DAVID MACKENZIE

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BB. 

United Kingdom/France, 2003.  Recorded Picture Company, Scottish Screen, Film Council, Future Films, HanWay Films, Sigma Films, StudioCanal, Sveno Media, Young Adam Productions.  Screenplay by David Mackenzie, based on the novel by Alexander Trocchi.  Cinematography by Giles Nuttgens.  Produced by Jeremy Thomas.  Music by David Byrne.  Production Design by Laurence Dorman.  Costume Design by Jacqueline Durran.  Film Editing by Colin Monie.  

L’Atalante, had it been directed by a manic depressive. Ewan McGregor plays an aspiring novelist and drifter who works on a river barge and has sexual desires for his boss’s wife (Tilda Swinton). He and his employer (Peter Mullan) find the body of a dead woman in the river which we eventually discover is connected to McGregor’s past. McGregor proves himself to be much more than just the Spunky Scot we love him for, fully believable as every bored housewife’s idea of catnip, but his sexual adventures (much more believably portrayed than sexuality generally is in movies) are far too bleak to really bring out the human element of the story. Swinton is riveting, as always, but the director’s obsession with grimness takes away from the film’s credibility.

European Film Award Nomination:  Best European Discovery

Toronto International Film Festival:  2003