Written and directed by: David Mackenzie
Adapted from the Alexander Trocchi novel.
Starring: Ewan McGregor (Joe Taylor), Tilda Swinton (Ella Gault), Peter Mullan (Les Gault), Emily Mortimer (Cathie Dimly), Jack McElhone (Jim Gault)
(Rated R for nudity, sex, and adult situations)
"The Return"
by Michael Parker
When he saw her, he was sitting. Smoking
at the pier’s edge. Observing things writers
observe. Note. Analyze. He barely flinched
seeing her in that white slip he saw her last
in. Riding up below swollen nipples as if she
tried taking it off just for him. Just one more time.
She approached him submissively. Face
down. Eyes hidden by hair that moved with
every shift of the current. Her arms stretched half
out seemed to have let go or anticipated him -
an embrace too long in the waiting.
They used an anchoring hook. Lifting. Heaving
her from the river. Straining. The weight of water
heavy in her. She was pale as alabaster lying
on the pier.
He was on his knees handling her differently
carefully straightening splayed limbs - open legs
disheveled arms. He slid her slip down covering
naked extremities and sighed. Looked to the bay.
He placed his palm on the flat place in between her
shoulders. Rested there. Then raised his hand to her
head and combed her hair away from her face with
open fingers.
He closed her eyes.
**********
The opening of David Mackenzie's film Young Adam might just be one of my favorite beginnings in film. Joe (Ewan McGregor) discovers a body floating in the river. (It actually floated right up to him.) After his employer helps pull the body out, he runs off to get the authorities, leaving Joe with the body. These moments Joe has alone with the body are so captivating and memorable, but mostly revealing. It lays the groundwork for explaining why and how the body of his lover, Cathie, gets in the river.
But Young Adam, at heart, is a film about Joe and his insatiable appetite for love, primarily the passion aspect of it. And the fact that women are drawn to him and his kind, thoughtful personality, especially women in loveless, sexless marriages, sets Joe up as a type of savior-figure.
In all, Mackenzie's story is intriguing. The photography noteworthy. But the beginning? Now there is a mini-masterpiece.
