Chitchat and Trailers

Hi everyone. First, some blog news:

• Since the Chatter/shoutbox is a bit small and not always conducive to conversation, we've created a mini-forum to supplement the Chatterbox. It's called "Chat Extension," and we hope it will be a great place for Jennifer Ehle-related discussions and drive-by comments. The link is located directly below the Chatterbox on the right sidebar. Please stop by and have a looksie!

In other news:

• The theatrical trailer for Before the Rains has been posted at IMDb. It includes great clippage of a certain someone, and the movie looks gorgeous. (The trailer has also been posted at youtube, but the sound is out of sync with the video).
• According to the Bradenton Herald, Ms Ehle is planning to attend the Sarasota Film Festival, where Before the Rains will be screened on April 8th and 9th:

  [...] Other new guests linked with films in the festival are "28 Weeks Later" star Jeremy Renner, Tony Award-winning actress Jennifer Ehle, foreign film director Juha Wuolijoki, American banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck and writer Elvis Mitchell. Other guests include actor Joe Sirola and David Darcy. [...]

• There is a review of Alpha Male (now available on DVD in Region 1 format) at Monsters and Critics.
• For those of you who are following "The Complete Jane Austen" series on PBS, remember that Andrew Davies' new and "bold" adaptation of Sense and Sensibility will be shown in two parts beginning Sunday, March 30. Part 2 will be aired on Sunday, April 6. Visit the Masterpiece website to see several "Behind the Scenes" featurettes. This movie marks the end of Sunday nights with Jane - unhappy thought indeed!

A little something for everyone

Just to let everyone know, Blogger seems to be having a bit of trouble with polls right now, so if you are unable to submit your vote in our poll (on the right sidebar), please use the Chatter box to give us your opinion.

Well, there is nothing news-worthy to speak of, but here are a couple of tidbits:

• In his "Memo to Colin Farrell," Richard Horgan is optimistic about the upcoming film, Pride and Glory. Here is the relevant bit:
  

  [...] Your New Line crime drama Pride and Glory is technically a studio film, but it’s written and directed by an American director with the same name as Irish actor Gavin O’Connor (can’t hurt), and would appear to return said filmmaker to his pre-Miracle, Sundance Film Festival Filmmaker Trophy days. It’s also the first time you’ve been paired with Ed Norton, a combo that somehow feels to me like it can only be dynamite. [...]

  There hasn't been a lot of buzz about Pride and Glory thus far, but the folks at the IMDB message board are speculating that a trailer for the movie will make an appearance in January '08.
  
• Most of Jennifer Ehle's films seem to be available for reduced prices at amazon.co.uk right now, including Alpha Male, Backbeat, Melissa, Possession, Pride and Prejudice, Sunshine, and The River King. There are some great bargains so now might be the time to beef up your collection.

For today's Jane Austen fix:

• In addition to offering some words of praise for the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Shuttsie recommends a literary quiz-book called "So You Think You Know Jane Austen?" Here is how it is described at amazon.com:
  

  [...] Designed to amuse and divert, the questions and answers take the reader on an imaginative journey into the world of Jane Austen, where hypothesis and speculation produce fascinating and unexpected insights. Whether you are an expert or enthusiast, So You Think You Know Jane Austen? guarantees you will know her much better after reading it.

• And, Carole Goldberg of the Hartford Courant provides a list of movies, websites, and books, all relating to our dear Miss Austen.

Our Coast of Utopia devotees might be interested to know that Martha Plimpton was recently interviewed by Leonard Lopate about her role in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare in the Park. Visit WNYC.org to listen to the interview. Very good stuff! (Note that you can also see a picture at WNYC's photo page.)

Lastly, you might find ShrineMathGuys's latest blog entry excessively diverting! (Of course this is not the Jennifer Ehle, but wouldn't it be hilarious if she taught a class on blogging?)

What's in a nom?

• The Drama League nominations are now out, with Coast of Utopia up for Distinguished Production of a Play. Utopian blokes Brian F. O'Byrne, Ethan Hawke and Billy Crudup are also nominated for Distinguished Performance. The awards will be announced on May 11th.


• The Drama Desk nominations are up too, with Utopia scoring TEN nominations. Sadly, no love for Jennifer Ehle there. Here are the categories, lifted from the LCT's news page:
  
  
  • Outstanding Play
  • Outstanding Director of a Play (Jack O'Brien)
  • Outstanding Actor in a Play (Brian F. O'Byrne)
  • Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Billy Crudup)
  • Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Martha Plimpton)
  • Outstanding Set Design (Bob Crowley and Scott Pask)
  • Outstanding Lighting Design (Brian MacDevitt, Kenneth Posner, Natasha Katz)
  • Outstanding Costume Design (Catherine Zuber)
  • Outstanding Music for a Play (Mark Bennett)
  • Outstanding Sound Design (Mark Bennett)
  
  Congrats everyone nominated so far! Get your diaries out, awards recap:
  

• Drama League: May 11th
• Outer Critics Circle: May 14th
• Tony nominations: May 15th
• Drama Desk: May 20th
• Tony awards: June 10th

BroadwayWorld discusses the awards: Outer Critics and Drama Desks. Same at All That Chat.

• Also congrats to Utopia for being the top fundraising Broadway Play for Broadway Cares.


• There's a new post at the LCT's Utopia backstage blog about some of the above, as well as where the Utopians are headed after the show closes.


• Elsewhere in blogland, a glowing review of Shipwreck at Laughing Wild with much praise for the cast and production.
  

  [...] Jack O'Brien's direction leaves me speechless - he HAS to be a lock for every award that's coming up. The way he's masterfully taken this epic, sprawling work, this tremendous ensemble and this grade-A design team and turned it into something that stays true to its spirit, yes has a grand, riveting, almost cinematic in its epic-ness sweep to it stuns me. Everyone studying theatre should experience this production. [...]

  She also posts a discount code that lets you get Voyage seats for $55. Chad Jones of Theatre Dogs notes some of the show's iconic images:

  [...] Walking out of the theater after Shipwreck (when I ran into former San Francisco playwright Adam Bock – New York is such a small town), I could tell you I saw actors Jennifer Ehle, Brian F. O’Byrne, Jason Butler Harner, Ethan Hawke and Amy Irving do some interesting things, but they sort of all ran together in a mish-mash of Russians expounding on philosophical, romantic and political themes. But I won’t soon forget the images by Crowley (working here with Scott Pask): a stunning, forced-perspective view down the Champs d’Elysees; a demolished post-riot white marble statue; a gaudy chandelier and a man sitting deep in thought in the middle of a raging sea. [...]

