Pete Postlethwaite and Freda Dowie shine in Terence Davies’s remarkable 1988 portrait of a working-class Liverpool family that is as gripping as any thriller
Its austere beauty, artistry and wrenching sadness are undimmed after 30 years, and there is nothing distant or still about it. Terence Davies’s early autobiographical masterpiece from 1988, is now rereleased in cinemas, and for all the formal technique and the theatrically controlled tableaux, the drama is vividly present and alive.
These are Davies’s scenes from the life of a white working-class family in Liverpool, during and after the second world war, scenes summoned up out of order by the family’s memories. They are ruled over by a terrifying dad. This is an impressive performance from the great Pete Postlethwaite – an abusive, violent man who might now be diagnosed with depression, but is nonetheless capable of humour and gentleness. Equally great is Freda Dowie as Mum, almost wordlessly radiating stoicism and goodness. It is virtually a silent movie performance. Angela Walsh, Dean Williams and Lorraine Ashbourne play their children, Eileen, Tony and Maisie, enduring a brutally tough childhood only marginally improved by their father’s death, destined to replicate their parents’ gender power relations in their own marriages, and consumed with unreconciled anger, love and hate. It is almost unbearable when Eileen, on her wedding day, breaks down and sobs: “I miss my dad.” And Debi Jones, who after this film went on to a career in broadcasting and politics, deserves Hall of Fame status for her glorious performance as Eileen’s funny friend Micky.
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