to the last second of the movie for the ending to change. An amazing adaptation. One I will never forget.