If
you remember your King Lear, you
understand the problems presented by an indivisible estate and multiple heirs.
That is sort of true of Rose Tremain’s Trespass,
but it will be hard to recognize her book in the film that it inspired. Clio
Barnard’s adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant was more faithful than her take on Tremain’s novel—and that’s
saying something. However, she remains true to her uncompromising vision and
exacting aesthetics throughout Dark River
(trailer
here),
which opens this Friday in New York.
For
fifteen years, Alice Bell has drifted from farm to farm, primarily working with
sheep. She has scrupulously avoided her father’s tenant farm, for reasons we
soon guess. However, she finally returns after his death (from a prolonged
illness), to claim the farm she believes to be her right, both by birth and as
compensation. Of course, that does not sit well with her brother Joe, who has
tended the farm, quite poorly, during their father’s slow decline.
As
a result, the Bell sibling reunion quickly goes from awkward to downright
hostile. At the best of times, they carry on in a cold war footing, bitterly
arguing over every farming strategy. However, the potential for violence is always
palpable.
Ruth
Wilson’s performance as the deeply wounded Alice Bell is harrowingly intense (it also looks like she really learned how to shear sheep).
You feel for her keenly, but you’d also want to keep her at arm’s length. That
goes quadruple for Mark Stanley’s loutish Joe Bell, but he is not a caricature
either. Arguably, his grievances are just as legitimate as hers. In fact, the
tragedy of this film is their complete inability to communicate.
Sean
Bean gives the film further star-power, representing something of a departure
from Barnard’s previous films. In this case, he plays the father, Richard Bell,
who is already dead before the picture even starts—possibly a new record for
his characters’ early deaths. However, his presence lingers, either as toxic
memories or perhaps as a genuine ghost. Nevertheless, the revelation regarding
his abuse is sort of a lazy fallback—honestly, these days, it is more
surprising when fathers are not molesting their children in socially conscious indie
films.
In
a great irony (one Barnard wisely resists driving into the ground), the Bell
Siblings happen to be fighting over a lease rather than a deed. You do not need
to be an agricultural economist to surmise Yorkshire probably does not have a
competitive or comparative advantage when it comes farming and livestock. Frankly,
that understanding makes the film even more depressing. Yet, it is always
invigorating to thesps like Wilson and Stanley at the top of their game. Recommended
for admirers Spartan British working-class dramas, such as those by Andrea
Arnold, Dark River opens this Friday
(6/29) in New York, at the Village East.
