Sunset Song
Directed by: Terence Davies
Written by: Terence Davies - Based on the Book by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Starring: Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie, Jack Greenlees, Daniela Nardini, Ian Pirie, Douglas Rankine, Ron Donachie, Mark Bonnar, Linda Duncan McLaughlin, Trish Mullin
Drama - 135 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 May 2016
Written by: Terence Davies - Based on the Book by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
Starring: Agyness Deyn, Peter Mullan, Kevin Guthrie, Jack Greenlees, Daniela Nardini, Ian Pirie, Douglas Rankine, Ron Donachie, Mark Bonnar, Linda Duncan McLaughlin, Trish Mullin
Drama - 135 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 17 May 2016
Director Terence Davies thrives on complicated period pieces led by even more complicated women. His 2000 film, The House of Mirth, based on Edith Wharton’s 1905 novel, follows Lily Bart’s fall from high class to the lowest rungs of social respectability based on misunderstandings. His 2011 film, The Deep Blue Sea, gives us Hester Collyer shunning her wealthy husband in favor of showering unrequited love upon an oblivious playboy. Now, tackling Sunset Song, perhaps one of Scotland’s most famous novels, Davies explores perhaps his strongest female protagonist yet though early years of paternal hegemony, agricultural enterprise, and marital relations affected by the sociopolitical earthquakes of the first World War.
Sunset Song feels comprised of a strong tablespoon of Far from the Madding Crowd and a pinch of Testament of Youth, all stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, set on the English landmass. Occurring in the far north of the island in Scotland near Aberdeen, Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn, Hail, Caesar!) is on the academic track to become a school teacher, the top profession a smart female could achieve in her time and place. Her family moves farms when her elderly mother births twins to make room for the household’s now six children.
Sunset Song feels comprised of a strong tablespoon of Far from the Madding Crowd and a pinch of Testament of Youth, all stories, whether fiction or non-fiction, set on the English landmass. Occurring in the far north of the island in Scotland near Aberdeen, Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn, Hail, Caesar!) is on the academic track to become a school teacher, the top profession a smart female could achieve in her time and place. Her family moves farms when her elderly mother births twins to make room for the household’s now six children.
John Guthrie (Peter Mullan) rules his household based on his interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ and with the painful wallop of his leather belt. Treating his wife, Jean, no better than breeding stock, it still comes as a surprise to witness how Jean takes matters into her own hands. Chris’s dear brother, Will (Jack Greenlees), runs off to seek his fortune as soon as possible and soon enough, young Chris Guthrie is all alone with a large field, some livestock in the barn, and a house full of painful memories.
Even though Davies’s previous film set him up for us to expect intense drama and outright depression, both genres which pop up in Sunset Song, they do not overtake Chris’s determined spirit, nor do they steer us clear of Davies’s adapted screenplay which chops up the film into what feel like book chapters. A critique of last year’s Far From the Madding Crowd was how stuffed full of plot it was. Sunset Song suffers from the same malady with perhaps a higher fever.
It took 18 years for Davies to successfully secure funding and make this film. From how the story drags on and the by the numbers narrative plodding from point A to point B, I could believe it took 18 years to squeeze everything he wanted to into the script. Also, even though the story is as beloved to Scotland as scotch and kilts, all of the beautiful, outdoor summertime scenes were filmed in New Zealand while the interiors come from Luxembourg. Scotland gets the colder winter month exteriors - fitting.
We notice how much Davies loves our protagonist though. He frequently bathes Chris in sunlight which is quite noticeable as her school desk is next to the window or how she stares out her kitchen to the land all aglow. Attempting to unbury ourselves from the plot’s leaden weight, notice Sunset Song is more than Chris’s relationships to men, mainly her father and then husband Ewan (Kevin Guthrie); it is a love story with the land.
Agyness talks to us throughout in voiceover, mostly signifying a chapter change, but she talks in odes to her treasured farmstead and even though she and everyone she knows are mere blips in the grand scheme of things, the land survives to nourish whomever comes along. Davies films the landscape very much how it would look in a painting, somewhat similar to what England looked like in Mr. Turner a couple years ago. Davies also takes the time to feature particular Scottish traditions most filmmakers would edit out due to time constraints. There are multiple scenes of communal singing such as wedding songs and Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve.
Chris Guthrie is Agyness Deyn’s first major role and she holds her own. Coming from a modeling background, Agyness shows us a girl growing into a woman full of hope and far more sympathetic than Mirth’s Lily Bart, even though the two experience similar calamities of losing the man they love. Chris forgives all the suffering inflicted upon her but accepts it. There is a duality to Chris. She’s a fighter at times but the dreamer in her may also be overwhelmed by it all. Most of all, she is overcome by the sheer number of forces inflicted upon her by the gluttonous plot. If Davies paid attention to the familiar ‘less is more’ idiom, he may have created a tender and engaging film. As it is, there is more gristle than meat.
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