A man discovers that there are other versions of himself out in the real world clones that were generated from an original, which may or may not have been him. He confronts his father to find out how and why this could have happened and learns of a son that was killed many years ago after the man's wife had died. The father discusses these things with him and, inevitably, has cause to have further such conversations with other copies that start to come out of the woodwork.
A Number was shown in a slot on BBC2 that had previously shown other one-off plays and dramas that had gotten good press, so, as part of recording/watching those I also put this film on my HDR for a later date. That date came round recently and I was intrigued to see what the film would be about. I gather that others were hoping for some split-screen stuff with the multiple clones interacting with one another but for me I was concerned that this would produce a gimmick and hoped it wouldn't be that way. That was how it played out and indeed it is only the final few minutes that we get a shot of the multiple clones all hanging around in one place and, as I suspected, it does feel a little gimmicky in how it is done. These are two minutes though, leaving another 58 to do something else and it was this majority of the film that appealed to me.
Unsurprisingly (as it was a play) the film works best as an actor's film as it gives three or four enclosed scenes that are emotionally charged and delivered in tight locations that allow for the two actors to focus on their characters and their interactions more than movement or camera locations. In this regard it does really work as both Wilkinson and Ifans are excellent. Ifans appeared to have the better of it by having more varied characters as well as the gimmick effect of playing versions of himself but as the film went on the real impact came from Wilkinson. Because his character is constant throughout it allows him to react and develop his character over time in a way that Ifans doesn't have he just has step changes as he moves between characters. Both performances are strong then and this makes it more of a shame that the material is not quite as engaging or compelling as I would have liked. Any specific dialogue scene tends to work pretty well by giving the actors plenty to work with in that moment but it is in the bigger picture that the script disappoints. We understand from it what happens to each clone that we have just met and we get the sense of time passing but the bigger picture never engaged or played out for me in the way that I wanted it to. It is a shame because Wilkinson is the main driver for the film being able to do it and his performance is there for the taking problem is that the script doesn't link the scenes as well as I would have liked and doesn't play to the heart of the piece in the way that it does play to the heart of any specific scene.
A Number is still interesting and engaging though because each self-contained scene is tightly filmed and really well acted with Wilkinson specifically doing great work across the film. The script is strongest in the moment but doesn't manage to totally work on the bigger level of the whole film. Still worth seeing for the performances but slightly disappointing for what it doesn't manage to do.
A Number was shown in a slot on BBC2 that had previously shown other one-off plays and dramas that had gotten good press, so, as part of recording/watching those I also put this film on my HDR for a later date. That date came round recently and I was intrigued to see what the film would be about. I gather that others were hoping for some split-screen stuff with the multiple clones interacting with one another but for me I was concerned that this would produce a gimmick and hoped it wouldn't be that way. That was how it played out and indeed it is only the final few minutes that we get a shot of the multiple clones all hanging around in one place and, as I suspected, it does feel a little gimmicky in how it is done. These are two minutes though, leaving another 58 to do something else and it was this majority of the film that appealed to me.
Unsurprisingly (as it was a play) the film works best as an actor's film as it gives three or four enclosed scenes that are emotionally charged and delivered in tight locations that allow for the two actors to focus on their characters and their interactions more than movement or camera locations. In this regard it does really work as both Wilkinson and Ifans are excellent. Ifans appeared to have the better of it by having more varied characters as well as the gimmick effect of playing versions of himself but as the film went on the real impact came from Wilkinson. Because his character is constant throughout it allows him to react and develop his character over time in a way that Ifans doesn't have he just has step changes as he moves between characters. Both performances are strong then and this makes it more of a shame that the material is not quite as engaging or compelling as I would have liked. Any specific dialogue scene tends to work pretty well by giving the actors plenty to work with in that moment but it is in the bigger picture that the script disappoints. We understand from it what happens to each clone that we have just met and we get the sense of time passing but the bigger picture never engaged or played out for me in the way that I wanted it to. It is a shame because Wilkinson is the main driver for the film being able to do it and his performance is there for the taking problem is that the script doesn't link the scenes as well as I would have liked and doesn't play to the heart of the piece in the way that it does play to the heart of any specific scene.
A Number is still interesting and engaging though because each self-contained scene is tightly filmed and really well acted with Wilkinson specifically doing great work across the film. The script is strongest in the moment but doesn't manage to totally work on the bigger level of the whole film. Still worth seeing for the performances but slightly disappointing for what it doesn't manage to do.