This is a great piece of work by first time film-maker, Deborah Warner. A stellar cast of film and theatre heavy weights (Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and Fiona Shaw) star in a Chekhovian "comedy" of changing times and politics. Set among the Anglo Irish, the film is a coming of age story for its young heroine (a great performance from Keeley Hawes) who lives with her aunt and uncle (Smith and Gambon) in aristocratic insulation and isolation from the increasingly violent struggles that edge ever closer. Apart from the performances (Gambon and Shaw being particularly fine), what impresses is Deborah Warner's complete grasp of her material. Her reputation in the theatre is of a quiet, incisive intelligence that can cut to the heart of a text and present it new and clear to the audience. The evidence here is that she has a career every bit as impressive ahead of her in film: The Last September is fluent, assured and extremely watchable, with every last detail (music, design and lighting)beautifully and sympathetically realised. Wonderful.
Review of The Last September