  There's more love for Utopia at Metaplasmus, and another marathon fan report from Tess up at the forum.


• Word from EhleNews is that the Alpha Male DVD is due May 1st, presumably in the US. Can't find confirmation of this elsewhere. It has already been released in the UK, Greece and Poland (the Polish title is Skrywane namietnosci), according to IMDB.


• Check out our video bar over yonder on the right- they're Coast of Utopia clips from YouTube. Plus note that in the "What did you think of Utopia" poll, the coding is messed up so that votes for "haven't seen it yet" are read as 1 star. My bad.


• We haven't been following Spider-Man 3 here because of Utopia immersion, but there is plenty of news and press about it lately. Rosemary Harris has been doing the publicity rounds in the UK, Japan and Europe. Have a squiz at the official movie blog featuring a video of her saying she's sad she didn't get the chance to fly in this movie!

You can never have too much Sunshine...

Here is an article by BBC Online Entertainment correspondent Tom Brook, written around the release of Sunshine. The ladies behind the character of Valerie have some nice things to say:

Ms Ehle seems to be impressed by the attitude of leading man, Ralph Fiennes:

There is no element of showing off. It would be tempting at some point when you are playing three characters to say, "Look what I can do".

Meanwhile she was able to identify with the character of Valerie in terms of her somewhat transient existence:

I had quite a rootless upbringing, so that was something just very personally that probably pushed a few buttons.

Rosemary Harris meanwhile admitted that at least part of the reason she was drawn to the role was 'because it was a chance to work with Jennifer'.

Later, when watching the finished product, Ms Harris implies she discovered some sort of a genetic imprint in terms of acting:

I was amazed when I saw the similarities we bear and which I wasn't aware of. I think its in the hand gestures or something.

Meanwhile, she describes what it was like to work with director Istvan Szabo:

Each scene I did with him felt like a master class. ... He would slowly nudge you with little taps on the nose here and there until he got what he wanted. ... Sometimes he would get it in a first take and sometimes he would go on for ten takes.

While we're on the theme, here are a few things mentioned by Ms Ehle in the DVD's special features. With regards to the script, Ms Ehle says:

I'd never read anything like it really. I loved it. I loved the story - it was incredibly unusual and not formulaic at all. I loved the script - I loved the story, the people. ... One of the things thats so wonderful about Istvan is how much he loves and respects his characters, and he treats them very humanely - not at all in a sentimental way, or patronising, just with love.

On Szabo, she says:

Istvan is so extraordinary. Whatever he knows about the script from having written it, and from the families he knows who have been through this...it's not intimidating that he has all of this inside him. He's so generous with it and he's so specific and his imagination is so rich. ... He will tell these stories that just make it all so clear. It's a wonderful experience to work with somebody who knows their subjects well.

There is clear praise in the other direction too, as Szabo explains how Ms Ehle ended up as Valerie:

I needed somebody who had a warm, charismatic smile. ... Glenn Close introduced me to Jennifer Ehle at a party... I saw her smile, and asked my casting director to invite her for a discussion, and after having done the discussion, it was clear that Jennifer should do the role.

Meanwhile, I am very intrigued by the aforementioned extra's comment about Alpha Male being filmed in a country house in Bedfordshire. I lived in that county for nine years, and would be interested to know which house it was, if anyone knows. A National Trust place perhaps? Not exactly the best county in the country (I'm a Cambs/Herts girl myself). Some places are...tolerable I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me...

Ctrl-V

• The Wall Street Journal has an interview with Jack O'Brien (subscribers only). Here's a taste:
  

  [...] Another with three roles to juggle is Richard Easton, a friend of Mr. O'Brien's for four decades and counting, who in 1969 took direction from Mr. O'Brien in "Cock-A-Doodle Dandy," his first full-fledged Broadway directing job. "Actors trust Jack. So do designers and other technical people. He's always practical. Whatever it is, he knows how to do it, but he doesn't want to do it himself. He's funny, so there's always lots of energy in the room. He's sentimental, and he cries a lot. He's thoughtful. When rehearsals start, he basically sits and listens and watches. He has the confidence that whatever happens, he can deal with it. He uses what you bring. He never thwarts you. He's not in competition with anyone he's working with -- which is more unusual than you think." [...]

• Theatreboy is anti-homework.
  
• Russian review of Voyage and one from Sharky with bonus Stoppard-fangirling in the comments. Patrick of Recursive Bee is critical, while despite misgivings Mike thought it a good play on balance.
• Blogger Jennifer Chang on Shipwreck (she too spotted Sally Field).
• On the LCT site the dramaturg's notes on Salvage are up.
  
• Note from an extra on Alpha Male.
  

Zig and zag

• Tune into Charlie Rose tonight (Wed 7) to catch his interview with Tom Stoppard. Thanks to Paula for the tip!
• At ATC there's a review-count for Shipwreck:

  12 pro
  New Yorker, Post, Times, Time Out, Daily News, USA Today, AP, New York Mag., Newhouse, WSJ, NY1, Newsday
  4 mixed
  Village Voice, Bergen Record, Gannett, Bloomberg

• Brendan Lemon at the LCT blog responds to the Isherwood-lead backlash (eg. at the Washington Theatre Review blog and Amy Ettinger's).
  
• Eccentric Iguana reflects on completing Utopia - and is eager to come back for more!

  Second in theater news, I finished The Coast of Utopia Trilogy. Each play stands out on it's own. Voyage was a Chekhov-esque drama, with many characters to be introduced and each scene moving by the year. What Stoppard did that was brilliant was how he lead you into the mood of the show through a character who in fact wasn't the main character of the series. It was like giving the audience exposition, but first hand.
  
  Shipwreck soon showed you who the next two plays would revolve around. Of the three I enjoyed this one the most. It started off with the same grandeur as Voyage, but in the second act soon became much more human and intriguing to watch. As well as heartbreaking.
  
  The final, Salvage, brought the series to a close, or did it? Do we forget that after 1866, Russia still went through much more historical events.
  
  Hello Lenin.
  
  But for the final piece I have to say it combined the complexity of the first part with the enjoyability of the second. It was great. So after the show naturally I bought a ticket to a marathon day...
  
  Yes that's one day, ALL THREE plays. It's a 12 hour day kids. Starting at 11 am, and ending at 11pm. Granted I get a lunch and dinner break. It's going to be intense!!! I can NOT wait. To see it all together.

