Worth: $16.00
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Cast:
James Cosmo, Brid Brennan, Catherine Walker
Intro:
… moving and emotionally true.
People sometimes worry that when they get old, there will be no one to love them, or no one to look after them. The two fears sometimes twist around each other. This more or less universal theme drives the haunting domestic drama My Sailor My Love, from Finnish director Klaus Härö (The Fencer).
The film is set in a windswept coastal part of Ireland. Recently-bereaved old sea captain Howard (hard working Scottish actor James Cosmo) lives in a cliffside house that has become too big for him now that his wife has gone. His daughter Grace (Catherine Walker) tries to help out but she is increasingly exasperated with her dad. We get the feeling that she really wants the house as much as wanting to care for him, but what makes this a realistic story is that this remains largely unaddressed. Her motives are never fully clear, perhaps even to her. She tells her dad that he must get a housekeeper, but he claims they can’t afford that and, anyway, he is too grumpy to want anyone else poking around in his life.
Along comes Annie (Brid Brennan), who like Howard, is ‘of an age’. Initially, she rubs the captain up the wrong way, but she is persistent and refuses to let him get away with his rude manners, which he likes to dress up as a desire for solitude. Besides which, she is so uncomplicated and open that she gradually uncovers a completely different aspect to him, much to the chagrin of the now-sidelined Grace.
The film is initially claustrophobic, using sound design and dark interiors to add mood. The script is filled with naturalistic exchanges between the skilled actors. Härö trusts his players and allows scope for their slow growth into new ways of being. The contrast between the lively and loving Irish warmth of Annie’s family and the prematurely early middle aged demeanour of Grace provides a moving tension.
This is a small canvas but the film realises its little world without straining for effect. The sense of how people navigate their mixed motives whilst sensing things could so easily be other than they are, makes it both moving and emotionally true.
