what motivated me up to the new director's festival to catch 'martin frost' tonight was the brutal review that it got yesterday from the lead critic of the new york times, brutal dismissal, to be more accurate, 'the less said about (it) the better', she said, and i figured that any movie able to teach Ms Dargis the virtue of silence for even a few column inches would be worth the trip.
and worth the trip it was. we are brought into a paradise of limpidly beautiful visual textures. the oaken rhythms of a country house ensconced in a springtime parkland of luxuriant trees and luminous skies bestow the soothing natural blessing needed by the main character, martin frost (David Thewlis), a writer rubbed raw by the mechanics of finishing a novel in new york city. (Thewlis makes palpable the casualty of intrapsychic machinery sawed into daemonic reverb against the banausic hive). then paradise morphs into purgatory, leavened comedically, in Dante's sense, by the postmodern angelic visitations of Claire (Irene Jacobs) and Anna (Sophie Auster).
unfortunately, to my taste, the verbal dimensions of the film are flaccid, the logic more fanciful than imaginative, the narrative arc crippled by some irredeemably creaky plotting, especially at the crucial initiation of the relationship between martin and Claire where the seeds of common sense are thrown to the magpies of theatricality.
but so beguiling is the willful vulnerability of auster's fantasy, and the edgy interplay that it potentiates between Thewlis and Jacobs, and the camera, and later Sophie Auster, and the broad comedy of a rural everyman (Michael Imperioli), that it is very pleasant to be carried along on the visual foam of uncertain sensual delight, eddying into a feeling that this film's oddly louche light touch is uniquely adept at tracing some grave lineaments of the human heart.
go innocently.
Doc Martin, one of UK's iconic TV characters played by Martin Clunes (Manhunt), hangs up his stethoscope as the long-running titular series comes to an end after 10 seasons and 18 years on-air. This one-hour documentary directed by Stuart Orme and produced by Evie-Bergson-Korn spotlights the longevity and impact locally and around the world of Doc Martin over the years, as well as offering behind the scenes of the final season with the cast and crew. From scripting and pre-production to shooting and delivery, meet the regular characters that live and work in the picturesque Cornish town of Portwenn, the key crew behind the camera, the residents of Port Isaac, the show's real-life setting, and the visitors who come solely because Doc Martin films there. The main cast includes: Caroline Catz, Dame Eileen Atkins, Ian McNeice, Joe Absolom and Jessica Ransom.
Martin drives Louisa and their baby son back to her house in Portwenn,where the locals bring them presents. Diana Dibbs, Martin's nervous replacement,has already arrived,with her husband Gavin as her receptionist but Martin is not impressed by her competence - especially as she seems to have numerous ailments herself. Then he learns that Joan has died,causing him to stay for a ...
Martin's fear of blood has not decreased and he almost gags when he has to remove a pencil from a schoolgirl's ear. For all this he is still interested in returning to surgery. Louisa has left town and a visit from ex-student colleague Edith, now a high flyer in private practice, helps sway him. However, when Joan's friend Barbara has an accident caused by Mrs. Tishell's husban...
With Elaine away with her boyfriend, Martin finds himself with a new receptionist in the form of her cousin, Pauline who arrives unannounced. He assists his aunt Joan by examining her friend, Muriel Steele. Her son, Danny Steele thinks she is displaying early signs of dementia and wants to put her in a home. Martin's initial examination reveals her to be perfectly normal but he...
Martin deals with the case of a young girl who has been acting out. When Louisa Glasson mentions Ritalin to the mother, Martin tries to point out that she is not qualified to give that kind of advice. A new police constable, Joe Penhale, arrives in Portwenn but seems to have a peculiar medical condition. Martin's aunt Joan has a car accident and Louisa faints while teaching a c...
The non-binary comedian Mae Martin speaks of a world that has gone off the rails. Among other things, Mae Martin mentions a mythical encounter with a moose and the gender spectrum in the story "Beauty and the Beast".