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DVD Young Adam
Few movies are as vividly tactile as Young Adam. The way the cold blue light of Scotland envelopes everything--wooden bannisters, rippling water, rough fabric, coal soot caked in human skin, and flesh itself--makes you feel like you could reach out and touch it all. A failed writer named Joe (Ewan McGregor, Big Fish), slumming on a coal barge, finds himself drawn to barge's owner Ella (Tilda Swinton, Orlando, The Deep End), despite the presence of her husband Les (Peter Mullan, My Name is Joe). But Joe's passion is haunted by the girl he's abandoned (Emily Mortimer, Lovely & Amazing), whose memory becomes more and more powerful as a murder trial unfolds. The acting in Young Adam is magnificent, without affectation yet completely affecting. It's a moody film, but its deep engagement with its characters and the world they inhabit will make a lasting impression. --Bret Fetzer
Set in post WWII Scotland, Young Adam is a tale of deception and murder that creeps along like a steady rolling fog.
Ewan McGregor is Joe, an emotionally absent young drifter who finds work on a barge owned by Les (Peter Mullan) and his reticent wife Ella (Tilda Swinton).
When Joe and Les pull the corpse of a young woman out of a canal, it seems initially a random event for the barge workers. Police begin searching for the woman's killer while Joe finds himself drifting toward Ella. The tension between the two heats up and when a lust fuelled affair begins it becomes apparent Joe is hiding some dark secrets from his past.
Although not quite a thriller, Young Adam has all the ingredients of a dark and moody drama. Scotland's steamy canals are the perfect desolate backdrop for what is basically a story about morals - those of both the community and the individual.
It`s clear director David McKenzie made some inspired casting decisions when choosing his lead performers in this film, as they become the back bone of this emotional tale.
Perhaps it`s McGregor's Scottish heritage that takes some of the credit for his complete embodiment of Joe; brooding, opportunistic and confident, he attracts women like the proverbial moth to the flame. McGregor's subtly in playing Joe, makes it impossible to find the seam between actor and character.
Swinton dons the dowdy garb of a third generation barge owner and disappears into the strong yet vulnerable Ella. The role is a far cry from her characters in films such as Orlando and The Beach, but it seems clear by her portrayal of Ella that she revels in a challenge.
Containing all the right elements Young Adam is a first rate film, however this does not mean it is comfortable to watch. Not that it should be. It's a story which explores some perilous notions most of us would choose to shy away from.
Young Adam is a difficult journey but one not without its rewards.
Intriguing but Slow Rural Film Noir/Character Study.
David Mackenzie wrote and directed "Young Adam" based on the novel by Alexander Trocchi. In 1950s Scotland, a young man named Joe (Ewan McGregor) works on a barge that travels the River Clyde, in the employ of lifelong bargers Ella and Les Gault (Tilda Swinton & Peter Mullan). One day the two men find a woman's body floating in the river. They keep apprised of the investigation into the woman's death through the newspapers, as the relationships between Joe, Ella, and Les change within the confines of the barge.
"Young Adam" is a kind of plodding film noir. There are mystery, twists of fate that bring sudden change, a pervasive sense of injustice, and a cast of simple but well-drawn characters, none of whom are blameless or admirable, but who all have sympathetic moments. We see the story from Joe's perspective, and that makes an interesting character study. But "Young Adam" has -I suppose deliberately- the pace of the slow, monotonous barge life that it depicts. A significant portion of the story is in flashbacks, which are surreptitiously slipped into the present narrative, so it's often not immediately apparent that they are flashbacks. Conversation is sparse and sometimes disjointed. The film is very heavy on atmosphere in places, to the point that it detracts from the relationships. But the cast is excellent.
Tilda Swinton can be very refined, but here she is plain, rough and barely working class. Ella is probably the film's most interesting character: a woman who never expected much out of life, but jumps at an opportunity for a little change, not caring much what it is. Ewan McGregor does a fine job of keeping the audience unsure of Joe's moral character. Peter Mullan is perfection in his supporting role as a simple, not particularly bad man who is not a particularly good husband either. It's interesting to watch relationships within a closed space. And I like the idea of a noir set as far away from urban culture and sophistication as you can get. "Young Adam" is intriguing, but it takes patience. 3 1/2 stars.
