SYNOPSICS
Another Life (2001) is a English movie. Philip Goodhew has directed this movie. Natasha Little,Nick Moran,Ioan Gruffudd,Imelda Staunton are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2001. Another Life (2001) is considered one of the best Crime,Drama,Romance movie in India and around the world.
Just before the outbreak of World War I, Edith Graydon married her boyfriend Percy Thomson. He survives the war but theirs is not a happy marriage. She doesn't really love him and he feels it every day. He's also possessive and their daily life is a constant battle. She meets and falls in love with Frederick Bywaters, her sister's one-time boyfriend. They have a long affair and her desperate attempts to get either a formal separation or divorce from her husband falls on deaf ears. They are at their wit's end and Bywaters decides to do something about it. On a dark evening when Edith is walking with her husband, Bywaters stabs him to death. Edith is charged with murder along with Bywaters and both are found guilty. She claims her innocence right up until the day they are both executed by hanging in 1923. Based on a true story.
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Another Life (2001) Reviews
A Victim of Victorian Backlash
I hope to see this film one day. I don't even recall it being released in the U.S. The Thompson - Bywaters Case of 1922 - 23 was one of the great disgraces of British Justice. Edith Thompson was accused of instigating her boyfriend, Frederick Bywaters, in stabbing her husband Percy on a street in London at night. To his credit, Frederick denied her involvement - he claimed he killed Percy for mistreating Edith. Unfortunately for Edith (a woman with a big imagination) letters she wrote to Bywaters were preserved by him, and they suggested that she had tried to poison Percy on several occasions. Problem was that the crown pathologist, Sir Bernard Spilsbury, never found traces of the so-called poisons. The solution by the prosecution: ignore Sir Bernard (normally trotted out at every major criminal prosecution at the time) and concentrate on the evidence that Edith and Frederic were committing adultery. Although ably defended by Sir Henry Curtis Bennett, Edith made the mistake of going into the witness box, and she suddenly panicked inside it. It sank whatever chances she had. The jury found her and Frederick guilty, and they were executed. The judge at the trial, Mr. Justice Shearman, had been junior to Edward Marshall Hall in defending the notorious wife murderer George Joseph Smith, and yet he made comments about how sickened he was by Ms Thompson - more sick than at any other killer he came across. The prosecutor was Sir Thomas Inskip. Whatever one says of his ability in railroading Mrs. Thompson, Inskip would mis-serve his country in the late 1930s when he purposely slowed down the rearmament programs of the Baldwin and Chamberlain governments in the face of growing Nazi aggression. These two were the defenders of English hearth and home in this case. The play A PIN TO SEE A PEEP SHOW is based on a novel by F. Tennyson Jesse, an noted criminal historian (and descendant of the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson). It is a retelling of the Thompson tragedy.
Excellent Ensemble Acting
An excellent British Cast in a film bafflingly overlooked at Cannes. Natasha Little in particular deserves the highest praise for the emotional range of her acting. In fact the whole cast gelled exceptionally well in a film that encompassed touches of light humour and extreme emotional pain. Costume, set design and make up painstakingly recreated the era of the 20's and 30's. A modern day tragedy.
Doomed lovers
A notorious case in the England of th 1910s that made headlines for the sensational of the story is recreated in "Another Life", which takes a look at Edith Thompson and Fred Bywaters, middle class citizens, whose crime resonated at the time it happened. The beautiful Edith Graydon, meets and marries Percy Thompson, who was deeply in love with her. Soon after their wedding, it became apparent he was not the man for her. Edith was an ambitious young woman who went to work at a millinery shop, becoming a valuable assistant to Mr. Carlton, a man that gave her an opportunity to excel. At the same time, Edith met, and eventually fell in love with Fred Bywaters, a dashing sailor, that proved to be the lover she craved for. Her life changed radically because of the heat their passion generated. Unfortunately, divorce in those years was something taboo for the society she was living. Fred started out being the boyfriend of her sister Avis. Complicating things WWI begins and Percy dodges going into the service, something that did not play well in Edith's eyes. Fred and Edith fantasized getting rid of the man that stood in their happiness, something that Edith paid dearly for her actions, when Fred killed the obstacle that was in his way to get Edith for himself. Philip Goodhew shows talent as he sets this historical drama which was a shocking incident in Britain when it happened. Mr. Goodhew wrote the screen treatment of the case, which gets a good treatment, as it keeps the viewer interested in the notorious crime. The film conveys the sense of prejudice of the era in which it takes place. Poor Edith pays too dearly a price for her getting a no win situation, something that perhaps today, with a good lawyer she would have been able to beat the punishment she received. Natasha Little gives a strong performance as the woman at the center of the action. Ioan Gfuffudd makes a good case of Fred Bywaters, but it is Nick Moran, playing Percy, who really surprises in an underplayed role that gets the viewer's attention. Also in the cast, wonderful Tom Wilkinson and Imelda Staunton in supporting roles. Simon Archer, a man who works a lot in television, is the director of photography. The film score is by James McConnel. Ultimately, all credit must go to Philip Goodhew for bringing this story to the screen, as he is non judgmental, presenting the case as it probably happened in real life.
Period film - not quite Edwardian
I was interested to see this film as a relative of mine shared a flat with one of the Thompson family and my family remember the case as we came from the same area. Another connection is that I was an extra on the film. The clothes we had to wear weren't Edwardian at all it was definitely twenties. The film seems to have vanished and having searched on Amazon I found it is on DVD so I am looking forward to seeing it at last. As it was made in 2001 I would like to know where it has been hiding all this time. In the court scenes that I was in Natasha Little and Ioan Gruffudd were excellent. It seems a shame that it didn't publicised further because it definitely should have been seen far and wide.
Evocative but anticlimactic
It's sort of good to hear the Ilford accent represented in film, and this production is dressed and dramatised beautifully. There are no slouches among the cast either, Imelda Staunton and the two sisters being particularly convincing. Ioan Griffith too gives jolly good antihero. (SPOILER) So it's a shame that this film really just crashes to a halt. Maybe it's the stage origin, or the ultimate banality of the actual crime - which is what, fifteen years coming? - World War One seemed to last all of three minutes. Another Life is performance led, and these are top class, but the obscenity of the merciless convictions is done too fast. It's just not tragic enough, in spite of Natasha Little's redefinition of the cliché execution scene. Somewhere among the period detail, emancipation of women and general air of repressed sexuality this movie loses its focus on who's actually the villain; is it the abused but spoilt Edith, or pathetic Percy the husband? How come Freddy Bywaters suddenly goes postal? Or is it just Edwardian society (strangely thinly populated, but hey, it's low budget) being dragged into the twentieth century? (Big-ups to Elizabeth McKechinie as the Mother-in-Law from Hades at this point). If you enjoy atmospheric old British second features like This Happy Breed, It Always Rains on Sunday, or the more modern Scandal, you'll enjoy Another Life, a dependable British period drama which will stand repeat viewing. But it won't thrill you all the way to the end.