Sunset Song

If there's one thing you can count on in a Terence Davies film it's a gorgeous visual quality, and in that sense his latest doesn't disappoint. The dramatic, sweeping shots here of the immaculate Scottish countryside are technically stunning; unfortunately, the cinematography can't save this ill-conceived story about a dysfunctional rural family in the Edwardian-era Highlands. The calm at the center of this claustrophobic domestic storm is beautiful young poetess Chris Guthrie (Agyness Deyn), who stoically watches her family crumble around her in slow, tortuous increments. Chris's father is a typical patriarchal bully who beats his wife and son whenever they cross him. Eventually, her brother leaves, her mother poisons herself, and her father has a fatal stroke—after which Chris is left on her own to mind the farm. Around this time, she meets Ewan (Kevin Guthrie), a local lad who falls for Chris at first sight. Yet this is 1914, and wartime conscription looms, so Ewan is suddenly off to the front before the relationship can fully blossom. Disappointingly, the creeping onset of World War I and dawn of the modern age isn't woven into the narrative with any notably sublime shift in mood or atmosphere. Based on Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1932 novel, Sunset Song is an unrelentingly grim film built around characters who seem to dodge empathy at every turn, but it does feature unforgettable bucolic imagery. A strong optional purchase. (M. Sandlin)