The rolling green hills and fields full of shimmering golden wheat looked so nice in 'Sunset Song'; "Ah", I thought, "The Scottish countryside is lovely." Then I read in the end credits that some of this British/Luxembourg co-production was shot on location in New Zealand. Oh. Possibly I was admiring Kiwi hills instead...
Anyway. The setting is agricultural Scotland in the early Twentieth Century, and the main character is Chris (Agyness Deyn), a teenager who outshines her classmates (not surprisingly as she looks considerably older than most of them) and who dreams of being a teacher. She lives on the family farm with her overly-controlling father (Peter Mullan), who routinely beats her brother in-between making pregnant his wife (Daniela Nardini, who doesn't seem to have had a good meaty role in years). The story, based on a famous Scottish novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, follows Chris through several years of happiness, motherhood and bereavement.
Mullan does his usual one-note bullying schtick, although, to be fair, the script allows him little scope for anything else. As Chris, Deyn is competent, if the viewer ignores one or two flatly-delivered lines - perhaps she was concentrating on her accent (and why hire an English actress to play a Scotswoman anyway? Were all the Scottish actresses busy? It's not as if Deyn is a Winslet-like big name who is going to put bums on seats).
As for the story, it seems to lurch from one scenario to another, with little to connect it all up. It's possible some vital scenes were left on the cutting-room floor (for instance, any explanation of why Chris' happy, worshipful husband is transformed into a rampaging sexist monster after what the film suggests is merely army training which, I should think, would last only a few months, not the five or six years the ageing of his son seems to suggest!) Characters wander into the story then disappear with no explanation (eg: Chris' son and the man who helps her on the farm while her husband is away). It all gives the film a strangely disjointed feel...
... but somehow the end result is greater than the sum of its parts: this is an enjoyable production. Deyn makes a personable heroine and the story has a comforting predictability. The film seems shorter than its 135 minute running time - and with films as with business meetings, what greater praise could there be?
Anyway. The setting is agricultural Scotland in the early Twentieth Century, and the main character is Chris (Agyness Deyn), a teenager who outshines her classmates (not surprisingly as she looks considerably older than most of them) and who dreams of being a teacher. She lives on the family farm with her overly-controlling father (Peter Mullan), who routinely beats her brother in-between making pregnant his wife (Daniela Nardini, who doesn't seem to have had a good meaty role in years). The story, based on a famous Scottish novel by Lewis Grassic Gibbon, follows Chris through several years of happiness, motherhood and bereavement.
Mullan does his usual one-note bullying schtick, although, to be fair, the script allows him little scope for anything else. As Chris, Deyn is competent, if the viewer ignores one or two flatly-delivered lines - perhaps she was concentrating on her accent (and why hire an English actress to play a Scotswoman anyway? Were all the Scottish actresses busy? It's not as if Deyn is a Winslet-like big name who is going to put bums on seats).
As for the story, it seems to lurch from one scenario to another, with little to connect it all up. It's possible some vital scenes were left on the cutting-room floor (for instance, any explanation of why Chris' happy, worshipful husband is transformed into a rampaging sexist monster after what the film suggests is merely army training which, I should think, would last only a few months, not the five or six years the ageing of his son seems to suggest!) Characters wander into the story then disappear with no explanation (eg: Chris' son and the man who helps her on the farm while her husband is away). It all gives the film a strangely disjointed feel...
... but somehow the end result is greater than the sum of its parts: this is an enjoyable production. Deyn makes a personable heroine and the story has a comforting predictability. The film seems shorter than its 135 minute running time - and with films as with business meetings, what greater praise could there be?