• More love for Salvage at ATC from WilliamHacker, concluding:

  [...] But after seeing the conclusion, it just felt immensely moving and satisfying seeing the story of such an influential, important figure, who is yet almost unknown in this country, brought to such complete and rich life on stage.
  
  Obviously this type of work isn't for everyone, but for me, I found it to be one of the best things I've seen in thirty years of seeing theatre in NYC.

  Also from jesse21:
  

  [...] However, inside the theatre, I sat among as savvy an audience one is likely to encounter in this city. Our attention was riveted on the stage as "The Coast of Utopia" roared to its conclusion, magnificently rewarding us with one of the most memorable experiences of, not just this, but any season.

• Film blogger Emma, who's raved about Jennifer Ehle in Alpha Male in the past, gives one more special mention:

  [...] It’s been over 10 years since Jennifer Ehle showed graced our TV screens as the wonderfully sweet Lizzie Bennet, and Alpha Male is probably her best performance since. Her portrayal of the put-upon mother who loses a husband and slowly loses her family is wonderfully realistic and sweet. She steals every scene she’s in, and provides the basis for a potentially dull film, making it totally watchable. [...]

• Sunshine shoutout from funky_cowgirl:

  [...] It seems that the love stories are used as a breathing space, because those do take up a bit of time (busy filming schedule for Fiennes, love scene wise! ;-) ) but I didn't find it problematic. The relationships with the women do make the story flow. Especially Jennifer Ehle and her real life mum (as her older version) are amazing...She's as much in love with life as her character in Pride & Prejudice. [...]
  

• There's constant baseline squeeing for Pride and Prejudice on blogs which we largely ignore, but Adam's is notable because c'mon, he's a he (and wants to be Darcy) and also somehow finds a connection with CS Lewis' biography.
  

  Beth and I sat down to watch our newly acquired 1995 BBC/A&E 5 1/2 hour version of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" on Sunday afternoon. I was expecting to appreciate it, even enjoy it. Instead, I craved it and hated stopping. We watched half Sunday and finished it Monday. I dreamt about it both nights.
  
  Part of it was the ridiculously talented interpretive acting of Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth in the main roles. I loved the commitment in their eyes at all times. Ehle in particular connected her words with body language that fit the character perfectly and often resulted in movements that I had never seen on film before. So, anyway, point A: I'm very much in love with those two actors right now...but mostly Ehle...because she's a girl...and looks strikingly like Beth (but she'd heard that already). [...]
  

Alpha Male DVD covers

The newer one with grey font comes from DVD Times. The DVD is out Jan 22nd which is...tomorrow/todayish.

There's a wee review of Voyage at Bruce's blog:

Now, Stoppard tends to be not very emotional and very philosophical and intellectual. And it is true, this play is about 30 years of Russian history, starting in 1846 - all pre-Revolution. It tells the tale of the Russian upperclass land owners and their children and their fascination with the philosophies of the day, lead by philosopher Alexander Herzen (O'Byrne). Not exactly an easy sit-thru in a way, but the 2 hours and 45 minutes sped by, I thought. Billy Crudup and Ethan Hawke take command of this Part One and are mezmerizing. Jennifer Ehle is luminous.

LIGHTBULB!

BroadwayWorld people are discussing whether it's ok to see parts of Coast of Utopia out of order.

Bits

• Another Tony prediction for Ms Ehle at BroadwayWorld.
• A review of Coast of Utopia in Cleveland's Plain Dealer.
• Masha Lipman of the New Yorker interviewed Tom Stoppard on Utopia in December (hope this isn't a doublepost).
• Some release dates for Pride and Glory are up at IMDB. Looks like it'll be around September 19.
  
• And a reminder, the Alpha Male DVD is coming out January 22.
• From, er, Пропавший · без · вести, a Voyage review.

Nicholas Stankevich (David Harbour) and Liubov Bakunin (Jennifer Ehle) play a notably endearing young couple and their lost relationship fills the play with a sense of quiet tragedy. Their love is cast aside in Stankevich’s pursuit of higher thought, and both of them die alone and separated without ever acting upon their feelings. Their loss – which goes unspoken by the other characters – is the play’s lasting statement: when human feeling is ignored, what is the meaning of revolution?

Twingomatic also has a positive mention of Voyage.

• A LCT usher catalogues the famous faces seen in the audience (Rosemary Harris, Bette Midler, Rachel Griffiths, etc) and also recounts a nasty encounter with a critic.
• Kez writes about accidentally bumping into a fellow fan and Utopia-goer on a delayed flight. We're everywhere! That makes...9.
  

By the way, although the StudenTix ship has sailed, we did witness firsthand people rocking up to the LCT box office at the last minute with their student ID and getting $30 rush tix. And another thing, from the Lincoln Center Plaza, enter the New York Library for the Performing Arts next door to the Vivian Beaumont lobby for a glimpse of Rosemary Harris.

Etc

YouTube video of John Ehle doing a book reading.

New Spider-Man 3 trailer and a detailed writeup that includes a photo and description of a scene that Rosemary Harris is in. There's also a mention of her in an article about a new animal welfare food labelling scheme.

Interview with Jack O'Brien, Coast of Utopia director.

[...] The Coast of Utopia, whose first part is now in previews and opens Nov. 27, is a much-anticipated project. The three plays that make up Stoppard's epic- Voyage, Shipwreck and Salvage - chronicle the lives and ideas of five artists and thinkers who laid the groundwork of the Russian Revolution: socialist writer Alexander Herzen, anarchist Michael Bakunin, novelist Ivan Turgenev, poet Nicholas Ogarev and critic Vissarion Belinsky.

"Tom never writes a play about one thing," O'Brien said. "He writes a play about a lot of stuff. This play is historical. All of these things actually happened to these people. It's very witty. It has to do with philosophy. It has to do with the evolution of independent thinking in Europe and Russia in the 19th century."

O'Brien previously directed Stoppard's Hapgood and The Invention of Love, but they didn't really prepare him for The Coast of Utopia, which the director called "the theatrical equivalent" of Wagner's Ring cycle. "It's some sort of experience," he said. "It's like watching a novel."

The cast of 44 includes Billy Crudup, Jennifer Ehle, Ethan Hawke, Amy Irving, Brian O'Byrne and Martha Plimpton, an unusually starry group for a long run with a nonprofit theater company.

Part Two of the trilogy begins in December and will play in repertory with Part One as Part Three is being rehearsed. By Valentine's Day, all three will be up and running in tandem and continue through mid-March. The last three Saturdays of the run in February and March are marathons when all three plays - a total of 81/2 hours - can be seen in one day. The marathons are already sold out.

