The Dead

Release Year: 1987

Director: John Huston

Review: It is poetic that in John Huston's last film 'The Dead', he himself is dying while filming it.  Directing the film in a wheelchair, he adapts a short story about Gabriel (Donal McCann) and his wife Gretta (Angelica Huston), who attend a family holiday party at the turn of the century in Ireland.  The party evokes strong emotions from Gretta after she hears a song that makes her remember a love who died long ago.

This is a brutally dull film.  There just isn't anyway around it.  From the first scene, to nearly the end, we are cramped inside a stuffy house party with guests so boring its nearly painful.  There is subtlety in the things they say to one another, and it does eventually contribute to the ultimate payoff, but it doesn't make watching it any more enjoyable.  The acting is oddly stiff, and there is absolutely zero connection between anyone making the whole thing very uncomfortable. It's entirely reminiscent of one of those bland Hallmark channel movies that you immediately click off of when you stumble upon it and wonder why anyone would watch it.  From the lighting to the monotone dialog it's enough to put anyone to sleep.  It's not the slow pace which I have a problem with, its just the lack of anything interesting to latch on to.

I was all set to hate this film until the very end, when we mercifully leave the party.  It's at this point that Gretta is effected by the memory of her formal love, and her husband coaxes out of her what's wrong.  The final monolog is so eloquent and moving that it just about makes up for the drivel which came before it.  It was if I were watching two completely different movies.  It's a shame that I had to sit through the first part, as the ending was actually a film I could recommend.  While Huston ultimately goes out on a high note, it was too little too late. 

Rating: 2/5