The Closer We Get ****
Dir: Karen Guthrie.
With: Karen Guthrie, Ian Guthrie, Ann Guthrie, Mark Guthrie. 91 mins. Cert: PG
This exceptionally
candid documentary – perhaps the closest British equivalent to Jonathan
Caouette’s Tarnation – transforms the
camera into a therapeutic tool to reassess a complex family history. Recalled
home to Largs after her mother suffered a stroke, filmmaker Karen Guthrie
encountered a surprise houseguest: her estranged father Ian, returning to the
fold years after starting an affair while working in Djibouti. Given the
relation between director and subjects, we expect the heightened intimacy, but
the subsequent silences, awkward small talk and sudden emotional outpourings
have been stitched into an epic chamber play; there can have been few more
perceptive and empathetic non-fiction portraits of the hold a particular kind
of patrician male can exert over those around them. Some scenes, inevitably,
make painful viewing, but Guthrie proves fearless about peering into those
interpersonal grey areas most clans shy away from: you can but hope hers
receive the results in the conciliatory spirit in which they’re so clearly
offered.
The Closer We Get opens in selected cinemas from today.
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