O'Brien thinks a marathon could be too much. For out-of-towners, he suggests catching consecutive performances of the three plays over two days by taking advantage of the Wednesday and Saturday matinees.

"So in an overnight, you can see all three plays, but you're not sitting there for an entire day and you have a little time to think and absorb it. I think that's the best way of doing it." [...]

Misc "saw it, liked it": Dan, HEad of the ages, Andrew Guest:

[...] Last night we saw Voyage the first part of Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia" trilogy of plays. Thoroughly dramatic opening, with a stunning special effect of waves crashing on the stage got me to sit up in my seat. It was long and wordy, no surprise for Stoppard, but I was mesmerized. It helps to have read some Turgenev, to understand how modern ideas of the self came to Russia really at just the wrong time. To our eyes and ears, the Russians seem almost laughably naive, but they were struggling against a thousand years of groupthink, and needed time to adjust to seeing themselves as individuals in a modern setting. I hope to get back to see parts two and three next year. [...]

Sunshine review from a Jewish perspective.

Latest word from Verve Pictures is that Alpha Male has been entered for consideration for the 2007 BAFTAs. Nominations come out in January.

More blog mini-reviews: DBG is disappointed but there's love for Voyage at One scheme of happiness despite lack of preparation. She delivers this high praise:

[...] Of course, a cast boasting Ethan Hawke, Martha Plimpton, Amy Irving and Billy Crudup guarantees a full house, even if the show were a dissertation on the redeeming qualities of cat poop. Luckily for us all, Stoppard's jaunty script provoked far more interest and humor and kept the audience closer to the edge of their seats than any litterbox chatter I've encountered recently. [long, read on]

New post at the LCT blog on how actors spend their waiting time between scenes.

During a technical rehearsal last month for Voyage, when a light cue was being rewritten and much of the cast was hanging out in the audience seats of the Vivian Beaumont, Ethan Hawke remarked, "The waiting is harder than the acting."

Many actors would agree. Passing the time between set-ups, in fact, is such an integral part of the actor's life that it's a wonder no Stanislavsky or Uta Hagen has written a guide on The Art of Waiting. [...]

Sherry Grindeland of the Seattle Times recounts her trip to the city that never sleeps, meeting Voyage company member Erika Rolfsrud.

Another giveaway of the Pride and Prejudice 10th anniversary box set at Elegant Variation.

Plus, we just passed the 100 000 visitors mark recently. Yay!

Alpha Male DVD pre-orders

The Alpha Male DVD is due to be released on 22 January, 2007. Pre-orders are available now. Also, word from Verve is that Alpha Male is eligible for the 2007 BAFTAs and so will be considered. Emma is hoping for an Oscar/BAFTA nod for Ms Ehle in the film.

By the way, we've set up a couple of Amazon affilate stores for the UK and US.

Pot luck (part the nth)

Bring on the 17th already! For now, some good old random links:

Daily Trojan reviews the new collector's edition of Pride and Prejudice. Verdict:

Aside from that, the "Pride and Prejudice: 10th Anniversary Limited Collector's Edition" is an example of what collector's DVD sets should be, and should be a part of any fan's of the series DVD collection.

Brief wrap of the same at Michael's Myspace.

Shot on location in the castles and countryside of England, this A&E/BBC co-production offers up the definitive interpretation of Jane Austen's classic with a grandly handsome look that sets off but never upstages the story. Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle headline the smartly scripted production, and the generous running time (about 5 hours) allows plenty of time for character development and side stories to play out at a strolling pace. Firth's brittle, brooding performance made him the quintessential Darcy and he was rightly celebrated in Bridget Jones' Diary. Details: Color, 300 mins, A&E, Widescreen anamorphic, 2.35:1. Supplements: 10th Anniversary Limited Edition Collector's Set; Gold embossed green fabric slipcase; Newly remastered widescreen print; Bonus Disc Features:; Jane Austen Biography episode; An exclusive new retrospective documentary about the making of the classic series; A 120 page deluxe companion book The Making Of Pride and Prejudice with photos, illustrations, and interviews with cast and crew. Audio: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo). Optional subtitles.

On the blogs, there are squillions of "saw P&P, loved it" sort of posts, but Kirk's comment is cuter than most:

Colin Firth as Mr Darcy was perfect casting and Jennifer Ehle as Lizzie gave me a new level of woman to watch out for. She was perfect and Mr Darcy comes off as not perfect which makes his journey back to redemption that much sweeter.

Alpha Male review over at Habitus by Peter Malone:

For such a macho title, this film offers very laid back alpha males. This is the kind of drama that is associated with more up-market television channels, something of an old-fashioned British upper-class portrait.

The structure of the film is meant to keep reminding us of how the past has its effect on the future, as it moves from the present back nine years and keeps cutting to and fro, sometimes suggesting that the memories are those of different members of the family though that is not always clear.

The gist of the matter is that two well-loved, somewhat spoilt, children experience the death of their father which has dire traumatic effect on each of them emotionally and mentally. While we can accept that the death of a parent can affect a child, it is hard to see that these two have the right to be so adversely affected or why it has such effect, especially on the girl.

Danny Huston is very sympathetic as the father who is a successful businessman (making cartons for a variety of goods), who has great pride in his son and pampers his daughter (even suddenly getting her a treehouse overnight for her birthday – and trying to read her to sleep with a financial report). He dies. Jennifer Ehle (looking remarkably like Meryl Streep) is his wife.

The present time is a weekend for the son’s 21st birthday. He has not been home for three years. His sister mopes around the house. The mother has re-married but the son has not been able to accept this. The mother’s sister, with whom she fell out, is invited – and is offered a gift of a cheque for a million pounds. Things go much as you would expect, especially in such an affluent setting with such generally reserved British manners.

And another, at Regal Picturehouses:

ALPHA MALE is a perceptive and emotionally wrought story of family life that sensitively deals with the force of personality, family politics, repressed emotions, great love and devastating loss. When Jim Ferris (Huston, THE PROPOSITION) dies, leaving behind a family fractured by his absence, his young son Jack is prematurely burdened with the responsibility of looking after the family. When Jim's widow Alice (Ehle, POSSESSION) meets and marries a new man (Baladi, The Office), a firm wedge comes between Jack and the rest of the family. It is another eleven years before the rifts can even begin to heal as they all come together again for Jack's (Mark Wells, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA) 21st birthday weekend. Beautifully performed by a fine ensemble cast (Ehle especially sparkles), this is a film that is unafraid to tackle some of life's bigger questions.

