Parisian bon vivant, World War II Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband and recluse…Samuel Beckett lived a life of many parts. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos “Dance first, think later”, the film is a sweeping account of the life of this 20th-century icon.
Gabriel Byrne's rather uninspiring portrayal of Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett begins at the ceremony when he collects his cheque then climbs up through the theatre to a cave where he meets himself (in a polo neck) and together they try to decide what to do with the cash! This chat provides the scenario for a retrospective of the man's life. His childhood with a loving father and more distant mother; a life (now played by Fionn O'Shea) in Paris where he encounters the legendary James Joyce (Aiden Gillen) and his dance-loving daughter "Lucia" (Gráinne Good) before the Nazis arrive and he joins the French resistance and meets "Suzanne" (Sandrine Bonnaire) before becoming Byrne again for a denouement with her and BBC producer Barbara (Maxine Peake). Now clearly this was not an uneventful life, nor was this a dull man - but somehow the whole, lethargic, pace of this film rather grinds the joy from it. There are glimpses of the pithy wit of both Joyce and Beckett, and I did quite enjoy O'Shea's portrayal of the younger man but the rest is really an awkwardly introspective guilt trip as this man looks back on a life that is full of regret but very little positivity. Indeed, the whole film seems more focussed on offering us shallow glances of those who were important in his life rather than try to explain to us anything of his nature or just quite why we ought to care. Perhaps it is an authentic reflection of his life, but it's really quite a dull watch - even if the film itself does look great. Some lovely ragtime jazz though.
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