Gideon's Daughter (2005)

 

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Rated: TVMA

reviewed by: Charity Bishop
 

There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to this BBC production. Either you believe it is a slow-moving masterpiece or a snooze fest. The more I think about it, the more profound it seems, but for less patient and soul-searching moviegoers, Gideon's Daughter will seem uneventful in its exploration of grief.

Everyone in England wants his opinion on "things," from the Prime Minister to budding starlets. Gideon Warner (Bill Nighy) is the biggest go-to guy in the business when it comes to arranging social events, making an impact, and impressing the world, whether it is a coronation or an awards ceremony. His flower-garnished celebrations are the toast of society. His standoffish, disinterested attitude makes people want his advice even more. Beneath the calm exterior is a man coming to terms with loss. Content to be a media mogul in the business world and suitably distracted by beautiful women in his down time, it's really his daughter he cares about -- and Natasha (Emily Blunt) is pushing him out of her life. Attending her final appearance in a school production prior to her graduation, Gideon is shocked by a song she sings about an absentee father too preoccupied with extramarital affairs to notice his daughter's anguish. It is based on a French novelist whose child committed suicide, but haunts him as he realizes that she is slipping away from him.

One of Gideon's clients from the government offices is accosted in the street by an angry father whose child was recently killed in a bicycle accident due to a bad roundabout in a local neighborhood. He and his ex wife Stella (Miranda Richardson) are seeking to have the roundabout altered so no other children will placed in danger, but getting all the right government individuals there has proven to be something of a challenge. Gideon arranges it and finds a potential friend in Stella, who in dealing with the loss of her son, has a profound impact on his life as someone who doesn't want his attention or influence, but just needs him to listen to her -- really listen, not the half-listening he does with his important clients. These events and those that follow will forever change his life and help him learn to let go.

For a quiet production that managed to win two much-deserved acting awards, Gideon's Daughter is not what one would expect in the genre. It's a British film with a small budget and as such is not impressive in its structure so much as the manner in which it is told -- primarily through the actors. I rarely encounter a movie where I forget I am not watching real life. But these people were so real -- from their irritating habits to their emotionless exchanges -- that somewhere along the way I forgot they were acting. Gideon is a man bored with his life who has managed to obtain incredible success and cannot take pleasure in it because it is empty for him -- all he wants is love and acceptance, and his distant daughter refuses to give it to him. Nighy is nothing short of magnificent. There's a painful scene toward the end in which he experiences a complete breakdown and becomes almost comatose, but it is the minute gestures that make his performance so memorable. Much transpires behind his eyes and in the smallest movements. Richardson is always wonderful and here seems just on the verge of something profound... her character is so unusual that you cannot help loving her, and the problems all of them face are real. Loss permeates the story -- the loss of a child through death, and another through emotional carelessness. It does have a happy if mysterious conclusion but it is based on the individual as to whether or not it will be understood.

The BBC is much more progressive than American television and so there is some content. Jesus' name is abused a half dozen times. The s-word is thrown around several times. More problematic is a long scene of fairly graphic sexual content (movement, but no nudity), followed by partial nudity on a very full-figured woman. (We see her bare back and part of her breasts from behind.) The story is told by a character played by Robert Lindsay, and at this point he asks his typist if the topic of sex is going to make her uncomfortable. (She says no.) Stella and Gideon are shown in bed together engaged in conversation, implying their relationship has become sexual. He mentions having cheated on his wife on several occasions prior to her death.

It is the nuances of the performances that I will remember the longest. The open flamboyance of Stella contrasted with the repressed Gideon is most apparent in one scene where they lay on a bed together and talk. She is completely comfortable and he rests beside her, arms crossed, fingers clenched, as if in order to contain his emotional breakdown he refuses to let down his guard. It's a rather unconventional and sometimes disjointed collaboration of thoughts but for a more introspective audience, will be fascinating.