Waterland

 

Waterland 1992

• Director: Stephen Gyllenhaal
• Seen by this director: an episode each of Homicide Life on the Street and Twin Peaks.
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jeremy Irons, Sínead Cusack, Ethan Hawke, Grant Warnock, Lena Headey, David Morrissey, John Heard, Pete Postletwaite
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jeremy Irons – Their Finest, The Man Who Knew Infinity, High-Rise, Beautiful Creatures, The Hollow Crown, The Words, Kingdom of Heaven, The Merchant of Venice, Being Julia, Longitude, Kafka, Australia, The French Lieutenant’s Woman
• Sínead Cusack – Camelot, V for Vendetta, Twelfth Night
• Ethan Hawke – many including Cymbeline and Hamlet.
• Lena Heady – Game of Thrones, Fighting with My Family, Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Brothers Grimm, Aberdeen, Remains of the Day
• David Morrissey – The Hollow Crown, South Riding, Red Riding, Doctor Who and others
• John Heard – The Sopranos, O, The Pelican Brief, Awakenings
• Pete Postlethwaite – The Constant Gardener, The Shipping News, Amistad, Brassed Off, Romeo & Julia, In the Name of the Father, Alien 3, Hamlet
• Why? I remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 22 August 2023.      

       Tom (Warnock and Irons), a history teacher, and his wife Mary (Headey and Cusack), a neurotic who obsesses about Jesus and not being able to have children, moved from England to the US twenty years ago. They are both haunted by their past. They met and became passionate lovers at the end of WWII.

       One of Tom’s students, Price (Hawke), is contemptuous of his history lessons so Tom starts telling stories of his and Mary’s past, more vividly than some students like, but teaching them a lot of history.

       Despite the somewhat banal story, the interweaving of a teacher reaching out to his students and the connection of the individual to history, it makes for a dramatic and atmospheric film with strong acting by all, especially Heady in her first film. 

4* of 5