The Escape
20/03/19 Filed in: Amazon rental
This film didn't make it to our local Cineworld and we caught up with it streaming from Amazon. Critical reviews were strong although audiences appear to have been less enthralled. This might be because it's a film that deals with hard reality, effectively documenting the breakup of a marriage. And not a fanciful film marriage, but one that many ordinary people, and perhaps particularly women, can readily identify with. As The Spectator's review put it quite bluntly, 'It will save some marriages — or end others'.
Another reason for my interest is that it stars Gemma Arterton, who also features as one of the executive producers. My first screen encounter with Arterton was in the BBC series Tess of the D'Urbervilles, in which she played the eponymous ingénue. I hadn't read the book, despite its literary fame, and I found the story heartbreaking. Arterton's performance conveyed magnificently how Tess suffered at the hands of a young man who put his station above the feelings of this young woman, whereupon she then falls victim to an even nastier suitor.
In The Escape, Arterton, as Tara, again shows this ability to convey the feelings of a young woman trapped by circumstances, this time a bad marriage that's sucking the life out of her. With two children and a husband who seems to measure the marriage in terms of the frequency of their sex, she craves more fulfilment. At times it's not easy viewing. One day, managing to grab a trip into London from their home in Gravesend, Tara picks up a couple of second hand books, one depicting 'The Lady and the Unicorn' tapestries in Paris. She sees a future in taking an art course, but her husband, Mark's reaction is far from supportive. More along the lines of 'what's wrong with you'. Her mother is equally dismissive. The friction grows, at times approaching abuse, until one day she cracks, grabs a bag and hot foots it to Paris on Eurostar.
For her it's almost surreal when she arrives and visits the art exhibition. But once again innocence proves to be a poor friend, and a promising beginning is soon shown to be an illusion. Befriended by a Parisian woman who finds her distraught on the street, she is faced with a decision.
Filmed almost in a documentary style, with the house invariably chaotic, the film oozes realism. Added to this is the fact that Arterton hails from Gravesend, and the shots in the supermarket car park were taken in the very same car park where she used to shop. Cameras were often kept out of sight in public shots, there were no rehearsals and they used a family house after leafletting a cul-de-sac to see who would be prepared to offer their home for the film shoot. And the two children are those of the family whose house they used. Quite a lot of realism. The scene in Tara's screen mother's garden was actually shot in the garden of Arterton's mother.
And to round it off, the cast had to improvise every line. Arterton and the Director, Dominic Savage, were both looking for the subtlety of French cinema and have perhaps produced a film arguable too avant garde even for the French.
For her it's almost surreal when she arrives and visits the art exhibition. But once again innocence proves to be a poor friend, and a promising beginning is soon shown to be an illusion. Befriended by a Parisian woman who finds her distraught on the street, she is faced with a decision.
Filmed almost in a documentary style, with the house invariably chaotic, the film oozes realism. Added to this is the fact that Arterton hails from Gravesend, and the shots in the supermarket car park were taken in the very same car park where she used to shop. Cameras were often kept out of sight in public shots, there were no rehearsals and they used a family house after leafletting a cul-de-sac to see who would be prepared to offer their home for the film shoot. And the two children are those of the family whose house they used. Quite a lot of realism. The scene in Tara's screen mother's garden was actually shot in the garden of Arterton's mother.
And to round it off, the cast had to improvise every line. Arterton and the Director, Dominic Savage, were both looking for the subtlety of French cinema and have perhaps produced a film arguable too avant garde even for the French.