Sunset Song (2015)

Sunset Song: Directed by Terence Davies. With Ken Blackburn, Mark Bonnar, Stuart Bowman, Emily-Jane Boyle. The daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.

“Sunset Song is a classic Scottish novel, part of a trilogy by Lewis Grassic Gibbon and much loved by many, many people (including my wife). u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI confess to having not read it, so had no particular expectations when approaching this movie which happens to have been made possible by two of my friends, Bob Last and Ginnie Atkinson.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt will divide audiences because the pace is slow. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGlacial.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBut I loved it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMuch media attention has focused on the casting of supermodel come actor Agyness Deyn (completely contrived name) as a Mancunian playing a seminal Scottish role but I have to say I liked her performance, and her accent. The scene in which she learns of her husbandu0026#39;s war news is particularly well acted.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course this movie is about Terence Davies. He makes very few but when he does they tend to be statements about British life and, for me, this is another great entry in his canon of work.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDavies could have made a feminist statement through Deynu0026#39;s character, had she been more assertive, but he resists the temptation and instead reflects the male dominance of relationships in the early 20th century (leading up to and including the first world war).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTwo and a bit hours, with zero action, and not much dialogue canu0026#39;t be most peopleu0026#39;s cup of tea (much has been made of the regular return to a certain corn field but, you know what, I didnu0026#39;t care). u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt is a languid and lovely observation of a lifestyle that is long past and male dominated.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSpecial mentions for the ever brilliant Peter Mullan (a beastly father) and a great performance by Kevin Guthrie as the husband of the central character.”