SOMETIMES ALWAYS NEVER
UK, 2018, 91 minutes, Colour.
Bill Nighy, Sam Riley, Alice Lowe, Jenny Agutter, Tim Mc Inerney.
Directed by Carl Hunter.
This brief British drama has found a sympathetic audience, an older audience, who have appreciated the Britishness but also the calm and quiet despite the disturbing elements in the screenplay.
There is a little fascination in the title, the arrangement of words. In fact, words are central to the plot of the film as well as to its tone. Scrabble is also important.
This is definitely a film for fans of Bill Nighy. He is not so idiosyncratic here, playing Alan, a tailor in a small town. He is certainly mannered – Bill Nighy always is – but he plays a man whose wife has died some years earlier, has suffered the loss of one of his sons, is still rather critical of his surviving son. As the film opens, he is meeting this son, Peter (Sam Riley) because the police have an unidentified body which maybe is missing son.
They have to stay the night at a Bed and Breakfast where they meet a couple who have also been invited to identify the body, which might be their son. Grief has affected them and they have become a rather old and bickering couple. Alan, with a touch of the conman, persuades Arthur (Tim McInerney) to make a bet on a game of Scrabble. Arthur doesn’t have a chance because of Alan’s expertise with words, specialist words, exotic words, easily wins the game. Margaret (Jenny Agutter) calls her husband a fool.
The body is not that of Alan’s son and so the grief and the search continue. Peter is in advertising, is married with a young son, but is rather morose, rarely, if ever smiling. He is shocked when he finds his father having a one night stand. His father continues to criticise him.
A lot of the dialogue refers to words and their meanings, with further games of Scrabble, and the news that Alan is playing Scrabble with someone online who uses the methods of the son who disappeared – who had disappeared, walking out in the middle of a Scrabble game – could it be?
When Alan himself disappears, Peter’s son urges him to go to find him. In fact, Peter knows exactly where to go, has a somewhat manic interlude with comedian Alexi Sayle doing his shtick, leads his father to find the identity of the online player.
A mixture of emotions, laid-back performances even in the emotions, a very British-style entertainment.
1. A British story? Universal story, family, loss? The title and its tone? The background of words, Scrabble games? – And definitions of words, itinerary… Hope?
2. The theme of lost children, the search? Trauma?
3. Family, themes of those who are not lost but neglected?
4. Bill Nighy as Alan, his age, his manner, tailor and smartly dressed, his shop? His story, his wife’s death, playing Scrabble, Michael suddenly leaving, disappearing? Producing the posters, the search for Michael over the years? His relationship with Peter, his being critical? His own home and its layout, staying with his son and family? Meeting Peter, their discussion, driving to the town, to view the body that had been found? The night at the Bed and Breakfast, quiet, meeting Margaret and Arthur, suggesting the game of Scrabble, the bet, the game, Alan and his vast knowledge? Peter’s reaction, disappearing? Going to the police station, the other couple, the body not Michael’s?
5. Peter and his work, the ice cream truck, not listening to Alan? The advertisements? His wife, his relationship with his son? His unhappiness, the son and his girlfriend? Word games?
6. Arthur and Margaret, their bickering, their son disappeared, to identify the body, Arthur and his boasting, the bet, his losing? His reputation for imitating singers?
7. Alan, the liaison with the Margaret, Peter finding her in the house? Her strong-willed stance? Her leaving, the visit again to the house, the encounter with Peter, phoning her husband, leaving, the singing?
8. The tensions at home, Alan seeming to have disappeared, Peter’s son and his concern?
9. Peter going in search, the issue of the anonymous online Scrabble player, the possibility of its being Michael? Peter and the interview with the man at the boat, the comic touch?
10. The Z, on the van, the presence passing by, Alan going in search, the hooded player – and the online player being Peter himself?
11. The reconciliation between father and son, the father at home with the family? Accepting the disappearance of Michael?
