Annette Bening portrays noir star Gloria Grahame in 鈥楩ilm Stars Don鈥檛 Die in Liverpool鈥�
Bening keeps you watching, and, to a lesser extent, so does Jamie Bell as Peter Turner, the young British actor who became Grahame鈥檚 lover for a brief spell in the late 1970s and early 鈥�80s.
Bening keeps you watching, and, to a lesser extent, so does Jamie Bell as Peter Turner, the young British actor who became Grahame鈥檚 lover for a brief spell in the late 1970s and early 鈥�80s.
Annette Bening is one of those rare actresses who makes a movie, however otherwise deficient, worth seeing. In 鈥淔ilm Stars Don鈥檛 Die in Liverpool,鈥� she is playing Gloria Grahame, the film noir siren whose career sputtered out in the last decades of her short life. Based on the 1986 memoir of the same name by Peter Turner, and directed by Paul McGuigan from a scattershot script by Matt Greenhalgh, the film is frustrating because so many of its best possibilities are missed. But Bening keeps you watching, and, to a lesser extent, so does Jamie Bell as Peter Turner, the young British actor who became Grahame鈥檚 lover for a brief spell in the late 1970s and early 鈥�80s.
We first see Gloria preparing to go onstage as Amanda in a low-rent London production of 鈥淭he Glass Menagerie,鈥� whereupon she collapses and ends up, for a time, being nursed back to a semblance of health in the Liverpool home of Peter鈥檚 parents (well played by Julie Walters and Kenneth Cranham) under Peter鈥檚 guidance. The film then flashes back to where it all began, when Peter and Gloria were neighbors in a cheap rooming house and she seductively invites him over to teach her some 鈥淪aturday Night Fever鈥� dance moves.聽
Their dancing duet, as they shimmy to 鈥淏oogie Oogie Oogie,鈥� makes it very clear where these two are headed, and soon Gloria and Peter, who is half Gloria鈥檚 age and knows little about her movie career 鈥� which included playing the flirty Violet in 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Wonderful Life鈥� and winning an Oscar in 1953 for 鈥淭he Bad and the Beautiful鈥� 鈥� are inseparable. (Their best dating scene: Gloria shrieks with delight as they watch the most gruesome sequence from 鈥淎lien.鈥�)聽
It鈥檚 not difficult to understand what Gloria sees in Peter: He鈥檚 virile and doting. Bening doesn鈥檛 play up the pathos of Gloria鈥檚 decline or her need for rejuvenation. It would be easy to imagine her played as a Tennessee Williams character 鈥� a cross between, say, Amanda in 鈥淭he Glass Menagerie鈥� and Blanche in 鈥淎 Streetcar Named Desire鈥� 鈥� but Bening gives her a more hard-bitten core. Gloria, we are soon made aware of, has been battling breast cancer, but she is too proud, and too scared, to reveal this to Peter. She holds out for herself the possibility of romantic survival: Her greatest wish is to play Juliet in a West End production of 鈥淩omeo and Juliet.鈥�
It鈥檚 less obvious what Peter sees in Gloria. He has had an active sex life with women his own age. He reveals quickly at one point that he is bisexual, but nothing further is made of this. He is not portrayed as an opportunist, and his relationship with his parents, with his mother in particular, seems unremarkable. He can鈥檛 be characterized as an adoring fan since he knew nothing about the object of his adoration prior to their hookup, and even after he learns of her fame, it clearly is not what draws him in. Peter is not so much an enigma in this movie as he is a blank, and it鈥檚 to Bell鈥檚 credit that he nevertheless gives this blankness a high degree of energy.聽
Despite Bening鈥檚 intensity, the movie doesn鈥檛 provide a whole lot of biographical richness for her to work with. She wisely doesn鈥檛 attempt to mimic Grahame鈥檚 vixen persona (which, in fact, Bening already did when she played a noir vamp in 鈥淭he Grifters鈥�). But the more controversial aspects of Grahame鈥檚 life are played down, like, for example, her four children, almost none of whom we hear much about, by three different husbands (she was married four times), or the fact that her fourth husband, Anthony Ray, was the stepson of her second, the director Nicholas Ray, and that she had carried on an affair with Anthony starting when he was 13. This affair was partially responsible for Grahame鈥檚 Hollywood demise, although, again, the movie doesn鈥檛 highlight it. By eliding over this material, the filmmakers are attempting to conventionalize, or whitewash, the more disturbing aspects of Grahame鈥檚 life.聽
I wish they hadn鈥檛 done so. In Bening, they had an actress who could have handled anything they threw at her.聽Grade: B (Rated R for language, some sexual content, and brief nudity.)