Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Other Doctor Lives: The Night Watch (2011)

This TV movie has a lot going for it—it’s an LGBTQ-themed period piece with a great cast, which definitely falls under the category of “things I like”—but for me, it kind of eludes its full potential. While there are scenes and sequences where it’s firing on all cylinders, I don’t feel like the film as a whole quite comes together.

In 1947, a group of tangentially connected people struggle with life in post-war London. Viv juggles being the side piece of a married veteran and trying to get help for her brother, a young man recently out of prison. Viv’s coworker Helen is deeply in love with an older woman but has a hard time taking their relationship outside the safety of their home. And Kay, somewhat rudderless after the war, longs for old lovers as she tries to outrun traumatic memories of her time as an ambulance driver during the London Blitz.

One thing that’s interesting about this film is that it takes place over three points in the characters’ lives: 1947, 1944, and 1941. In the opening scenes, Kay narrates about what it’s like to enter a movie theater when the film is already half over, trying to piece together how the characters began after learning how they end up. As such, we begin after the war and eventually cycle back twice, in each section learning hints about the characters’ pasts before seeing it for ourselves. The film starts out a bit too slow for my tastes, but the jump back to 1944 livens things up and adds further intrigue. It’s not quite like a lot of other non-linear stories I’ve encountered, which feature either a good deal of jumping around through time or quite a few more incremental steps backward along the narrative. I kind of like sitting at one point along the timeline for a long chunk and then rewinding for further context.

However, I feel like this narrative device mostly adds a little flair to a story that doesn’t otherwise have a ton going for it. The characters are well-drawn, but most of their stories feel kind of rote: the sad lesbian love triangle, the affair with a married man, the lonely gay man, and so on and so forth. My favorite parts of the film are those that focus squarely on the characters’ internal lives within these well-trod narrative paths: Kay curling up in bed to cry after a difficult night during the Blitz, Viv taking a long beat to ponder what she really wants, her brother Duncan reaching up to brush the fingers of his sleeping cellmate in the bunk above him. In these moments, the film coalesces into something more impactful, human touches that make the war years (and the lingering aftermath when it’s over) feel real and immediate.

As I said, the film is full of fine actors, many of whom come equipped with prior costume drama experience. Anna Maxwell-Martin, who played an excellent Esther in the Masterpiece miniseries of Bleak House and more recently starred in The Bletchley Circle, plays Kay with a steely resolve layered over a vulnerable core. Claire Foy, another star of a Dickens adaptation (Little Dorrit) and lately Queen Elizabeth on The Crown, paints the tug between Helen’s genuine feelings for her lover and her uncertainty about how to move in queer circles. There’s also a nice, nuanced performance from J.J. Field, who I’ll always love for his Mr. Tilney in the Masterpiece Northanger Abbey. I’m not very familiar with Harry Treadaway, who plays Duncan with a delicate subtlety, but his face is familiar—his twin brother Luke starred in the National Theatre Live production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.

Jodie Whittaker plays Viv. It’s a pretty large part, and she gets a fair amount to do, but she’s not one of my favorite characters in the film. While it’s perhaps ironic that she worries about her brother being stuck in a bad situation despite having been strung along by the married Reggie for six years, it’s not all that compelling to watch her sneaking around for a beau who’s kind of trash. I feel like we get a bit bogged down in her external story and don’t spend enough time on her personal response to what’s happening in her life.

Still, Whittaker is of course a capable actress, and she brings engaging moments to this uninspired plotline. There’s her nonverbal signals with Reggie at a point in their relationship when the shine has come off the apple, the way she quietly puts the pieces together in understanding Duncan’s situation, her delirious panic when she’s abandoned at a critical moment. These scenes make Viv more interesting than what the rest of the film gives her.

Accent Watch

It took me a little while to pin it down, but I’m pretty sure it’s a soft London. Though it sounds a little Northerny around the edges, the vowels decided it for me.

Recommend?

In General – Possibly, if you’re into LGBTQ period pieces and/or moody WWII romances. It can be hard to find good examples of the former, and while I wouldn’t say this film is great, it’s not bad by any means.

Jodie Whittaker – Maybe. Like I said, there are strong points of interest here, even if the role as a whole isn’t as substantial as I’d like.

Warnings

Sexual content, violence, language (including homophobic slurs,) drinking/smoking, and thematic elements.

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