Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Hugh Bonneville, Keeley Hawes, Darcey Ewart, Isabella Jonsson, Geoffrey Palmer, Sam Heughan, Conleth Hill, Michael Jibson, Sam Philips, Grant Crookes, Bobby O’ Neill, Bodhi Marsan, Robert Jarvis, Sarah Beckett, Jane-Charlotte Jones.
The life of the artist, the writer, the poet, is quite often one of doubt, frustration, isolation and damnation, and when they find even the one person who will listen to the fear wrapped up in the measures of beauty, at the back of their mind they know one day they might lose them, who might move on to new adventures told in a different way, or that like any adult, simply fade away, the shadow of their attention dissipating into the ether, like water from a tap that is slowly being turned off, the flow only matters if it is constant and observed.
Roald Dahl’s life was not only one of pleasure offered to those who read his dynamic body of work, of adventure to which his inner child would have adored exploring, but one of unimaginable sadness and despair as well, events out of his control that not only shaped him in youth, but in a time when his career should have been flourishing, when he was on the verge of becoming the nation’s favourite story teller for the younger audience.
Losing a father and a sister in quick succession for the young Roald would have been unbearable, but to lose your eldest child, the ears who keep your imagination in tune with the children you are trying to reach, to Measles, would have been devastating, not only for him, but for his wife, the actor Patricia Neal, and the family.
Whilst based upon the book An Unquiet Life by Stephen Michael Shearer, To Olivia is so much more than just an realisation of inside information, it is the psychology of how writing for children and the mental strain of depression can affect the artist in ways that many will not notice, for the writer is quite often in isolation, only their thoughts for company, and when a piece of their structure is removed, the ultimate fate can be one of completely shutting down, of neglect, and fear of losing more than just a voice, of a captive audience.
To carry the essence of the family at the centre of discussion is to feel the weight of expectation, not only because history of cinema and literature is replete with the family’s name since the end of World War Two, but because the bearing of responsibility in depicting the illness that took Olivia Dahl and the mental scarring imposed by the actions and response of Roald to the passing of his daughter, had on Tessa. The actions are perhaps the crux of the story rather than the death of the family’s eldest daughter, the wisdom of Patricia Neal holding firm as she brings together the father and the unheard voice of Tessa so that the writer might understand the audience is more than just a company of one, is absolutely telling, and beautifully crafted.
To Olivia should not be seen as a biopic of either Roald or Ms. Neal, for the tale is not long enough to encompass the sense of historic events they were party to, but it is more an avenue for all to understand grief, that the child we once were could never understand the fear that the adult has, and by releasing this film now, the writers John Hay and David Logan should be congratulated for their injection of pathos and love into a story that straddles our own time facing a disease that could take that one pair of ears that connect us to the real, to the childhood hope in all its glory.
A fantastic British film, full of depth, character and proposal, and one that delivers with composure and clinical observation.
Ian D. Hall