The Night Watch (TV Movie 2011)

The Night Watch: Directed by Richard Laxton. With Jenna Augen, Neal Barry, Claudie Blakley, Lucy Briers. In post-war London, Viv Pearce is dating Reggie and runs a dating bureau with Helen Giniver, who lives with her older lover, authoress Julia Standing. Viv’s younger brother Duncan, a gay man made to feel ashamed of his orientation, has been in prison and is sought out by his ex-cell-mate, Robert Fraser, who served time as a conscientious objector and is now concerned for the young man’s welfare. Viv encounters Kay Langrish, a wealthy, reclusive, butch lesbian and for both women this evokes memories of the period three years earlier (1944) when Kay was an heroic ambulance driver in a happy, loving relationship with Helen — before Kay introduced her to her ex-lover Julia. At that time, Viv and Reggie are forced to procure the services of a dentist moonlighting as an abortionist. About to die from blood loss, and having been abandoned by Reggie, Kay saves her from prosecution by claiming she was a married woman who had miscarried. Three years before that (1941) Kay and Julia are still an item and Viv meets unhappily married soldier Reggie on a train. Kay pulls Helen from the wreckage of a bombed house, finding the innocent young woman she has always wanted to love and care for. We also learn the gruesome details of why Duncan was in prison, which follows a suicide pact with the boy he loved, in response to the war and the draft. As the scene returns to 1947 there are happier endings for some and optimist outlooks for others as they move forward.

“The Night Watch employs an unusual narrative structure (presumably duplicated from the novel by Sarah Waters) which begins in 1947, then flashes back not once but twice to show us how the large cast of characters came to arrive at the u0026quot;endu0026quot; of the story. This device isnu0026#39;t simply a flashy trick; itu0026#39;s integral to the movieu0026#39;s richly layered meditation on time and circumstance.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHuman relationships are the heart of the story, as we see various friends and lovers couple and decouple against the background of London during the Blitz and the aftermath of WWII. The atmosphere is dark and sensual, the music is mesmerizing, and the performances are riveting.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI had the pleasure of seeing this movie at a film festival with no prior knowledge of it, and wonu0026#39;t say anything more to spoil its wonderful surprises. I can only say, emphatically, that it should not be missed.”