Film Review: The Door

The Door

…Should be slammed closed and secured as tightly as  it is portrayed in the film during the fumigation scene Helen Mirren portrayal of a 1960’s Hungarian house maid is excellent in a story that unfortunately travels even less than her character.

I was surprised Helen Mirren was in this movie, as I did not know that she could speak Hungarian. She can’t! There was a hint of accent much like the portrayal of German soldiers in most WWII television and movie depictions.

A wealthy writer and her husband employ the maid to cook and clean for them. The house mistress form a strong but clumsy friendship as they navigate the challenges of deeply caring for each other whilst maintaining their professional hierarchy.

The end.

For 98 minutes I waited for something of interest, something exciting to happen. Like Vladamir and Estragon, I am unfortunately left waiting.

This flat narrative carries the themes of love, trust and honour. With such a thin story line these themes are very close to the surface and are therefore require very little interpretation by the viewer.

A point of interest is whether or not Helen Mirren is wearing make up. If she is then it is exceptional partly because it is questioned if the make up exists and partly because it depicts the face of a hardworking ageing woman. If not then although it can be said that she is ageing gracefully, she is definitely ageing.

The stoic and stubborn nature of her character than is unafraid of speaking her mind does give some hope to the viewer only that her turn of phrase is scathing and humourous at the same time.

This still was not enough to keep all of the punters in the cinema awake for the duration of the film. Helen Mirren has again demonstrated her immense acting ability but a quality film needs more than one good performance.

The highlight was the butterscotch choc-top ice cream. Unfortunately this was all but eaten before the adverts and trailers had ended.