Unfinished Song

While filmmaker Paul Andrew Williams' Unfinished Song is essentially sentimental blarney, it's elevated by the performances of two veteran stars. Terence Stamp plays Arthur, a crusty old retiree at odds with the world—including his estranged son, James (Christopher Eccleston), whom he ignored as a child. But Arthur is devoted to his terminally-ill wife, Marion (Vanessa Redgrave), who maintains her dignity even while her body fails, and he reluctantly escorts her to rehearsals of the Old Age Pensioners, a choral group of exuberant seniors led by ebullient young director Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton). After Marion serenades Arthur in a solo of Cyndi Lauper's “True Colors” at an outdoor concert, she dies, leaving Arthur a broken, grieving man. Hesitantly, he later joins the OAP singers himself, exhibiting a voice that ultimately lands him a solo at a national competition. This is a mawkish tale, which treats the other elders in the chorus as crude comic caricatures, but Stamp and Redgrave bring such a wealth of skill and expert timing to their weakly-written characters that they almost overcome the script's saccharine contrivances (her ethereal fragility contrasts beautifully with his taciturn gruffness). As a drama, Unfinished Song is a trite, manipulative tearjerker, but it offers a remarkable lesson in acting. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD extras include deleted scenes (12 min.), outtakes (3 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for an uneven film.] (F. Swietek)