Note Paula's message in the tagboard about the film being one of British Airways' in-flight selections for US to UK crossings this month. Thanks for the heads-up!

Over at Martha Plimpton's, word is that Voyage rehearsals are going well and they're past the complete and utter panic stage. Sweet. Speaking of Utopia, the LCT folks have replied thusly about student rush tix:

Generally, there will be rush tickets available for The Coast of Utopia, but we never guarantee that rush tickets will be available for any specific performance. Please visit the LCT box office up to two hour before a performance to purchase $30 rush tickets (subject to availability) and be sure to have your valid student ID to show the box office agent.

Valium high

Mike Davies on Alpha Male, 21 September 2006, Birmingham Post.

***

Drifting serenely through the film as if on a Valium high, Jennifer Ehle plays Alice, a Home Counties wife and mother of two who inherits millions when her volatile but loving husband (Danny Huston) dies of cancer.

At bereavement counselling she meets amiable bearded artist Clive (Patrick Baladi) and a new romance blooms.

However, this sits badly with adolescent son Jack (Arthur Duncan) who takes exception to this interloper who's usurped what he now regards as his position as dominant male.

Jack turns into a spiteful little brat while younger sister Elyssa (Katie Knight) becomes withdrawn and weird. Ten years later, both (now Mark Wells and Amelia Warner) have got worse, Jack's not been home in three years and is barely on speaking terms while Elyssa's heading for a breakdown.

Hoping to reunite her dysfunctional family, Alice throws her estranged son a 21st party.

Things start off frosty and proceed to get worse as flashbacks detail the prickly atmosphere around the house and reveal the reason behind Elyssa's long harboured resentment of her aunt (Trudie Styler) while the present day serves up an array of home truths and betrayals.

While more effective at presenting the frigid polite appearances than the turbulence under the surface, and frustratingly vague in regard to the behaviour of several characters, there's still much to hold the attention in this insightful is detached portrait of repressed British middle-class family and social relationships.

"A very fine movie"

Is the verdict of the Leicester Mercury on Alpha Male.

Dan Wilde's tale of love and loss, set in a very nice house indeed.

The melancholy Alpha Male is a beautifully understated directorial debut from Daniel Wilde, who also wrote the subdued but succinct screenplay.

It's a poignant story about family life. Rich family life, that is: The characters who people Wilde's elegant movie have a house that makes your place look like a shed. And yet the underlying themes will have a resonance for anyone who's seen death or divorce reshape their family.

The film flits forward and backward in time like a restless butterfly.

Danny Huston plays Jim, the alpha male of the title. He's warm, charismatic, ambitious and successful, and soon dead, leaving a gaping hole in the lives of his wife Alice (Jennifer Ehle) and his children, Jack and Elyssa.

Jack (played by Arthur Duncan as a kid, and Mark Wells as a grown-up) becomes the man of the house, and takes his new role seriously. The sensitive Elyssa (Katie Ann Knight then Amelia Warner), meanwhile, becomes increasingly withdrawn, save for eruptions of anger at her aunt Brede (Trudie Styler), who she once saw make a play for her dad.

The cast is very strong, but Huston isn't in it long enough. Alpha Male is a very fine movie.

Oops, we haven't been keeping an eye on Press 53. Looks like the On the Same Page event honouring John Ehle was quite a success. Some photos up at Sheryl Monk's page. Mr Ehle also attended the 25th Appalachian Literary Festival at Emory & Henry College, according to the Times Dispatch, as well as the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival, says the Asheville Citizen-Times. There's a report at Press 53 too.

Mother Courage photo

Josie is a legend! Click to see the large version of the Mother Courage premiere pic posted earlier.



In her latest post, Martha Plimpton says that Coast of Utopia rehearsals started today. And a reminder, tickets to the show go on sale this Sunday, September 10, though AmEx cardholders can beat the rush and buy tix now.

At last some news about Road to the Sky. Akhila Krishnamurthy's subscription-only article in India Today says that post-prod for the film has been completed.

Sivan shot to fame nationally with Ratnam's Roja. He has recently wrapped up the post-production work for his English film, Road to the Sky, which brings to light the dilemma of people who straddle two worlds. Like the cameraman. "I worked in Bride and Prejudice and Mistress of Spices to understand the filmmaking process of Hollywood," explains Sivan. "The objective was to put in elements from both worlds," he says.

On IMDB, the Dutch release date for Pride and Glory is said to be September 20, 2007.

The UK Film Council site has box office stats on Alpha Male. It opened at 26th on the ladder and is currently 58th, grossing £19,781 after three weeks. Rotten Tomatoes has rental stats for The River King - it peaked at 22nd. There are some new reviews of the film at Amazon, some rather complimentary to Ms Ehle:

"This film has the saving grace of Jennifer Ehle, whose beauty and grace shine far beyond her role. There is something magical about this actress and the film is worth seeing if only to watch her. Another of her films, "Possession," is similarly lit by her performance."

"This movie has a lot going for it: good actors (Jennifer Ehle is fantastic), good cinematography, and good music."

"In "The River King," Ed Burns conveys an understated intensity and passion, as does Jennifer Ehle, which requires few words. The silences between them express far more than any words they do exchange. "

Spiderman's uncle

There's a full feature on John Ehle at Journal Now about the republication of The Land Breakers and its selection for On the Page. Interesting overview of his career. Among his many claims to fame: "...Ehle enjoyed saying that he was married to Spider-Man's aunt and was Lady Macbeth's father." There's quotage from the folks at Press 53, who have a PDF of the book's first chapter and are auctioning off signed copies. There's also a $1000 essay contest for high schoolers.

Over at IMDB, a couple people reckon they spotted Jennifer Ehle in some mini-series with Celia Imrie and Steven Mackintosh and as an extra in Howard's End. Does this ring any bells? Oh, mini mention of Michael Clayton in this Scotsman interview with Tilda Swinton.

In case anyone's freaking out about not receiving all their Utopia tickets at once, word at All That Chat is that tix for each play are being mailed separately.

To round off, another Alpha Male review, by Variety's Leslie Felperin:

A rich, dysfunctional English family is torn apart when the patriarch dies suddenly and the mother remarries in the sturdy but so-so "Alpha Male." Part of a newly reinvigorated fascination in Brit drama with the lives and loves of the idle posh ( "Separate Lies," "Gosford Park," and the recent TV adaptation of "The Line of Beauty"), pic demonstrates tyro helmer Dan Wilde's skill with thesps, especially leads Danny Huston and Jennifer Ehle, but also Wilde's taste for the overwrought as a screenwriter. "Alpha" found low spot in the B.O. pecking order on its opening in Blighty on Aug. 11.

