HERE AND NOW
US, 2018, 91 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Simon Baker, Gus Birney, Jacqueline Bissett, Common, Taylor Kinney, Renée Zellweger.
Directed by Fabian Constant.
First called The Best Day of my Life, ironic title, being called Blue Light, the film is now Here and Now, focusing on 24 hours in the life of singer, Vivenne. She is played by veteran actress, Sarah Jessica Parker will for films as well as for the television series, Sex and the City.
At the opening of the film, Vivenne visits a doctor, gets a diagnosis of cancer in her brain. The next 24 hours, until her next appointment, the audience accompanies Vivenne wandering through the city of New York, late for a rehearsal at the club where she has worked for 25 years, contact with her manager (Common), an affair with a musician (Taylor Kinney), her buying a dress and giving it to her daughter, a visit to her former husband (Simon Baker) and a further return to be with her daughter, Gus Birney.
She is pestered by phone calls from her French and dominating mother, Jacqueline Bissett, who turns up at her apartment, possessive and interfering. Upset at her taxi driver, she leaves the dress in his taxi but later has to retrieve it, finally meeting him again and paying him to be available for her for the rest of the evening when she returns to be with her daughter.
There are also interludes where she goes to sing in a club and is welcomed. And she encounters an old friend celebrating her birthday, Renee Zellweger, and their conversation.
The invitation to the audience is to empathise with Vivenne on this significant day of her diagnosis. However, blogging comment is very negative on the film, lack of sympathy for Vivenne, and many accusations that it is very boring. One might have thought that the situation and the character might have elicited more empathy and understanding.
- The title? Rigidly, The Best Day of my Life, then Blue Night? A day in the life of Vivienne? And her contemplating her illness and death?
- Sarah Jessica Parker, reputation, star, producer? Audience sympathy for her character, her health situation? Family, career?
- The New York setting, the life of the city, the look of the city, the sound? Streets and taxis, apartments, clubs, music rehearsals, medical interviews? The musical score, the songs, Vivenne singing?
- Vivenne, her age, career, the French background, her relationship with her mother, the phone calls, irritating? Her mother turning up, possessive and dominating? The breakup of her marriage, her relationship with Ben, able to turn up, her relationship with her daughter, tensions, the daughter’s age, music interests? Relationship with the group, the club, 25 years, her relationship with Ben, her manager? The affair with the musician? past life, tours, prospects for the future?
- The health situation? The diagnosis and explanations? Vivenne’s mood? Her not revealing the truth, the possibilities for support? The day, late for the rehearsal, apologies, singing, relationship with the group? Her wandering, at home, the shops, buying the dress, leaving it in the taxi, the later contact, her abruptness with the driver and the music, the phone call, leaving the dress, finding it again, and later meeting him, paying him for the hours of the night? Her continued wanderings, going into the club, the singer welcoming her, her song? The arrangements with the manager and discussions, and his supporting her at the end and going to the hospital? The chance meeting with her friend Tessa, the years, the birthday party, going out into the street talk?
- Vivenne going to meet Nick, his patience and understanding, her daughter, later returning, gift of the dress, the night with her daughter, the emotional effect?
- The preparation for going to the hospital, the driver, meeting Ben, going in – and the prospects?
- The hostility of bloggers against the film, considering it boring? No empathy for the health situation?
