Now, tell me Mr MacFadyen, aren't you feeling the pressure of filling the shoes of Colin Firth? Do you think people are willing to accept you as the new Mr Darcy?


I mentioned that I love Matthew MacFadyen's accent, which in fact started after I watched this movie. He plays a weary war photographer, Paul Prior, who returns to his small hometown in New Zealand to attend his father's funeral. As he returns to the shelter where he and his father had spent lots of time together, he befriends a local teenage girl, Celia played by New Zealander Emily Barclay, who loved to write and yearned to travel the world. Celia, ironically, was the daughter of his first girlfriend, Jax, born out of wedlock shortly after he left the country when he was a teenager himself. The movie started off as a very typical story of a person who returns from a very long journey away from home, and whom, through flashbacks, reconnects with his past and attempts to handle the present.

However, something is clearly amiss when Paul is portrayed as a troubled young man who has an awkward relationship with his family, seems incapable of intimacy and pushes people away from him. Little scenes and actions in the first hour or so also give clues to some problems lurking in his brother Andrew and his wife Penny (played by Miranda Otto), and Jax. Then, when Celia mysteriously disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect and it is only after that when the real plot begins to unfold and things are slowly revealed. Several questions run through your head as you, and the townspeople in the story, wonder what actually happened between Paul and Celia - did he help Celia run away? Was he of a bad influence? Could he have suspected that Celia was in fact his daughter and abducted her, or worse, could Paul be a wolf covered in sheep skin, the type who preys on young innocent girls and has done god-knows-what to Celia?

The DVD cover described this movie as a 'thriller', though I think this movie hardly falls into my definition of a 'thriller'. If you must, the suspense really kicks in only in the last hour or so of the movie, albeit in a slow pace. Before that, it was, as you would expect, very slow and I was watching it like a lost sheep. However, stick through it and u'll be rewarded with a hauntingly detailed and thoughtful portrayal of a emotionally broken family with many many dark secrets.

There are some movies which simply require a 2nd viewing to fully comprehend. This is definitely one of those. The first viewing is to get acquainted with the story, the 2nd is basically an appreciation of the development of the characters and the story.

So if u're the kind who desires straighforward story-telling in a movie with little to think about, you may want to pass on with this one. In My Father's Den can be very very confusing because it's easy to get characters mixed up and if you're not meticulous enough, it's hard to decide if you are watching the main story or the flashback scenes, which appear in the movie without warning every now and then, particularly in the second half. But as I said, look carefully and u actually can pick out little hints and signs to understand the timeline.

However, In My Father's Den is definitely an excellent character-driven story. Paul is a flawed individual, yet by the end of the day audiences would probably consider him the most heroic character which cries out for sympathy and grief. Celia, the girl who sparks off the emotional roller-coaster ride in the characters, shines as the intelligent adolescent who is undergoing the pains of growing up, of the uncertainty her parentage, and her inability to break through the barriers and experience the world beyond her small town, until the apperance of Paul in her life. Scenes of Paul and Celia together paint a picture of an innocent yet sincere relationship between them, where Paul, who sees himself in her, dotes on her in ways he never does to others around him. Yet audiences are forced to question this as the other characters, even those closest to him, seem to treat him with suspicion and mistrust.

Brimming with scandals, eh? But as I said, it's an incredibly slow picture which requires full concentration to fully understand. In fact, the beauty of this movie lies in the detailed sculpture of its key characters and the creation of a solemn and dark atmosphere which sticks from the beginning to the end.

There are many flaws in the storyline, however, including the undeveloped nature of Miranda Otto's character and of the story of her son, Jonathan. I couldn't really understand what they were thinking, though defenders could well say that that inability to understand is just how the director wants you to approach this story.

MacFadyen excels in the subtle portrayal of this complex character of Paul. Every little twitch of his body and every little shift in his eyes tell you a great deal about the character, about all the pain, the secrecy, the fear that he must have felt. I'll definitely be looking out for more of his works from now on. For someone as young as Emily Barclay, I thought she gave a thoughtful and convincing performance as Celia too. She has some hiccups along the way but overall I have no complaints. The other cast including New Zealanders Jodie Rimmer as Jax and Colin Moy as Andrew are adequate in their roles as well, though I really can't say much as the focus isn't on them. Miranda Otto takes the role of the repressed wife of Andrew who bears a striking resemblance to Paul and Andres's mother who has passed on. A very intriguing character which unfortunately is not explored in the story.

Overall, it's good but I leave my ratings as that. Definitely not for wide audiences. Nevertheless, it's one of the most interesting movies I've watched and it's also one of those that has gotten me wanting to watch it over again and again.


Trivia

The instrumental soundtrack of this movie is hauntingly beautiful. Unfortunately, it seems that the distributors don't intend to release a soundtrack. What a bummer...

I was actually looking up the IMDB discussion board for information about the soundtrack when I found out that apparently, the version I rented (rated M18) was actually censored. Not that the censored version was completely 'clean' anyway but it seems that the distributors chose to snip off that scene to obtain a '15' rating in the UK as compared to the previous '18' rating.

According to those who have watched the movie in its entirety, it was a 2 minute plus scene with Paul flirting with a girl in the bar and then...(fill in yourself with own imagination)..., during which Paul actually began to wind his belt around his neck.... In short, consensual asphyxiation. Why have this scene in the first place? According to the director it was to show how emotionally maladjusted Paul was. Another scene that remains in the movie showed Paul doing drugs, which I supposed does also hint to his disturbed psyche behind that handsome, sophisticated, well-read and worldly front, though that 2 minute scene would have definitely nailed it down further. Would I have preferred the movie with this scene? Frankly, when I saw that drug scene alone, I genuinely thought that it was merely Pauls' way of coping with the stress of the rumours about the disappearance of Celia, but nothing more beyond that. In that respect, I thought that that edited scene should have stayed, definitely gives a clearer picture of Paul's disturbed soul.

If u still dunno the heck that scene was about, ermm... dun worry about it. I'm sure it's better not to know.

This movie was based on a book "In My Father's Den" by Maurice Gee which is selling from an amazing price of just US$105.15 onwards at Amazon.com.

Update (20/1/2006):

Some interesting info regarding the production can be found in the production notes provided at the official website. Apparently, even as it is based on the book, director/scriptwriter Brad McGann had deviated quite a bit from the original story. Some changes included turning Paul into a war-photographer, and turning the sexual tension between Paul and Celia into that of another nature. In short, according to the McGann, he shifted from the 'whodunit' theme in the book to a 'whydunit' exploration of the story and its characters. The original author, Maurice, actually endorsed the changes. Since I lack any point of comparison, judging from the description of the book alone I think I welcome McGann's interpretation and the final product.

Great read for those interested, which includes info regarding the screenplay, direction, location, casting, acting and many others.

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I can't find the DVD of this movie on Amazon.com and I dun see it in shops around here. Wonder how EZYVideo got hold of their copy?

Emily Barclay is actually quite plump compared to many young actresses nowadays. It's so refreshing to see a rising young actress who's not emaciated, have beautiful features and does well in a leading dramatic role!

Emily Barclay

As a story about a war photographer, there are many scenes where Paul's photographs of war zones are appears in the movie. According to IMDB.com, the wartime photographs used for the film were taken by South African photojournalist Greg Marinovich. The photograph of the child, which plays an important part in the movie, was taken by Romano Cagnoni.

Additional info:

IMDB.com

Official Website