The Thirteenth Tale

the presence of Vanessa Redgrave could be a guarantee about this film. but it is more. because it is not only a beautiful film but a wise one. not victim of many easy solutions - useful for many Gothic stories - but delicate and precise, gentle and care to each obstacle. a movie who remembers many old stories. but it has courage to not be only one of them. the key is the intelligent performance of lead actresses. and the spirit of old world - tower of secrets, deaths and the best servants. but the secret remains the clash between feelings, past and future, the limits and shadows of characters as a puzzle. that seems be all. a movie who has not ambition to be remarkable. but it is really good.

This film got positive reviews when it was screened around the Christmas period last year, however I sat on it for ages since I was conscious that being a good drama around that time of year doesn't always translate into it being a good drama in and of itself. The ghostly tale of death and mystery is told by an older woman approaching her own death to a younger woman commissioned to write her story – it is a standard setup and from here the story is told across many years in a patient and reasonably engaging manner. Indeed, the telling of the tale is where the film's strengths lie because it is undeniably a well crafted affair. The casting, the locations, the production values and the general maturity of the whole film are all such that it feels much better than it actually is. Suffice to say I can understand why it went down quite well at the end of the festive period, because it does stand out as a classy and adult affair, in contrast to the lighter entertainment fare that would have dominated the previous week or so.

I did find it pretty good thanks to this, with a steady approach and decent tone, but yet I never really got drawn into it in the way I would have liked for a serious drama and well-told story. There are a few moments of suspense and chills here, but generally it doesn't build into anything bigger or more dramatic – the same steady approach that helps to found it, also undoes it in this regard. It has its merits and there is a certain satisfaction to it but it never really gets beyond the quality of its build to become something where you don't see the craftsmanship because of how strong the actual story is.

The cast is part of that quality build and I did enjoy both Colman and Redgrave; the rest of the cast also has good quality turns – although Game of Thrones fans may find some of the casting a bit distracting! Direction and design of the film is of a high quality as I say – it looks good and feels weighty throughout. Shame that the delivery of the material didn't build better and didn't provide more in the way of chills and emotions. Perhaps it was too much going on in the small space available (with a couple of stories here) but it does feel lacking as a whole, even if the quality of the build is enjoyable to see.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito were twins. One inherited all the noble qualities, and the other... didn't. The twins in "The Thirteenth Tale" are rather less amusing. Madeleine Power is brilliant as the nine-year-old girls Emmeline and Adeline (Ella-Rose Wood skilfully doubles). One of these twins (under that cascade of gorgeous red hair) has the makings of a sociopath. You wouldn't want to be governess to this difficult duo, but Hester Barrow (Alexandra Roach) comes from the school of no-nonsense firmness. Also from a school of too clever by half rationality, leading to this "scientific" procedure - which you just know will not end well.

It's English Gothic. There's a whiff, nay, a stench of corruption within the tainted aristocratic blood, yea, in the befouled DNA. So mental instability is always going to be on the menu. The stolid servants (Janet Amsden as The Missus and Robert Pugh as John The Dig) ought to be secure enough - unless they get drawn into the cesspool.

If you want to enjoy this film, you'll need to accept the conventions. Some elements of the story are super-credible, other elements look cliched or artificially engineered. Is dying author Vida Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) trying to absolve some collective guilt by "confessing" to her chosen biographer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman)? Lea doesn't come across as tough enough to be a professional biographer. But maybe it's Lea's vulnerability that keeps Winter talking, spilling the beans and spilling them in the right order for her fantastical narrative to keep us watching. A movie like this draws you in with its well made beginning; but whether you'll say at the end, "This was time well spent" is not specified on the manufacturer's warranty card.

'The Thirteenth Tale', a new BBC drama, tells the story of madness in an upper class family. There's a twist in the tale, but finding a way to convey it critically maims the dramatic structure: the story is told, entirely in hindsight, in a way that kills engagement, promoting the mundane story of the telling into the foreground over the potentially more interesting story that's actually being told. One can also note that this is the sort of tale where, however neglected or crazy its young protagonists are supposed to be, they never fail to look anything but ravishing. I found it psychologically unconvincing and essentially dull.

Based on a best-selling Gothic novel, THE THIRTEENTH TALE contains all the virtues characteristic of contemporary BBC drama; lavish locations with plenty of exterior shots, ornately decorated interior shots, 'mood' lighting designed to create a spooky atmosphere, and a cast of well- known actors given full opportunity to show off their creative talents. In this particular piece, aging novelist Viola Winter (Vanessa Redgrave) enlists the services of little-known writer Margaret Lea (Olivia Colman) to recount her autobiography, including her Viola's mysterious childhood when her family home (Anglefield House) burned to the ground. However Viola is herself a writer of fiction, so we never quite know whether what she recounts is 'the truth' or not (if the truth exists, of course). Christopher Hampton's screenplay allows for plenty of exchanges between the protagonists, as well as creating a 'hall-of- mirrors' like effect in which nothing is what it seems to be. However the narrative of THE THIRTEENTH TALE does tend to sag; like many BBC dramas, the director James Kent seems too much concerned to create atmosphere through music and location shooting (both interior and exterior), both of which tend to impede the progress of the plot. The denouement, when it comes, is both predictable and un-scary. One is left with the feeling that the story could have been far more effectively recounted in a sixty-minute slot.