Young Adam (2003)
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Tilda Swinton, Peter Mullan, Emily Mortimer, Jack McElhone, Therese Bradley, Ewan Stewart, Stuart McQuarrie, Pauline Turner, Alan Cooke, Rory McCann
Director: David Mackenzie
Running Time: 93 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 18
Crime, Drama, Thriller
In Glasgow in the 1950s, two men - Joe Taylor and Les Gault - pull the corpse of a woman from the River Clyde. Joe works for Les on a coal barge called 'the Atlantic Eve', but is also secretly enjoying forbidden fruit in an affair with Les' wife Ella - which he follows with a string of equally non-committal sexual liaisons with other women. As the police investigation into the drowned woman's death leads to a criminal trial, a series of flashbacks reveals that Joe had in fact also been an intimate of the victim, Cathie Dimly.
The central image in 'Young Adam' is the river which winds its way through city and country, always on the move but never really changing, much like Joe himself, who meanders aimlessly, sometimes merely splashing the people into whose lives he snakes, at other times completely overwhelming them, without apparently ever leaving any lasting trace of himself or indeed getting anywhere as he runs his course. By tracing the significance of a number of objects - a corpse, a typewriter, a burnt photograph, an inscribed mirror - all of which end up abandoned and unloved in the river, 'Young Adam' reveals the life of an alienated, elusive young chancer whose impact on the flow of events is barely noticed, let alone comprehended, by anyone else within the film.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Ewan McGregor got to play actual Scottish characters in actual Scottish movies, and it is good to be reminded, now that he is back on home ground, just how fine an actor he can be. Here he puts in a haunting performance as the feckless Joe, drifting from one sordid encounter to the next while fleeing from any permanent moorage. Tilda Swinton, probably one of the best actors working today in arthouse cinema, subtly fleshes out Ella as a strong, independent woman who falls prey to temptation and self-delusion. Both performers are unflinchingly honest, allowing the camera to linger in unflattering close-up over face and body during their moments of grimy congress, and not holding back from the less savoury aspects of their characters. They are capably backed by Peter Mullan as the pathetic Les and Emily Mortimer as Cathie, and also by the barge itself, whose bumps and creaks, along with David Byrne's elegiac soundtrack, add real atmosphere to the drama.
Like the Coen brothers' 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'Young Adam' vividly evokes a time and place by following the wanderings of an invisible man through them. It is a sombrely poetic film, set in a world where extra-marital sex is a furtive and (quite literally) dirty business, where a banana is an exotic luxury, and where innocent men are hanged amidst popular clamour. Driven more by image and mood than by plot, 'Young Adam' trawls through the secret life of an ordinary Joe in a stiflingly repressive era and finds truth in the old saying that still waters run deep.
It's Got: Grimly authentic sets, excellent naturalistic performances, claustrophobically tight camerawork, and poetic vision.
It Needs: To replace films like 'Johnny English' as the model of what British cinema can achieve.
Alternatives: Young Adam review by Gary Panton Ratcatcher, The Man Who Wasn't There, Spider
Summary: After 'The Last Great Wilderness', 'Young Adam' consolidates David Mackenzie's reputation as a director of mature, original and uniquely British films. He deserves, along with Lynne Ramsay ('Ratcatcher', 'Morvern Callar'), to be recognised as a national treasure. 'Young Adam' is a finely crafted, elliptical, evocative work of art that uses suggestion rather than action to snake its way into your mind and stay entwined there long after the film is over. And Tilda Swinton proves as effortlessly extraordinary as ever, even in the drabbest of rôles.
Review Date: 30th September 2003
External Links
Official Web Site
Young Adam at the IMDB
