Writer/Director: Stephen Poliakoff
Cinematographer: Cinders Forshaw
Composer: Adrian Johnston
Cast: Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Matthew Macfadyen, Claire Skinner, Toby Stephens, Jill Baker, Timothy Spall
There is a scene towards the middle of Stephen Poliakoff’s occasionally brilliant, but generally uneven mini-series, in which the main character, Daniel (Matthew Macfadyen), relays a story to his father, Raymond (Michael Gambon), whom every so often paraphrases what he has just been told. The purpose of this? It doesn’t seem particularly credible of his character. There’s no real expository function (except maybe for the dimmest of viewers.) Could it have been for promotional means? (I must admit that I don’t remember seeing any of the trailers at the time.) Could these bite-sized chunks of story have been created solely for the purpose of selling itself? Possibly, but there does seem to be a certain condescending air to a lot of what we see; a feeling of dumbing down. The film doesn’t have that unapologetically uncompromising attitude that most great art has.
Not that I didn’t enjoy it mind, especially on the first viewing when my misgivings were much slighter (Adrian Johnston’s score is perhaps a tad over-insistent.) On first viewing I was swept along by the story telling, compelled to find out what related to whom, who did what to whom, and how it would all finally fit together. The action revolves around a family reunion at a swanky London hotel; a propertied, monied and distinguished family. Family dinners, family trees, slide shows, any excuse to tell another yarn. We are treated to story after story: a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jewish girl evades the Nazis; feral children live wild in the woods during the war; a favourite child becomes mentally ill, secret loves are discovered. And then in the present; cousins kiss and Jack Hawkins movies are watched, secrets are spilled and lies are rebuffed, and sins are (maybe?) atoned for
If one allows oneself to be swept along by the wonder of discovery and the joys of storytelling, then Perfect Strangers is a thoroughly entertaining journey. But if one looks for something more, looks deeper, returns to it again, then one might prove to be disappointed.yy353
