That Good Night
John Hurts final performance is one that is so rivetingly powerful and honest that it can only be combined with a film and story that truly match his own personal character. The story follows an aged and self-deprecating screenwriter as he finds out he has a terminal illness. Morbid stuff right? However, this is not a morbid and depressing story instead running off of the idea of A Christmas Carol, presenting a man who discovers life is worth living.
Shot in the exquisite south of Portugal, the director knows to give the story centre stage. No intrusive visual effects or stylistic trifle, instead opting for a wonderful calmly paced tempo and exploring each and every shot in the beautiful sunshine of the location. Each and every shot has meaning and clever editing adds an extra needed layer of filmmaking prowess that accompanies the story wonderfully.
The always fantastic Charles Dance performs a character called The Visitor. He is the metaphorical vision of death in this film. Always presented in white, he questions, not in a argumentative or salesman way, Hurts character on whether or not he should consider euthanasia. Hurt shooting down the idea of counselling and wanting to immediately end his life. Dance instead helps him to understand the consequences of such a decision which is the films important message.
John Hurt is obviously fantastic in his final role suiting the character perfectly as if it had been written just for him at this stage in his life. What he provides for the story the story provides back (something other critics seem to disagree with) and with clever agility the story carefully avoids issues that could potentially tank the plot. This, of course, never happens and i personally think this film is perfect.
The music, the cinematography, the carefully concise editing, the powerful acting and a brilliant plot help to facilitate this beautiful, feel good, tale of the importance of life and death. The most powerful bit being the character's change throughout the feature.
The run time is perfect feeling slow paced but never dragging and the story moving along very well. The ending itself could easily have been badly written and filmed but the screenwriters and director do a perfect job of avoiding obvious cliche and melodramatist.
What strikes me about this film is how, apart from critics, no one has seen it. Likely being a mixture of misunderstanding of the content, bad marketing if not any marketing and a very limited release. At this time only 87 people have rated it on IMDb which is unheard of for a film of this caliber in my opinion.
This is a beautiful, perfect film that must not be missed. To rank it would be unjust but I'd definitely go as high as saying it's at least as good as the 2018 Oscar best picture nominees if not better than some. I think this is a must watch film and would be highly successful with a good release date, proper marketing and word of mouth. This could easily become a classic and I hope it does.
(Reviewed three weeks after viewing, something I think is important for reviewers to put in their reviews)
