![]() ![]() But nothing in "On a Clear Day" is especially compelling. It's a safe bet this is not the kind of movie where he is going to drown. Whether Frank succeeds, I will leave for you to discover. The movie leads up, as it must, to his Channel swim. Joan, meanwhile, is afraid to tell him of her bus-driving plans. This will budge him out of depression, and he can prove to himself that he is still to be reckoned with, despite his unemployment. Eventually, a plan takes shape: He will swim the English Channel. One day, impulsively, he swims the River Clyde. ![]() No matter Frank's crisis has served to budge them all out of their ruts, and his friends listen to Chan's proverb, confess they didn't know he spoke English and enlist him on the buddy team.įrank starts to swim. Or maybe that's just in one of his fortune cookies. His other buddies turn into natural-born male-bonders and turn up as a kind of chorus, led in wisdom by Chan ( Benedict Wong), owner of the local takeaway shop, who advises them, "A gem cannot be polished without friction, or a man perfected without trials." His wife, Joan ( Brenda Blethyn), decides the time has come at last to take the test and become a bus driver. Not to fear: The movie offers those varieties of depression and panic that function not as real problems but as plot conveniences, setting the other characters astir. He is a man with inner torments (he blames himself for the drowning of a small son), and with time on his hands, he sinks into depression and is hospitalized with a panic attack. Mullan plays Frank Redmond, who has just been laid off his job after half a lifetime spent working as a ship builder in Glasgow. (See note below.) Mullan is at about the same stage in his career as Al Pacino was when he made " Bobby Deerfield." Actors sometimes make the mistake of thinking that because they can play anyone, they should. ![]() When you start out working with Ken Loach, Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom, it shows recognition of sorts, I suppose, but not necessarily progress, to qualify as the lead in a Baked Potato People movie. I mention these titles to call attention to an extraordinary talent, and as a way of backing into my review of "On a Clear Day," which is a conventional film for an unconventional actor. In " Young Adam" (2003), he was the barge captain whose wife is stolen away by a young man they hire as crew. He directed " The Magdalene Sisters" (2002), an angry exposé of the practice in Ireland of condemning sexually curious girls to a lifetime of unpaid servitude in church laundries. In Michael Winterbottom's' " The Claim" (2000), a Thomas Hardy story moved to the Sierra Nevadas, he runs a frontier town with an iron hand. ![]() In Mike Figgis' " Miss Julie" (1999), he was the servant who has an affair with a countess in a film based on the Strindberg play. As Frank and those closest to him discover - or re-discover - reserves of love and compassion, he realizes that he is also swimming from one part of his life to another.Since then, one powerful performance after another. Frank's family confronts him, and he realizes that he must repair his strained family ties. Frank is unable to confide in those closest to him, but as the big day and moment of truth draw near, there is a sea change. Prodded by stalwart fish-and-chips shop owner Chan, the men support Frank, train him - and keep their goal secret from his wife and son. As Frank plunges headlong into his new daily life, his astonished friends are swept along with him. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. Storyline: On a Clear Day (2005) After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. ![]()
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