Don’t listen to the critics, which could be advice for triple causes: for Samuel Beckett, the subject of Dance First who was never good enough for his mother, for viewers who might read reviews and think they should pass on this wonderful film by James Marsh starring Gabriel Byrne, and heck for any person out there in real life, who’s just trying to do their best in the world and not hurt anyone (tough standard, I realize).
The critics’ complaints I’ll rip apart here:
“It’s just an author’s dealing with mommy and daddy issues” (New York Times)…excuse me? First of all, if it was ‘just that’, isn’t that basically the human race? But au contraire, it wasn’t ‘just’ that, the story dealt with his main regrets in life, another large universal truth, especially for men (from my life anyway). And if I might add about the men in my life (and trust me, I’m equally self-destructive but in a different way and if I see it in a movie, I’ll be sure to fess up), they dwell on regrets yet compound the sadness with inaction or the inability to accept help or love or both.
But I digress…another criticism is it’s just a story of the personal life of his Wiki page (said some doofus on Rotten Tomatoes). First of all, what’s so wrong with Wiki? And second, it was a full fledged film with visuals and some terrific acting, Gabriel Byrne first and foremost and notably the younger Beckett played by a young man who looks like a cousin to Jesse Eisneberg, Fionn O’Shea. Sandrine Bonnaire and Maxine Peake also are very believable as the Mrs. and the Mistress.
If you were bored by Beckett’s writings such as Waiting for Godot, I guarantee you’ll be mightily pleased by a very enlivened life story and script. The film also provides reassurance to anyone of advanced age in sending the message that despite regrets, focus on the joy, even though Beckett was known to say, ‘joy is boring’. Sure, maybe, but it sure feels damn good.