Confusingly constructed as a series of switchbacks between a contempo time frame and about 10 years ago and almost entirely set at a spacious manse and its extensive gardens somewhere in the Home Counties (the wealthy burbs bordering London), pic focuses on the Ferris family. Dad Jim (Huston) has made millions manufacturing paper cartons, and seems happily spliced to Alice (Ehle, from the 1995 BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice") although minor chords on the soundtrack suggest tensions lurking.

When home on the weekends from the city, Jim alternates between explosive bouts of temper and dramatic gestures of affection for his children, such as building a tree house for his daughter Elyssa (played first by Katie Knight as a 10-year-old and when grown up by upcomer Amelia Warner from "Aeon Flux").

Son Jack (first young Arthur Duncan, then Mark Wells from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe") seems to have inherited his dad's temperament. When Jim dies of cancer, Jack assumes the role of the man of the family, and so takes badly to the notion of Alice remarrying gentle, bearded painter Clive (Patrick Baladi), whom she meets in a bereavement support group.

Withdrawn loner Elyssa vents her own hostility at Alice's sister Brede (Trudie Styler, also pic's producer), whom Elyssa once saw making a pass at her father.

Present-day section revolves around a lavish 21st birthday party Alice throws for Jack. At the bash, assorted home truths are uttered and betrayals come tumbling out in a rush. Even Jim puts in an appearance from beyond the grave for a mawkish moment of closure.

Dialogue shows fair grasp for the nuances of this upper-class milieu, with its frigid politesse masking roiling resentments under the surface. Dramatic balance, however, remains a problem with some character psychologies appearing too belabored (particularly Jack's) while the behavior of other characters (particularly Elyssa and Jim) remains frustratingly opaque.

Still, ensemble members make the most of what they've got, with the redoubtable Huston and Ehle, who's been seen too little recently onscreen, holding up their ends especially well. Styler too does good work here as Alice's sister.

Tech package is competent, with all departments executing pro job, although wintry, minimalist piano score by Stephern Warbeck ("Shakespeare in Love") grows increasingly tedious over the long haul.

(Variety slanguage guide)

Hold on. One more, in the Catholic Herald. You can read a snippet of it in Google Cache:

Alpha Male is the Sloaniest film I’ve seen in years. I use the word very specifically, not as a general catch-all for public-school educated Brits or toffs rampaging drunkenly around Sloane Square, but rather a particular type of attitude that still personifies Middle England. Modern Sloaniness is about the struggle between a desire to be trendy and a strong awareness of class; it is sensitivity and ambition scuppered endearingly by slight embarrassment and trying ever so slightly too hard. ...

On Russia and Streepishness

Martha Plimpton, one of the Utopians (Coasters?), has updated her Myspace blog about her upcoming research trip to Russia with three other cast members. She is funny. Read it.

In other news, nice things said by MysticDollarRedemption:

Alpha Male
Quite a curious one. Part of me was bored by the domesticity of it all, but the domesticity was probably also my greatest appeal to this film. Sometimes it did feel like an extended episode of Emmerdale, which is not good, but the acting is pretty great, especially from Danny Huston (The Constant Gardener), and Jennifer Ehle (BBC’s Pride & Prejudice.) She gets my nod for Best Actress of the year so far, and I thought she was very “Streep-like” in her performance. So overall, potentially mediocre tale, good performances. The ending was quite satisfying too. B.

Patrick Peters' full Empire review is now available:

Plot: The grown-up children of a middle class family can't forgive their parents for the family decisions they made when they were younger.

Review: An oppressive air of exacting care hangs over Dan Wilde’s already stifling domestic melodrama. Yet it perfectly suits this country house tale of parents who blithely confuse their own contentment with doing the best for their children.

The flashbacking action revolves around a prodigal son returning for the 21st birthday party being thrown by the mother he has never forgiven for re-marrying, and the childhood sequences, in which widow Jennifer Ehle hastily replaces short-fused Danny Huston with smarmily decent Patrick Baladi, are delicately paced to suggest the chagrined resentment of her spoilt kids. A subplot involving grasping aunt Trudie Styler and her niece, Amelia Warner, adds to the satisfyingly distrustful atmosphere.

Verdict: This is maybe too meticulous and manipulative for such a slender storyline, but the stifling atmosphere induced by selfish motives and repressed resentments is well sustained.

"Excels", "one of her best performances"

Warwick Arts Center reviews Alpha Male:

Shot partly through flashback sequences this is a film for fans of Stephen Poliakoff or those who enjoyed the film Separate Lies (2005).

Father Jim Ferris is the archetypal 'alpha male' so his sudden illness and death come as a profound shock to his family leaving them stunned and adrift.

Jack, Jim's son, turns 21 and is pressured to come home to celebrate, but in a climax of mounting tension old wounds are reopened and everything that has been simmering for so long comes to a head.

Jennifer Ehle is fantastic in one of her best performances since BBC TV's Pride and Prejudice.

"Disconcertingly satisfying" Empire

Nina Caplan, Metro :

Danny Huston is certainly an Alpha Male, so you can't help feeling sorry when his wealthy entrepreneur character swiftly dies, leaving a beta wife and a couple of hacked-off children to wallow around in this zeta script.

Alice (Jennifer Ehle) remarries a pretty but limp widower, her daughter Elyssa goes mildly batty, while repressed young Jack takes his misery out on the reluctant stepfather.

All of which is told in intermittent flashback, with all the elegance and sensitivity of a champagne cork popping at a funeral.

David Clack, Film Exposed:

With his first feature film, writer/director Dan Wilde explores the impact of bereavement upon an upper-middle class family, with focus on the consequent breakdown of relationships that results upon the death of the patriarch. As the title suggests, the burden of the masculine role with which the fatherless Jack (Wells) struggles is key to the narrative. Wilde projects his story across two planes of time, skipping between past and present in an attempt to glean greater insight into the long-term effects of family loss. Tensions peak when Jack reluctantly returns to the family for his 21st birthday party, forcing him to confront his estranged mother and unaccepted stepfather.

