Worth: $13.00
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Cast:
Hermione Corfield, Tom Byrne, Will Fletcher, Mark Gattis, Morven Christie, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Alison Peebles
Intro:
… a handsome production that is striving for an emotionality that it cannot deliver because it fails to utterly commit to the protagonist.
Generally strong performances and impeccable cinematography cannot save Richie Adams’ period melodrama The Road Dance from its formulaic script and confused messaging.
Adams’ script is an adaptation of John MacKay’s award-winning novel of the same name, which is apparently based on a true story that the author heard when he was a child.
The Road Dance is set in a small crofting community in the Scottish Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis during the gathering storm of WWI. Kirsty Macleod (Hermione Corfield), the radiant local beauty of the staunchly Calvinist village lives with her widowed mother Mairi (Morven Christie) and her younger sister Annie (Ali Fumiko Whitney). Mairi is keen to make a match for Kirsty with a local farming lad, Iain (Tom Byrne) but secretly Kirsty wishes to escape over the seas to find a larger life in America.
Sharing her restlessness is Murdo MacAulay (Will Fletcher), a sensitive and intelligent young man who reads Dickens by hiding it in a false cover of the Holy Bible. Murdo and Kirsty have a gentle blossoming romance where they exchange their grief over the loss of their respective fathers and a hope for a less restricted future. When the inevitable happens and the local boys are all called up for compulsory conscripted service, the young couple’s dreams seem to be at least temporarily dashed.
On a night meant to farewell the lads of the village, the locals hold the titular road dance. As the night progresses and the men become increasingly drunk, a fight breaks out between Iain and Murdo. Yet the most harrowing event is the brutal rape of Kirsty. Knocked partially unconscious, Kirsty can only recall the event in nightmarish flashes. When she is taken to the local doctor’s (Mark Gattis) house, he tends to all her wounds but leaves Kirsty to bear the secret of her rape alone.
The next day, a battered and bruised Kirsty farewells Murdo and the other lads. The typical melancholy tunes are sung, and the men are given a reminder of “what they’re fighting for.” Murdo tries to kiss Kirsty goodbye, and although she clearly loves the young man, her trauma stops her from being able to interact with him physically.
In a development that will surprise precisely no-one, Kirsty becomes pregnant from the assault. She tries to hide it, and for almost seven months manages to do so. To reveal a pregnancy out of wedlock, no matter the circumstances, means certain ruin for the young woman. We see drawn out scenes of Kirsty doing her best to conceal her growing belly, hiding her morning sickness, wearing oversized clothes – all picked up upon by local gossip Old Peggy (Alison Peebles).
Meanwhile, Murdo is writing letters from the front, and we see the loss the villagers face as news travels that their sons have been killed in action. Only a single scene is shown of the battlefront, the rest is relayed through Murdo’s voice-over in his letters. He continues his deep love for Kirsty and promises that if anything happens to him that she must move to New York to stay with his uncle. He has even provided fare for her in a poetry book.
Hermione Corfield is excellent as Kirsty and does as much as she can to inject emotional impact into Adams’ script. Also impressive are Morven Christie and newcomer Ali Fumiko Whitney as the women who seek to protect Kirsty from the consequences of the assault. However, what should be a fierce scream against the patriarchal and parochial abuses of the era, whittles down to a whimper.
The gorgeous cinematography by Petra Korner gives the film the sensation of both the beauty and loneliness of the isolated island. Other than the performances, the look of the piece is the strongest aspect.
It’s likely that The Road Dance will be compared to Terence Davies’ far superior Sunset Song. Both are historical melodramas centring on the experiences of women, and Davies’ more experienced hand manages to capture nuances that are beyond American director Adams’ reach.
The Road Dance is a handsome production that is striving for an emotionality that it cannot deliver because it fails to utterly commit to the protagonist. Hermione Corfield is a talent to keep an eye on as her performance is layered, complex, and magnetic. Alas, the same cannot be said about the rest of the film.
