The Greatest

 The Greatest 2009

• Director: Shana Feste
• Based on book: no
• Cast: Carey Mulligan, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Simmons, Jennifer Ehle, Michael Shannon
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Carey Mulligan – Suffragette, Far from the Madding Crown, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Great Gatsby, Never Let Me Go, Public Enemies, An Education, Doctor Who
• Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Tenet, Nowhere Boy
• Pierce Brosnan – Mamma Mia 1+2, A Long Way Down, The Love Punch, The World’s End, Remember Me, The Ghost Writer, Seraphim Falls, James Bond etc, Mars Attacks!
• Susan Sarandon – Cloud Atlas, Emotional Arithmetic, Romance and Cigarettes, The Exonerated, Alfie, Icebound, Moonlight Mile, Igby Goes Down, Anywhere but Here, Cradle Will Rock, Dead Man Walking, Little Women, The Client, Lorenzo’s Oil, Thelma and Louise, White Palace, Bull Durham, The Witches of Eastwick, Atlantic City, The Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Johnny Simmons – The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Scott Pilgrim vs the World
• Jennifer Ehle – Contagion, The King’s Speech, The River King, Sunshine, Wilde
• Michael Shannon – Knives Out, The Shape of Water, Man of Steel, Take Shelter, The Runaways  
• Why? The cast
• Seen: 29 August 2022      

       Young Bennet (Taylor-Johnson) is killed in a car crash just after saying to his girlfriend Rose (Mulligan) that he’s been in love with her since –

       His parents Allen (Brosnan) and Grace (Sarandon) and brother Ryan (Simmons) struggle to deal with their grief. When Rose rings the doorbell and tells them she’s three months pregnant with Bennet’s child and has nowhere to go, Allan welcomes her, Grace doesn’t believe her and Ryan resents her and his idolised brother.

       The family was in trouble before Bennet’s death. Rich, white, privileged but Allan had an affair, Grace has been distant, and Ryan does drugs. Rose doesn’t want her baby to grow up in such an awful family.

       It could have been maudlin, and it is a little at the end but in kind of a quirky way. The acting is as good as one has the right to expect from this cast. And best of all SPOILER! – the baby is called Ruby. 

4* of 5