FFWD Weekly
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| Film by Julie Pithers THE WINSLOW BOY David Mamet has found his niche. While The Spanish Prisoner was a fine little whodunit, The Winslow Boy is a treat of language, understatement and gesture. Based on a 1946 play by Terrance Rattigan and set just as the First World War is about to tear everything and everyone we meet to shreds, it seems like a rather small tale to put on the screen. Ronnie Winslow, a boy of 14, is expelled from the naval academy after being accused of stealing five shillings. His wise and loving father sacrifices nearly everything to clear the boy’s name. While this all sounds somewhat dreary it is in fact told with such wit and a light touch that it sums up the period in a totally compelling story . The Winslows are an upper-middle-class English family with servants, good manners and good schooling, but the world is a changing place and brings such vices as smoking, gramophones and feminism into the house – all of which is, if not supported, warmly tolerated by the elder Winslows. When their father (Nigel Hawthorne) puts all they have on the line for a seeming trifle, the inverse occurs. All of the things they must bear are never shouted from the roof or sullenly written in a journal to be used later. No, this is the good and strong part of the stiff upper lip, now so disdained. The delivery of lines is outstanding. Nigel Hawthorne lays out his character without ever raising his voice or going into a soliloquy. The lawyer, played by Jeremy Northam, is a quirky, driven man treated like a boxer going into the ring when he is about to perform before his peers. Only Rebecca Pidgeon, who plays the suffragette Cate Winslow, is a bit too stiff and birdlike, very much like her role in The Spanish Prisoner. Now here’s a twist: though this is a film based around the demand for a fair trial, all the courtroom scenes are off camera. We only see how things play out though the press and reactions in the family, all of which are surprisingly satisfying. The politics of the day are foremost in the story, and the sense that everything is about to change irrevocably permeates everything the family does. Even the house quietly changes as the Winslows march toward the future. But what seeps through most strongly is a lovely tale of romance – a completely underplayed romance that is all the more vivid for it. With only a few silly stage-like moments of holding back information that everyone but the audience knows, and characters announcing what is happening at the other end of town, The Winslow Boy translates well to film. While mannered, it is never boring, and while romantic, it isn’t sappy, and while a courtroom drama, it is quite funny. The Winslow Boy is one of the finest period pieces I’ve seen. |
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