Song For Marion Review
I was pretty excited to see this after seeing (and loving) The Best Exotic Marigold hotel, and by the trailer this looked like it would be similar. The film is similar to Marigold, but feels more like a Marigold-Lite film.
The film is basically the same story we've seen over and over in films like The Full Monty and The Calender Girls, but with less heart and more gloss. The plot didn't manage to captivate me in the same way either of those films did, and while the director seemed to be aiming for that British feel, it ended up feeling more like a glossy Hollywood production. There wasn't any real sense of grit or emotion, and for one exception of the terminally ill Marion singing True Colours, it didn't manage to tug on my heartstrings like it was designed to. This isn't to say that the film is bad, rather it was just middlingly average.
The performances in the film are all solid, especially Vanessa Redgrave as Marion, the main character played Terence Stamp was however lacking for me, mostly due to his unlikeability. This was in fact the main problem for me with the film, rather than me caring for the main character and what he was going through, his emotionless personality made it hard to warm to him, I did eventually warm to him a bit near the end of the film but it was sadly too late to save the film.
The camera work and technical aspects of the film are all again average, they work for what the film is but don't attempt to do anything new or exciting, and at points make the film look like an ITV special. The comedy wasn't there either for me, I didn't laugh out loud once, and most of the jokes were either cringeworthy or just fell flat on their face. I was expecting British wit but was instead met with slapstick and somewhat childish humour.
The good parts of the film came from the early scenes involving Marion, which were much more joyful to watch, if a little bit more emotional, than the rest of the picture. To sum up I would only really recommend this to elderly people who might find something relatable in the characters, or easily pleased adults looking for a schmaltzy and sickly sweet drama
5/10
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