On a Clear Day - a clear winner
This is quite simply an excellent film, which I recommend for anyone. Especially anyone who wants to see an uplifting, ‘fight back against the odds’ kind of story. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a mushy feel good movie – although I felt pretty good afterwards. Without giving it all away, it’s the story of Frank, a 55-year-old shipbuilder who loses his job, and much of his self-confidence along with it. He seems to be bordering on a nervous breakdown, too proud to ask for help from anyone, and almost on a whim he decides to swim the English Channel. It’s like an impossible feat that by the act of training for it and giving it a go, he is building back his lost sense of pride and self. His friends rally around him and train with him for months, and the whole process changes him and everyone around him too.
Every so often there comes along a film, which is impossible to really explain in words, that you just have to see to really get it. Otherwise it would just be a book or a radio show. I was very impressed by the script and direction of the film, from newcomers Alex Rose and Gaby Dellal. Shot entirely on location in Glasgow, the Isle of Man and Dover, you feel like you’re right there with them in the story. While the film has that very British feel to it, there is something new about it as well, which I am finding difficult to pin down just what it is. Maybe it’s the voice of the new filmmakers, or perhaps the excellent acting by Peter Mullan in the lead role and two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn as his supportive wife who is going through a life-change of her own.
In the end, Frank is literally and figuratively swimming through a transformation, and even though at the final scene you kind of know what’s going to happen between him and his somewhat estranged son, and everyone else for that matter, it’s still great to see it happen, and you’ll want to cheer for Frank as he swims against the clock, desperately trying to beat the tide and hypothermia as he nears the coast of France. I kept wanting to yell, “Go Frank!!” - actually, I think I did a few times. It makes you wonder if you’d be willing to go to such lengths to save your life, and you know you would.
Every so often there comes along a film, which is impossible to really explain in words, that you just have to see to really get it. Otherwise it would just be a book or a radio show. I was very impressed by the script and direction of the film, from newcomers Alex Rose and Gaby Dellal. Shot entirely on location in Glasgow, the Isle of Man and Dover, you feel like you’re right there with them in the story. While the film has that very British feel to it, there is something new about it as well, which I am finding difficult to pin down just what it is. Maybe it’s the voice of the new filmmakers, or perhaps the excellent acting by Peter Mullan in the lead role and two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn as his supportive wife who is going through a life-change of her own.
In the end, Frank is literally and figuratively swimming through a transformation, and even though at the final scene you kind of know what’s going to happen between him and his somewhat estranged son, and everyone else for that matter, it’s still great to see it happen, and you’ll want to cheer for Frank as he swims against the clock, desperately trying to beat the tide and hypothermia as he nears the coast of France. I kept wanting to yell, “Go Frank!!” - actually, I think I did a few times. It makes you wonder if you’d be willing to go to such lengths to save your life, and you know you would.
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