There's an undeniable sense of foreboding one feels upon settling down to a directorial debut, since the likelihood of enduring trite mediocrity outweighs that of discovering inaugural genius. Add to this feeling of doomed anticipation an unimaginative plot in an over-familiar setting and it becomes difficult to enjoy Alpha Male from the outset. The story ticks lazily over before glossing all too quickly over the crucial death of father and wealthy provider Jim Ferris (Huston). Jennifer Ehle excels as widowed Alice Ferris, arguably the film's most demanding role. Excellent too are Arthur Duncan and Katie Knight as the young Jack and Elyssa, whose performances outshine their elder, brattish counterparts.

Here lies Alpha Male's major flaw. Through a combination of Wilde's overly simple script and Mark Wells' unnecessarily obnoxious portrayal of main character Jack, it becomes incredibly difficult to care whether this struggling family can reassemble itself. Audience apathy is enhanced further by the apparent lack of effort by any single character to communicate with any other, resulting in not only a screen full of unsympathetic characters, but also what seems like an eternity of awkward and silent pauses.

That said, Wilde's cinematography is constantly competent and occasionally excellent; the aforementioned moments of silence are emphasised through regular use of close-ups, which, when juxtaposed against the many long shots of the family's mansion help to emphasise the distance between the characters. Sadly, however, this textbook approach to filmmaking isn't enough to draw the viewer into the fundamentally flawed story.

Although at times entertaining and by no means a write-off, Alpha Male is undoubtedly most useful to Wilde himself. With a little more time spent on screenplay development, perhaps next time this promising young director can appease the audiences who found his characters ineffectual and his story bland. Certainly, his technical ability shows promise and whilst some may argue that a picture paints a thousand words, Wilde relies all too heavily on graphic matches and facial expressions to plug the holes in his helplessly leaky script.

Now for something completely different

Alpha Male reviews, what else. Bit of a mixed bag.

Mike Cahill, Sunday Telegraph:

The week's other British release finds playwright-turned-director Dan Wilde content to drearily recycle riffs from recent American independent cinema. A party thrown by yummy mummy Jennifer Ehle for her ingrate son brings together remnants of a well-to-do family who clearly have Secrets to be Uncovered and Ghosts to be Laid to Rest before the end credits can run. Stephen Warbeck's plinky-plonky piano score threatens to turn into Lionel Richie's 'Hello', while ineptly handled flashbacks prompt a lot of staring into the middle distance.

At no point are we given reason to care. Previous group hugs of this type went under such convoluted names as The Substance of Fire (1996) and The Myth of Fingerprints (1998). Alpha Male is far too chest-beating a title for a film this deathly; better if it were called something like 'The Inertness of Things' or 'The Probability of Sleep'.

Carol Allen, Close Up Film:

This is a very accomplished piece of work from first time feature writer/director Wilde. The "Alpha Male" of the title is Danny Huston as Jim, husband of Alice (Jennifer Ehle) and father of Jack and Elyssa. The film is about the effect on the family when Jim unexpectedly dies and how they deal with it and either move on or fail to.

The structure of the film is particularly interesting, interweaving the past, when Jim was alive and the immediate aftermath of his death, and the present, in which grown up Jack (Wells) returns home for his twenty first birthday, having cut himself off from his family because of his resentment at his mother's remarriage. The two time periods successfully illuminate and inform each other. It is a device which could have been confusing but through the use of clever editing and well thought out visual clues it is always clear exactly where we are in the story's chronology.

Danny Huston is perfect as Jim, all reassuring warmth, strength, and authority, so it is really painful to watch him when he becomes ill and the strain of things like giving his daughter Elyssa a piggy back ride is beginning to show. Like the family we miss him when he is gone. The performances however are good throughout, including the children; Arthur Duncan very self assured as Young Jack and Katie Knight as young Elyssa, who becomes very disturbed after the death of her father. Ehle is quietly moving in her grief and there's an impressive performance from Jemma Powell as adult Jack’s “wild child” girlfriend, accurately described by one character as “looks fun, like a fast car” . The psychology of the characters rings true, as when Young Elyssa witnesses a seduction attempt on her father by Alice's lonely and bitter sister Brede (Trudi Styler, who also produced the film) and keeps it inside her as a festering secret, while Young Jack’s arguments with his mother's new partner Clive (Patrick Baladi) are icily articulate. Towards the end the film softens into a rather American style feelgood sentimentality in its reconciliatory resolution and there is a somewhat clunky scene between adult Elyssa (Amelia Warner) and the rather solid ghost of her father, which strikes a bit of a false note. Overall however this is a mature and thoughtful film and even though Huston has comparatively little screen time, his memory dominates the film, as it does the family.

Henry Fitzherbert, The Express on Sunday:

A strong performance from Jennifer Ehle is the only redeeming feature of Alpha Male, a dull domestic drama, contained entirely within the walls of a country house. It unfurls, at a funereal pace, the issues of an entirely uninteresting family group.

The major conflict, a priggish son's resentment at his mother's remarriage, is not explored in any meaningful or revealing way. There is not enough here to sustain a short play, let alone a movie.

Jeff Sawtell, Political Affairs ("Marxist thought online"...!):

A crass champagne class tragedy is summed up by one character stating: "You live in a mansion and you've a fortune built of selling recyclable plastic cartoons, so what's your problem?"

Precisely. Despite the excellent acting, we're supposed to believe that a couple of rich kids can't get it together because their dear darling daddy has kicked the bucket, leaving them all living in clover. Oh dear.

Guardian user review:

A little slow and some strange editing but it settles down into an absorbing piece. Trudie Styler is better than you would expect and David Baldacci shines as the second husband. And one emotional scene that stays this side of mawkish.

And a couple more DVD lenders have it: ITV Movie Club and Easy Cinema.

Alpha Male DVD etc

Tesco and Screen Select seem to have Alpha Male for rent already, which is weird.

A meh kinda review by Jason Solomon from The Mail on Sunday (not online):

Be careful what you wish for, runs the old saying. For years, British film-makers gave us either gangster movies and council-estate dramas or posh people and period pieces. I've spent many columns begging for films about the middle classes. Now, in Alpha Male (15) **, one arrives and it's, well, dreary.

On the eve of Jack's 21st birthday and his mum (Jennifer Ehle) has persuaded her son to return to their country home for a lavish party. In flashbacks we see a happier time when the kids played in the garden and Dad earned a fortune making drink cartons. But then cancer strikes and the family splinters in grief. In the intervening years, Mum's got herself a new man, a new young son and a whole new set of problems.

In his debut as director and writer, Dan Wilde has attempted an intimate family saga, painting in the emotional landscape with detailed sketches of past remembrances and present troubles. It's like piecing together a smashed ornamental plate.

