And neither did John Lennon… although it’s where this oddly-titled film is set. It’s odd, as it suggests a romantic comedy, but this movie is anything but. It’s based on a book which tells the last days of Gloria Grahame, an Academy Award winning actress from the 50s.
Annette Bening takes the role with relish. The opening sequence is all about close-ups which makes this feel too real. She has a fling with a young actor, Peter (Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot). This is treading into doubly-deep unchartered waters: An older woman romance, where the female is old, and doesn’t spare us the wrinkles of old age.
Bell is very good as the younger lover. His character an actor too so the relationship makes sense and he has the right level of vulnerability. Movies like these rely on the chemistry and these two connect. They might not sizzle but it does all make sense.
I still feel Julie Waters as Bella steals the show as Peter’s mother. She can turn a scene with a look, while her hands clasp a cuppa. Pity there were only a few scenes between her and Annette.
Bening is top class and coquettish as Grahame, but we still know little about her past as a Hollywood siren, which includes marrying her stepson. (She was well ahead of Woody). It might be a significant omission, but this based on the book by Peter Turner, a young actor who fell for Gloria. It’s not an expose about an allegation, and it is handled in one scene.
This is romance and melodrama, handled sensitively by director Paul McGuigan. The leads do great things with an average script and a simple storyline, and it’s enough to move us.
Con’s Score: 3 Disco Dances
Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool releases in cinemas 1 March 2018 Distributed in Australia by Transmission Films
Con Nats – Theatre Now & On The Town
