Small Arms Fire

I saw the trailer for 'Life during Wartime' and immediately wanted to see it. The images of clean cut, sorrowful beings and their quirky cracks was compelling and not full of the leaden misery so many other tales of urban angst have. The poster was better and even the failure of the projector at the first screening could not stop me.

Shirley Henderson is luminous and her spare figure is as close to a Dickensian waif as you could get in a modern film. She is a Scottish actress whose face you would have seen in Bridget Jones 'the Edge of Reason' and in a Harry Potter film playing, of all things, Moaning Myrtle ! She fits seamlessly into this intensely Jewish movie. Joining her as her brother in law with a dark past is Ciarán Hinds - an Irish actor whose brooding good looks may bring back memories of 'Munich'. He never seems to stop working and has a list of completed films ready for release stretching into 2012.

Charlotte Rampling is another thing altogether. Despite her growling you are on her side and her sadness echoes the base notes of the movie. It observes the dance but is neither judgmental or grim. There is an elegant empathy here which saves it and relieves the stylish shooting with a warm, if distant humour.

The actors are beautifully cast - Aly Sheedy,Allison Janney, Paul Reubens and Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire are marvellous but where does that title come from? There are so many references to it on search engines for books, comics etc you wonder what else they are going to do under it? Which reminds me - I looked it up to see if it was about 'military' war, saw Allison Janney's name and decided to go. Her wonderful obfuscation when asked the facts of life is as funny as it is sad and dangerous. How DO you tell children about the birds and bees - especially the bad bees?


Click here to see a trailer of 'Life During War'.