Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017)

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017) was directed by Paul McGuigan. The star of the movie is Annette Bening, who portrays the actor Gloria Grahame.

Those of us who remember Gloria Grahame on the screen remember her just as director McGuigan remembers her. She was beautiful and sexy. Every leading man desired her, often to their peril. She was an Academy Award winner.

In the movie, Grahame is ill and returns to a house in Liverpool where she had stayed when she was younger. She's no longer a star--just a woman who is able to hang on because some people remember when she was a marquee name.

The film is melodramatic, and Liverpool looks dark and forlorn. Still, it's worth seeing the movie to watch Bening act. She inhabits the role of Grahame, and I believe Bening could see the possibility of her own career ending up like Grahame's career.

We saw this movie at Rochester's wonderful Little Theatre. It will work well on the small screen. The film has a dismal 6.9 IMDb rating. It's better than that. See it and decide for yourself.

Fmovies: Oscar winner Gloria Graeme, no longer an in demand Hollywood star, spends her last years appearing in plays in the UK where she falls in love with a young Liverpudlian.

Very sad, moving film about love and death with a fine performance by Bell. It is though Bening's film, who is absolutely on top form. Not getting an Oscar nod was very strange, particularly given some of the nominees in 2018.

Worth seeing if you're up for it - but be warned, not a lot of laughs.

The bulk of Academy season hopefuls have come and gone but I see one last one with Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. I was immediately interested in what the film was offering. A relationship portrayed by Annete Bening and Jamie Bell? Very interesting. If anything I could see a possible Oscar nomination for Bening. After watching I did enjoy the film for what it was. Its well acted and fairly emotional.

The film is based on the real life memoir by Peter Turner (of the same name as the film), where he recollects the relationship he had with the famous Hollywood actress, Gloria Grahame. He encounters Grahame in the later stages of her life, when she is working at Liverpool in stage plays. Grahame and Turner begin a relationship which is marred by Grahame's spreading breast cancer, which she eventually succumbs to. From what I've read after the film, the events of the film seem to cover the incidents of real life pretty accurately.

Annette Bening kind of disappears into the role of Gloria Grahame. Its a really good performance from her. Same with Jamie Bell. The film is really carried by these two and their wonderful relationship. The film does have periods that drag and could have been portrayed in a more straightforward fashion, but the film never really loses its charm which is actually a strong selling point.

I loved Elvis Costello's "You Shouldn't Look at Me That Way", made specially for this film. Its a gorgeous theme and the parts that were included in romantic moments between Gloria and Peter made their relationship seem magical. Overall I don't the film is excellent, though the performances and romance and the film make it worth a watch. You can't help put feel sad for Gloria and Peter by the end of the film.

7/10

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool fmovies. Greetings again from the darkness. Old Hollywood glamour is merely something we read about or reminisce about these days. Part of the reason is that we are almost as likely to see a favorite star on TV as in a new movie, and a bigger cause is that we simply know too much about them as people ... the mystique has been replaced by (too many) personal details and divisive political influence.

Classic movie lovers always have favorite performers, and there were certainly some great ones in the Golden Era: Bogart, Gable, Hepburn, Davis, etc; however, I've always felt there was one actress who time seems to have forgotten. Gloria Grahame never seemed to choose the easy route (either on screen or real life), and she turned in some terrific performances in the 1940's and 50's. You might only know her as Violet in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, but she was also an Oscar winner for THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (1952), and had standout roles in OKLAHOMA! (1955), THE BIG HEAT (1953), and IN A LONELY PLACE (1950). Her talent allowed her to fit as well for a musical or family film, as in the Noir Thrillers for which she seemed to thrive.

So why all the background on a mostly forgotten actress from a bygone era? Because Annette Bening magically channels the late actress in her role as Ms. Grahame in the final stages of her life. Director Paul McGuigan's film is based on the memoir of Peter Turner, a young man who had a relationship with the actress in her later years. Turner is played here by Jamie Bell (BILLY ELLIOT) and he and Ms. Bening are so believable, that we are fully drawn in by their characters and their touching story.

Opening with the actress in her dressing room prepping for a dinner theatre version of "The Glass Menagerie", the film conveys much in these few minutes. Clearly, this is an actress far removed from the Hollywood spotlight. We also sense her immense pride is still present, and the glass of milk is for relief from her discomfort ... later self-diagnosed as "gas".

We start in 1981 and flashback to 1979. Creative transitions between scenes and times add a stylish element to a story that is ultimately about human relationships, aging and loneliness. The need to be cared for when sick is as crucial as the importance of being a dependable caregiver for loved ones. The film's script from Matt Greenhalgh allows for an empathetic look at these topics through the eyes of people we quickly care about.

Julie Walters (Bell's dance teacher in BILLY ELLOT) is exceptional as Turner's mother and Ms. Grahame's caregiver. Other supporting roles include Kenneth Cranham as Turner's dad, Stephen Graham as his fiery brother, and Vanessa Redgrave as Ms. Grahame's mother. We never get the back story on why Ms. Grahame feels so connected to the Turner family - only that the 28 year age difference between herself and Peter didn't much matter to either of them.

There is a sexually-charged disco dance with Ms. Grahame and Peter in her hotel room that makes clear why any young man might fall for her, but it's really in the quieter moments where the film and Ms. Bening and Mr. Bell shine. The emotions and pain are palpable, and yet neither her spirit nor his devotion will quit. The music from Jose Feliciano and Elvis Costello is terrific and comfortably fits a story of love and aging and illness, while also reminding us ... once a starlet, always a starlet, even when the star has faded.

Annette Bening and Jamie Bell play star-crossed lovers, with the emphasis on 'star'. Ms Bening is, as ever, excellent, this time playing a real-life Hollywood actress, Gloria Grahame, herself a remarkable and original talent. If this film rekindles interest in Ms Grahame's formidable back catalogue of performances, that's no bad thing.

However, FILM STARS...centres on Peter Turner, a jobbing actor whose life takes an unexpected turn when he falls in love with Ms Grahame. As Turner, Jamie Bell, who has developed into an accomplished supporting actor over the years since BILLY ELLIOT, is promoted to leading man. He's excellent. A revelation. Authoritative, sexy, strong, romantic, vulnerable -- you name it, Mr Bell communicates it sincerely, without any sense of artifice. A first-rate performance.

It's a pity that the film is so hand-me-down in other ways. The everlastingly wonderful Julie Walters does everything possible with the stereotypical Liverpool mum that she's been provided with, but neither she nor other stalwarts -- Kenneth Cranham, Stephen Graham, Frances Barber and even Vanessa Redgrave -- can transcend their characters' functionality. Production values are all over the place (the wigs!), while the decision to use back projection for the scenes in New York and California seems to me to demonstrate the inconsistency at the heart of the director's approach. Rather than expressing the rosy glow of memory, which I suspect was the justification, these scenes merely look cheap. It might have been wiser to set the whole thing in a studio, as Joe Wright did with his ANNA KARENINA or Baz Lurhmann with his MOULIN ROUGE. Whatever the flaws of those two movies, the overall artistic vision was equal to the project in hand. I don't think that's the case here, unfortunately.

We saw this in Wellington at the Brooklyn Penthouse Theatre. They moved it because so many wanted to see it, from their small 30 seat screening to a much bigger one where there were definitely more people. What a wonderful story. Cheering positive lovable without a hint of saccharine or self-pity and a fascinating script - sympathetic without being unreal.

I will have to find the book and read it. Annette Bening is fantastic and Jamie Bell enthralling. Well done all for a crisp enjoyable movie.

(BTW in typical English style they don't hit you over the head with the point - you get to think for your self)