Franks cronies Eddie (Sean McGinley), Danny (Billy Boyd), and Norman (Ron Cook) see Frank slipping into depression. Money is tight and Joan secretly is training to be a bus driver.
We soon learn that Frank is now jobless, that there is friction with his son Rob (who had been a twin but the other twin died at age 7) who doesn't have a traditional job but instead is a stay at home Dad.
Frank (Peter Mullen) watches as the last ship he will ever have worked on is launched as his wife Joan (Brenda Blethyn) and his son Rob (Jamie Sives), daughter in law Angela (Johdi May), and grandson twins celebrate the launching. Writer Alex Rose and Director Gaby Dellal have managed to explore the psyches of the ordinary folk who face the crises of unemployment, of strained family relations and the fear of loss of pride in one's self and have created not only a sympathetic story with a message, but have also delivered their story with humor and a glint of the eye that makes the whole thing work - very well indeed.
#ON A CLEAR DAY IMDB FULL#
ON A CLEAR DAY is a wee Scottish film that is full to overflowing with heart and fine performances. Go see it anyway- support the growth of these folks! I gave this an encouraging 8 out of 10. The ill-fitting chunks weren't their fault- they were just an artifact of the awkward and 'green' directorial efforts. Oh, the cast was great, and they obviously did everything they were asked to do, and they did it very well. That's what 'Clear Day' is like- a quilt whose individual pieces are great, showing bright and future success, but not put together very well, showing immaturity and a student just beginning to blossom. This student work shows genius and promise, both undelivered as of now. And then imagine this future master's last 'student' project, when she was 17 years old or so, before the magic clicked and she got great. Imagine a master-to-be quilt maker a quilt making artist whose work will be celebrated in the UK and America, and featured on PBS and BBC documentaries and featured in museums, etc. 'On A Clear Day' made me think of quilt makers. Young, in their careers anyway, regardless of their actual calendar year age, but very talented.
#ON A CLEAR DAY IMDB MOVIE#
That is, this movie resembled a good student-like product from young and promising film makers. If they are young, or young-ish, this effort might bode well. I looked up the director and the writer online, and didn't find much. Overall, this is a pleasant movie- but it isn't a great one. These had neither a start, nor a finish- we simply saw one brief middle, as it were. Without discussing plot details, let me breezily mention the parts with Chan, the Chinese chippy guy, for example. Worse, those orphaned parts were never really stitched up as themselves- i.e., they never really completed themselves, nor made any real sense in and of themselves. Sure, we could accept a bit of non-convention, and even artiness, but some of the elements of this story never were stitched together with any other parts of the movie.
But we do need some sense, anyway, of what various expositions mean. Many of the threads of the story simply go nowhere- not that we necessarily need a big plot-ish conclusion to everything. Some of the weaknesses, however, are how all of the individual components of the writer and director's vision are executed. It may be said this is a character driven movie, perhaps? And, all of the cast do a commendable job of providing us with the characters' humanity and depth. The camera lingers, the dialogue is written to enlighten us about the emotions (pleasant as well as despairing) of the characters. Another strength is the reliance on the humans, and their real-world behaviors, fears, and hopes (etc.) for the 'current' flow of the movie. It seems obvious that the writer and director had visions of something deep, meaningful, as well as entertaining.
#ON A CLEAR DAY IMDB TV#
Some of the strengths are its attempt to tell a 'real' story, without recourse to shtick, cliché, or pop-star trickery so common on TV and in movies these days.
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