In My Father’s Den

Helen M Jerome reviews

In My Father’s Den Viewed at Vue, Leicester Square, London

• Cert:
• Running time: 126 minutes
• Year: 2004
• Released: 24th June 2005
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround EX
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
  

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  Director:

  Brad McGann

  (Possum)

Producers:

Trevor Haysom, Dixie Linder

Screenplay:

Brad McGann

(Based on the book “In My Father’s Den”, by Maurice Gee)

Cinematographer:

Stuart Dryburgh

(The Piano, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Once Were Warriors)

Music Score:

Simon Boswell

(Shallow Grave, This Year’s Love)

Cast:

Paul: Matthew MacFadyen
Celia: Emily Barclay
Penny: Miranda Otto
Andrew: Colin Moy
Jackie: Jodie Rimmer
Ms Seagar: Vicky Haughton

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As seen in everything from Heavenly Creatures to Whale Rider and The Piano – not to masquerading as mention Middle Earth – New Zealand has the uncanny knack of feeling spacious and scenic while naggingly claustrophobic. Which means it provides the perfect backdrop for this dark chamber piece of a movie.

Marking director Brad McGann‘s full-length feature debut, the film is also most notable for coaxing an extraordinary performance from newcomer Emily Barclay as the central teenage character, Celia. For she is the catalyst for all the main twists, turns and motivations of a handful of dysfunctional adults who seem fated to repeat the mistakes of their younger selves and their predecessors.

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The plot is superficially simple: a glamorous, yet jaded war photographer Paul (Matthew MacFadyen) returns home for his father’s funeral in small town New Zealand to be reunited with his estranged brother Andrew (Colin Moy), a pious, yet bitter ostrich farmer, now married with a voyeuristic teenage son. When revisiting their father’s old den, Paul stumbles across a teenage girl Celia (Barclay) who uses the place as her secret hideaway. They strike up an unlikely friendship as Celia attempts to break down Paul’s weary aloofness while he discovers that she is the daughter of his old flame, Jackie (Jodie Rimmer), now the local butcher with a dodgy and voyeuristic boyfriend.

But when Celia goes missing, the narrative takes on a darker, more violent hue and the fingers point at Paul. Has she discovered her true identity and gone abroad, or has a family member disposed of the inconvenient teen? Was voyeurism to blame? Why did Paul and Andrew’s mother die? And what was their father really getting up to in his secret den?

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Through a mixture of diary entries, frequent flashbacks and Paul’s move away from his position of denial, the truth is uncovered in all its raw unpleasantness. Paul might make a pyre of his memories, but despite this, the characters seem unable to escape the grip of the past.

The movie is above all, an exploration of secrets, voyeurism, escape and memory, much like an early novel from Ian McEwan. And the lynchpins are the excellent performances not just from Barclay, but also from MacFadyen. No-one does careworn, moody, introspective silence like MacFadyen, and whether snug in the den or dwarfed by majestic landscapes, he certainly gets to strut his silent stuff here.

NB. Trivia fans will be interested to know that casting director Diana Rowan, who found Emily Barclay, also unearthed Anna Paquin for The Piano and Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider. And look out for Patti Smith’s Horses album, which features in the plot and on the soundtrack.

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DIRECTION
PERFORMANCES
SCREENPLAY
SOUND/MUSIC


OVERALL Review copyright © Helen M Jerome 2005.