A drama about love, loss and repressed emotion, Alpha Male suffers from a lack of tension. This stuff works on telly on Sunday evenings but on the cinema screen it feels out of place and short on thrills; too polite and awkward to let rip. How very British middle class, I suppose.

Hands up who's not in The Coast of Utopia? Another bunch of actors sign up. Press release here.

Ain't It Cool has a review of Michael Clayton from a test screening. Watch out for spoilers. Llephen's verdict in a nutshell is that it's good but needs editing. Also, a Myspace account from the screening as well. No review though.

YouTube has an interview with Jeremy Northam about Possession.

Another meh review, from Peter Whittle of the Sunday Times:

A family fails to face up to the trauma of a father's death in this ponderous and inept British drama from the director Dan Wilde. The fact that it's a wealthy black-tie type of family doesn't make its woes any more interesting, other than the opportunity it affords to gawp at beautiful country houses and luscious lawns.

Jennifer Ehle plays the widow who falls for a new man (Patrick Baladi), thus earning the disapproval of her arrogant twerp of a son (Mark Wells) and causing her weird daughter (Amelia Warner) to spend much of her time chasing foxes. The problem is that this simple story is confused by baffling editing and an overuse of disorientating flashbacks -an attempt, perhaps, to jazz up the thin material.

Ian Johns of The Times modifies his earlier review a bit:

This is a slow-burn British film that charts the family tensions underlining the return of a prodigal son for his 21st birthday. Through flashbacks we discover the father’s terminal illness and the resentment caused by the mother remarrying. It’s not Festen, more a portrait of repressed British emotions.

An oppressive air hangs over the film that not even Ehle’s luminous stillness as the mother can lift. The tone remains too aloof to keep us interested in the agonies before us in a film in which even the pauses seem to have been scripted.

One more from BBC Movies' Mark Stevens:

A melancholy story of bereavement and family breakdown, Alpha Male takes itself seriously but quite never finds the emotional weight necessary for us to do the same. Jennifer Ehle (Wilde, This Year's Love) heads the cast as Alice, widow of Jim (Danny Huston). Left on her own, she tries to cope as children Elyssa (Amelia Warner) and Jack (Mark Wells) feel the loss of the family's alpha male. The resulting drama proves a dream-like evocation of death and dysfunction.

Ehle excels as Alice, capturing the reserved shellshock of a woman who knows she can't afford to indulge her grief. Despite doing everything she can to ease her children through the painful transition, she watches helplessly as Jack (played brilliantly by Arthur Duncan as a child, less convincingly by Mark Wells as an adult) begins to blame her for everything. Told by his father that he needs to become head of the family, young Jack is totally unprepared for such a challenge and the film keenly observes this boy's muddled attempts to play man.

Hints of sexual tension between mother and son come to little as does daughter Elyssa's gradual mental breakdown. Debut writer/director Dan Wilde eventually relies on some trite third act plotting to deliver a climax, but it feels falsely tacked on, too convenient to ring true. What sticks in the memory is the evocative cinematography and creepy score; both turn the family's beautiful country mansion into a haunting, haunted place where choked up despair and adolescent angst simmer towards disaster.

Autographed Donmar The Real Thing program on eBay. Here's a scan of the signed page with photos and biogs of her and Stephen Dillane.

Film blogger Tim R gives Alpha Male a B and rates the screenplay as one of his top 5.

"Touchingly vulnerable performance"

Jamie Russell, Channel 4:

A death leaves a family in turmoil in this drama from debut writer-director Dan Wilde

"I feel like I'm just floating, there's no reference point for anything," says bereaved matriarch Alice (Ehle). It's an insightful line since it serves as a brief summary of writer-director Dan Wilde's intent in this occasionally moving but mostly frigid drama about bereavement, loss and coping. Cross-cutting between past and present, Wilde charts the lives of Alice and her children Jack (Wells) and Elyssa (Warner) as they struggle to come to terms with the death of Jack (Huston), the family's alpha male husband and father.

Set in a privileged world of Oxbridge graduates, champagne and marquees, the film never strays from the family's country mansion, where stuffy, oak-paneled rooms open out onto rolling green lawns and shadowed forests. As a mood piece, Alpha Male works well, its austere location, studied pacing and carefully shot composition underscoring the stunted, emotionally devastated lives of its characters. The slightly off-kilter, elliptical feel is nicely exacerbated by Stephen Warbeck's creepy score that drifts in and out of scenes, and Jennifer Ehle's touchingly vulnerable performance as the bereaved mother - her cardigan sleeves stretched down around her hands, her smile fixed like someone trying to cope for the sake of others.

Yet while the mood is dark and ominous, the film never delivers as much as it promises and its pay-off barely disturbs its glacial atmosphere. As the young boy whose dying father implores him to become a man, Jack (played as a child by Arthur Duncan and as an adult by Mark Wells) proves a distinctly priggish central character. His immature outbursts and smug air prove so alienating that Wilde struggles to convince us that the character's psychological and emotional coming of age is one that we care about. Meanwhile, the film's far more interesting character - Jack's sister Elyssa, whose grief pushes her quietly towards psychosis - is sidelined. It's a pity, since it leaves Alpha Male sharing too many of its young hero's worst traits - it's far too convinced of its own importance.

Verdict
A stark psychodrama about bereavement, Alpha Male struggles to free itself from the straightjacketed lives of its characters.

David Parkinson, Radio Times (déjà vu):

*** There's something strangely compelling about this domestic drama, in which writer/director Dan Wilde cuts between past and present events to explore the impact of a man's death on his family. Businessman and near-perfect father Jim Ferris (Danny Huston) dies suddenly while his children are still young, and his wife Alice (Jennifer Ehle) subsequently takes up with widower Clive (Patrick Baladi). As the estranged family reunites for son Jack's 21st birthday, Wilde explores new tensions and past indiscretions. The action and the acting are often too meticulous and manipulative for such a slender storyline (although Arthur Duncan does impress as the grieving son attempting to be the man of the house). But the stifling atmosphere, engendered by selfish motives and repressed resentments, is well sustained here.

Alas, Matthew Turner of View London gives a thumbs down.

The performances are a mixed bag. Huston, Baladi, Ehle and Amelia Warner (as the grown-up Elyssa) do the best they can with the dire script, but Mark Wells is too smug and slappable to make Jack sympathetic whilst Jemma Powell (as his girlfriend Malika) is a shockingly bad actress saddled with a badly written character.

Mymovies.net has links to trailers, but can't get them to work here.