The DVD (Columbia/Tristar 2004): Bonus features include 2 audio commentaries, one extended scene, and some voice-over narration. The first audio commentary by "Cast and Crew" features director David Mackenzie, editor Colin Monie, production designer Laurence Dorman, and actress Tilda Swinton. They talk to each other about their roles and unique challenges in working on the film, including adapting the story from the novel and the treatment of the flashback sequences. The second audio commentary is by director David Mackenzie alone, in which he talks about the decisions he made and challenges posed by the locations and circumstances. This commentary focuses on the filming itself. The "Extended Scene" is a very slightly extended version of a scene between Ella and Joe. "Ewan McGregor Original Passage Narration" is three short segments of voiceover narration that McGregor recorded for the film, but which did not make the final cut. The narration really is superfluous, so no loss there. Subtitles and dubbing for the film are available in French.
An Intriguing Film With Excellent Performances, But Not Too Involving
How would she have done it, asks Les Gault after he and Joe Taylor fished a dead woman clothed only in a petticoat from the cold water next to the barge Joe works on. She'd take off her coat and her blouse and her dress, Joe says, "then shed her stockings and hold them out so that they blew in the breeze like pennants before she let them float off into the night. And she'd shiver and ask herself if she really wanted to go through with it. And she'd answer that question by kicking her clothes into the river. And hurriedly now she'd take off her garter and her knickers. And then she'd be standing in her petticoat thinking about whatever it was that brought her to this. And then with her petticoat billowing around her, she'd drop into the water like a rose and float there for a moment, and be gone." Joe (Ewan McGregor) works for Les (Peter Mullan) and his wife, Ella (Tilda Swinton) on the Gault's barge as it hauls everything from coal to container drums along the canals from Glasgow. The police at first think the girl, Cathy Dimly (Emily Mortimer) was a suicide, but then find she was pregnant and accuse a married man she knew of murder. Please note: Elements of the plot are discussed.
Joe's vision of Cathy's last moments is mesmerizing and dead wrong. She was undressed because, a few moments before, she and Joe were having sex on the dirt in a dockyard next to the river. She was pregnant, not by her married friend, but by Joe. She drowned because when Joe walked away from her she ran after him, lost her balance and fell in the river. Joe called her name a few times, but then threw her clothes into the river after her and hurried away.
Joe Taylor is a drifter. He wants to be a writer but doesn't work at it. He thinks as much with what's between his legs as with what's between his ears. He's passive in many ways, except when it comes to women. He was having sex with Cathy soon after they met. He began having sex with Ella, the tired, frustrated wife of Les and who turns out to own the barge, one evening when Joe went into town to play darts. "Are you sorry?" Joe asks her afterwards. "Fat lot of good that would do," Ella says as she walks back to the barge. Joe has sex with Ella's sister-in-law while still supposedly committed to Ella and shortly after the sister-in-law becomes a widow. He has sex with the married landlady where he stays after leaving the barge. The sex is passionate but joyless, against an alley wall, along the side of a canal, in the small bed of the barge where Ella's young son peeps through a crack in the wall. Joe can have what he wants, and he does, but with little personal involvement.
Joe knows the man on trial is innocent. At the last moment he writes an anonymous letter telling what actually happened. The man is found guilty anyway and condemned to hang. Joe finally just walks away.
Is that all there is? Yes and no. I found the movie frustrating because there was little emotional payoff for the viewer. Joe is not an especially bad guy, but he has no particular redeeming qualities. Sex comes easily for him, but doing something -- anything -- seems beyond his limit of selfishness. It makes for a movie that, I think, is intriguing to watch but not very involving.
On the other side of that argument are two strong elements. First, the look and style of the movie is first-rate. Everything about the movie is cold, overcast or raining and coal-begrimed. The love-making, with both female and male frontal nudity, is quick and efficient. There's no sentimentality here. Everyone smokes and you can sense the reek of stale cigarette breath. So much of the action takes place on the claustrophobic barge that it's not long before you want to take a deep breath of fresh air. Second, add to that some wonderful performances, especially by Tilda Swinton and Peter Mullan. If you want a glimpse of Swinton's enormous talent, look at her in two wildly different movies, Love Is the Devil and The Deep End, and then compare here. She's amazing. Ewan McGregor, too, does a fine job as the selfish, passive Joe. Young Adam may be a flawed movie, but it moves along at it's own pace. I found it interesting and worth viewing.
The DVD picture is excellent. There are a couple of commentary tracks and other extras which I did not check out.
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