Wetherby (1985)

Wetherby, David Hare's directorial debut, carries out its elliptical narrative with such artistry and high-mindedness, a viewer might be tempted to overlook its somewhat ponderous conclusion. Vanessa Redgrave leads a stalwart cast that lends the film instant credibility, and while this has the effect of conditioning viewers for great things, it shouldn't dull their expectation for clear resolutions. Even in such a smartly unconventional mystery, the clues and fragments need to pay off in more satisfying ways than they do. Ian Holm, Tom Wilkinson, and Judi Dench join Redgrave in lending their considerable talents, but it's lesser-known Tim McInnerny who commands the viewer's attention, establishing a chilling undercurrent the moment he randomly shoots himself in the home of a horrified professor (Redgrave). As Jean Travers pieces together why she's been targeted as a witness -- perhaps knowing more than she's letting on -- the film dips seamlessly in and out of the present, the recent past, and the distant past. The director, better known as a playwright, has done well to make Wetherby more than just a filmed play. The scenes are composed dynamically, some of them entirely free of dialogue, or even sound. Paradoxically, it's Hare's content that can be a little fuzzy. The last days in the distraught stranger's life are rich with foreboding, but these sections are overshadowed by Hare's ill-advised preoccupation with Jean as a schoolgirl involved in an affair. The thematic similarities between the distant past and the present are quite strained, but Hare asserts their interconnectedness by revealing the climaxes of both storylines in a sequence of alternating shots. This only underscores the false significance assigned to their relationship. Wetherby is the unusual case of an acclaimed writer showing more fitness with form than ideas. Still, he succeeds enough at both to earn high praise. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide