Cinema
A Month in the Country (`PG', Warner West End)
Pastoral interlude
Hilary Mantel
In the summer of 1920, two survivors of the Great War meet in Oxgodby, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire. They have come there to uncover the distant past, and to recover from their own past, if they can. An eccentric old lady has left a bequest of £1,000 to the fabric fund of the parish church, provided two pieces of work are undertaken: Birkin (Colin Firth) is com- missioned to uncover a mediaeval wall painting above the chancel arch, and Moon (Kenneth Branagh) is to find the grave of Sir Piers Hebron, ancestor of the testatrix, who was excommunicated and therefore buried outside the church grounds.
The film, directed by Pat O'Connor with an unobtrusive sureness of tone, is based on the novel by J. L. Carr. The novel is short but substantial; it isn't often that one wishes a film could be longer, but in this instance there is not quite enough time for the subtleties of the story to develop. What time there is, though, is sufficiently well used to make this a film of lasting quality, and a source of considerable pleasure.
Both the men are terribly damaged by the war, Birkin the more obviously: he has a facial tic, a disabling stammer. Moon is horribly, jarringly cheerful; we do not find out until almost the end of the film what his war has been. The vicar (Patrick Malahide) is a withdrawn man, in early middle age, whose young wife falls in love with Birkin. Alice Keach is the one character in the book who does not (for me) come off the page, but Natasha Richardson brings her to life with her first words, capturing her kindness and uncalculated grace.
But Birkin does not believe in grace; both the men are far from any balanced view of the world, far from the acceptance of love. The pastoral interlude can only go so far to heal them; the film has avoided sentimentality. At intervals, it's true, we have that elegiac tone which is thought proper and tasteful for dealing with the Great War; but the director has tried to recreate the past, without patronising or falsifying it.
Simon Gray's screenplay is properly restrained, but occasionally one wonders if the book could have been followed more closely. When Birkin arrives in the pouring rain at Oxgodby station, he is met by Mr Ellerbeck, the station-master, whose fami- ly will virtually adopt the craftsman in the coming weeks. 'Cup of tea?' asks the film Ellerbeck; in the book, the station-master says, 'Come on in and have your tea.' In the north of England, this is an offer of a meal with the family: more than a stranger would expect, and nothing to do with Travellers' Fare. It is a small point; but why not keep the original, which sets the tone for what is to come?
In the book, the story is seen through Birkin's eyes; we have the benefit of his thoughts and observations. Not everyone likes a voice-over technique, but if it had been used, the film's audience could have had the benefit of them too. As it is, Birkin's thoughts must be revealed by other people's reactions, often improb- able. When Birkin uncovers the face of the Christ at the centre of the mural, he finds not the usual misty benevolence, but the countenance of a 'wintry hardliner. Justice — yes, there would be justice. But not mercy.' This perception is so central that the film cannot omit it; but some version of the original words must be cooked up and put into Kenneth Branagh's mouth. He has been given some beautiful, serious, quite unsayable lines, and is forced to deliver them in a flippant, embarrassed fashion.
What the film does convey is that melan- choly sense of lives that touch at a crucial moment and will never do so again; it does this with humour and dignity and without overstatement. When the grave of the knight is found, the two men's tasks connect, and they discover that he also came home from war quite changed, and unacceptable, outside society; the film does not labour the point.
Despite its limitations this is a fine film, and I would recommend that you see it; but at the risk of entering into a demarca- tion dispute with other columns, I would recommend that you read the novel too.
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