THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE
US, 2005, 118 minutes, Colour.
Daniel Day Lewis, Catherine Keener, Beau Bridges, Jason Leigh, Gena Malone, Camilla Belle, Paul Dano, Ryan Mc Donald.
Directed by Rebecca Miller.
Daniel Day Lewis stars in this film which was written and directed by his wife, Rebecca Miller (Personal Velocity). (Her father was playwright Arthur Miller.)
The Ballad of Jack and Rose is a story of father and daughter set on an island off the US east coast in 1986, the father living the more mundane aftermath of his utopian commune days, wanting to save the world and believing in freedom of all kind. Now he is terminally ill. His daughter, Rose, has never known any other life than her early days with the commune and this intimate life with her father. They are inseparable, except when he visits a divorcee, Catherine Keener, in town. When she and her two teenage sons move in, emotional crisis occurs.
Day Lewis is always an interesting screen presence, communicating a sense of being slightly off-kilter. Camilla Belle is able to make of Rose a complex character both sympathetic in her feeling that her life was suffering intrusion and irritating in the irresponsible reactions to the guests. Catherine Keener gives yet another strong performance. Beau Bridges is the developer who becomes Day Lewis’s target – though there is a rather mellower than expected resolution to their antagonism. Jason Lee is a sympathetic neighbour and Ryan McDonald? is very good as the oversize but sweet son. Jena Malone is unrecognisable as the runaway girlfriend who just turns up.
For a certain generation, especially of Americans, this is an opportunity to take stock of the hippy era, the hopes of the communes and the return to mainstream life that was the mark of the 1980s.
1. The work of Rebecca Miller, daughter of Arthur Miller, playwright, screenwriter, director?
2. The film as a piece of Americana, the transition from the 70s to the 80s? The judgments in retrospect?
3. The settings of the island, the commune of the past, the commune in the 80s, the remnants? The town, the various homes and houses, the development? The water, the beach? The moods of the sea, the weather?
4. The songs, echoing the period, the work of Bob Dylan? The insertion of video clips of the freedom of the 70s?
5. The title, the relationship between Jack and rose, the treatment of their story?
6. The idyllic life on the island, father and daughter together, their love for each other, the bonds between them, sharing everything, the ideals, the secluded life? The narrow perspective for Rose? Jack and his illness? Each having an effect on the other?
7. Rose, her age, the way that she grew up, her mother gone, as seen in the video with her mother, with her father? Her dependence on her father, work, ideas, discussions? Her comfort zone? Intimacy? The detail of her life on the island, especially in the garden, the walks? Her response to her father’s illness? Contemplating suicide?
8. Jack, the Scotsman in the United States, a life in the New World, his relationship with his wife, his skill as an engineer, bringing these gifts to the commune, their ideals, the practical aspects of the commune, shared life, free love? The video? His love for Rose, bringing her up, life on the island and its detail? His telling the stories? His illness? His keeping his visits to Kathleen a secret?
9. Jack’s going into town, his relationship with Kathleen? Bringing her and her sons as guests? The intimacy? Their arrival, Rose being quiet and yet her change of attitude? The group together, the various rooms, the effect on each of them?
10. Rose and her discussions with Rodney, the sexual proposal to him, his resistance, his doing her hair? Getting the gun and the reaction?
11. Rose and Thadius, into the woods, the snakes? The sexual encounter in the woods? In the house, her showing the bloodstained sheet to her father? Setting the snake loose, wanting to terrorise Kathleen? The gun? Jack and his reaction against Rose?
12. The sketch of Kathleen, her background, way of life, in the town, the children and the separate fathers? The relationship with Jack? The encounter with Rose, the psychological battle, Kathleen trying to do her best? Rose and the intimidation, the snake, the gun? The accident with Thadius? Jack and his deciding to pay her to leave? Her weeping?
13. Kathleen and her sons, Rodney and his reading, his diet, yet his eating and weight? His skill with hair? The tension with Thadius? The arrival of Red Berry, friendship with her? The accident and its consequences? His farewell to Rose? Thadius, school, sex, the snakes? The tension with Jack? With the group? His relationship with Red Berry? The accident and his going to hospital?
14. Gray, his work in the garden, his giving advice to Jack, Jack urging him to set out on his own, offering the loan? His friendship with Rose, her sexual advances? The aftermath and two years later, his marriage and family, his own firm, Rose working there?
15. The development, the 80s and the building of houses, the change in the aspects of the island? Marty, seen as a villain, Jack and the confrontation, the shooting at the building site? Marty’s visit to Jack? The discussion about the taking of the wetlands? Jack and Rose going to the home, destroying it? Jack’s illness, going to Marty, the discussion in the house, the more peaceable solution? Wanting to sell the house? Jack understanding Marty’s vision?
16. Rose, her malice, antagonism towards Kathleen, the gun, the snake, sexual behaviour? Her running away? The video? The night at the house, the flirtation with her father, his reaction, revulsion, change of heart? Marty and the encounter, the discussion with Jack?
17. Jack, his death, his body being burnt? Rose and her deciding to stay on the island but leave the house? The aftermath, her working for Gray? Her not committing suicide as she anticipated, her father’s strong discussion with her about suicide? Her choosing life?
