Gideon's Daughter

Although it was "just" a TV movie, the TV network was the BBC. It was written and directed by Stephen Poliakoff, a well-established creative mind. The story is about two people, Stella and Gideon who have lost an only child, one to death, the other to negligence. Stella had divorced her husband, who reacts violently to his loss. Stella remains calm and only occasionally indulges in sadness. Their child was taken by death.

Gideon, on the other hand, a superstar of big productions for the British government, realizes that he has neglected his daughter until she has become almost estranged from him. He recognizes the similarities in his and Stella's sadness and they connect--physically, intellectually, and spiritually. The movie is a quiet piece, the stillness broken only by Stella's husband at the onset of the story.

The movie is intentionally slow-moving, as one of the reviewers put it, "almost in real time." But for those capable of subtleties, the acting shows clearly the visible clues to both lead character's grief.

This movie is in a class with "Obsession" with Glynnis Paltrow and Sidney Pollack's last movie (I think), "Random Hearts". These are three of the most beautiful motion pictures I have watched, and I am an avid movie-goer.

There's always a lot to enjoy in any Stephen Polliakoff film: striking use of images and music, an interest in big questions, and the director's lack of fear of letting things run at a slow pace where this makes the story, and atmosphere, more absorbing. But there's also always a journey into a stylised world, and a tendency to set up a false dichotomy between an overly-schematised, and fake, business world, and an overly romanticised (and arguably no less fake) real world. Even when my sympathies lie with Polliakoff, I'm always frustrated by his failure to give our own side a sufficiently hard time. 'Gideon's Daughter' is not his most interesting film, largely because its central characters (a jaded spin doctor and his almost supernaturally beautiful, talented and serene daughter) are fundamentally quite dull. A moment towards the end of the film illustrates the problem succinctly: we see the main characters disappearing from a beautiful Edinburgh street, a street that it the real world in permanently busy with traffic and people but which here is shown devoid of cars and pedestrians alike: and while a director should be forgiven occasional moments of dramatic licence, when the entire drama is framed through such a distorted lens, though big questions may be asked, they're not really answered. This is a wonderfully crafted little film; but also a film that has very little relevance to the messiness of real lives.

How can be this simply story so touching? I kept asking this question for hours. Is it a parent-child relationship that everyone of us knows (at least from one of its sides) or is it something more? Or is it that lazy tempo that makes this movie so real? And I can't forget the totally beautiful song performed by Emily Blunt (Natasha). Bill Nighy's (Gideon) acting is perfect, too. Every scene in this film fits in it accurately and although the ending is filled with pathos, you'll have to like it. Because you want to believe that life goes that way. You have to see it and the best option is to watch it with your parents. It says things people should tell, but they don't.

Frankly, this 'much anticipated' feature-length is all over the place, self-indulgent dialogue matched by equally indulgent performances by well known actors, highly aware they are in a 'quality drama' production. People all over Islington and Fulham nodding sagely, and the rest of us wondering what it's all meant to be about. Does Poliakoff know, or care? Early on it seems to be a weak satire on the 'era of spin' initiated by the New Labour government elected in 1997, which found its apotheosis in the risible Millennium Dome project, style without substance, and plastic style at that. Throw in the 'death of Diana' as a modular dramatic device, again used to illustrate the 'stage management' of our modern political and national life. But there is a problem. If you want to do satire you have to make it bite, particularly in the characterisation of Gideon himself, the spin meister. Bill Nighy, however, seems to wander throughout the production on valium, spending most of him staring out of windows and pondering the meaning of a song sung by his daughter. The satirical element is entirely missing from the second half, which turns into another middle class drama 'leitmotif' - the 'unconventional love story'. Realised in terms of one of those cross-class-cultural divide fantasies beloved of middle class playwrights. Toff Gideon dates a woman who works in an all night supermarket out in West London . Gideon decides to host a PR event at a nondescript Indian Restaurant. 'As if' on both counts. What is perhaps meant to be arresting and unpredictable is just patronising and unrealistic.

This is definitely not a film for everyone. But I was eager to see it and happy to get it on DVD, as I live outside the UK and don't get the BBC. Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson and Robert Lindsay together in one film is must, no matter what the film might be about.

This is a slow film, things happen almost in "real time", and the characters are very realistic. I work in a shop in a big train station, I get to see the most different people every day. People like Gideon or Stella do exist, and why not make a film about characters like them? The most beautiful or rather endearing scene, enchanting maybe even, was when Stella and Gideon lie next to each other in Stella's bed and talk about their lives and loved ones. A very quiet scene, and endlessly touching to watch.

Someone else said here, people probably have to be quite creative to understand this film. This might be true. You have to let go of conventional films a bit to be able to embrace this one. But if you're open enough to new impressions, then this is the right film for you. Or if you just want to see excellent performances by aforementioned actors.