It is hardly surprising that I repeat sentiments expressed in previous comments about the arrival of a great new British talent, I refer, of course, to Jessica Brown Findlay. In what would have otherwise been an unremarkable coming-of-age movie Findlay( 'Emelia') manages to transform the mundane. This lady's love affair with the camera and her audience was so complete that I felt sorry for that other rising British starlet, her co-star, Felicity Jones ('Beth'). It reminded me of the way that an emerging Angelina Jolie took over 'Girl Interrupted'much to the chagrin of the film's major star Winona Ryder. Findlay has that indefinable something, call it stage presence, that Jones doesn't. Unfortunately Jones also suffers from the same problem encountered by Sarah Michelle Geller in her mid-20s that of having the face of a perpetual fifteen year old! It would appear that Jones can go on playing schoolgirls into her thirties. Steady employment maybe but not so clever if you want to be accepted as a serious actor. The film has some solid character acting from such stalwarts as Peter Vaughan as Emelia's wise old granddad, Julia Ormand as Beth's embittered mother and Sebastian Koch, as Beth's one-book-wonder father with a midlife crisis. Good writing also, that broadens the characters and gradually enables the viewer to realise that it is not only Emelia who carries an 'albatros' that is stunting her ambition but all those around her are also burdened in some manner that is preventing them from moving on. In endeavouring to lift her burden Emelia alters their lives by the sheer impact of her personality. Interestingly two years elapsed between production and release of this film. One wonders if the studio, realising that the hitherto unknown JBF was becoming a star (Downton Abbey), had decided to rework the film and publicity to reflect her new status. If so I think the studio made the right decision.
Review of Albatross
