Don't go looking for originality in Paul Andrew Williams's film. The plot recycles a familiar thematic chestnut: a curmudgeonly pensioner Arthur (Terence Stamp) resents his wife Marion's (Vanessa Redgrave's) participation in a pensioners' choir, especially as she is dying from cancer. When she passes away, Arthur shuts himself away from everyone, but with the encouragement of choir-master Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton), he rediscovers his ability to sing. The choir make it through to the finals of a competition, but they are about to be excluded on the grounds of being a laughing-stock compared to the other, more sophisticated entrants. Arthur makes a last-minute entrance, strides on to the stage, sings a song accompanied by the choir, and they end up finishing third.
More recent variations on this story have included ONE CHANCE, the story of BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT winner Paul Potts with James Corden (2014). In Williams's film the two protagonists don't have to do much other than provide contrasting characterizations: the perpetually scowling Stamp set against the more optimistically inclined Marion. There is one memorable sequence where she refuses to talk to him unless he accedes to her wishes.
What makes the film touching is the way in which Williams handles his subject-matter. He does not shy away from the idea that cancer is a killer; however much we like to pretend otherwise, Marion's death is imminent. Having one's partner cruelly taken away after years of happy marriage is traumatic, as it proves for Arthur - especially as he cannot seem to get on with his son James (Christopher Eccleston). A group of OAPs in a choir singing Motorhead might seem incongruous, but the experience gives them a renewed belief in life.
The film makes some telling visual contrasts between the prison-like suburban life Arthur follows, and the beauties of the sky above. As he watches the sun rise and set, he understands how there are far more important things in life than sitting in the house. Marion looks down upon him from the heavens; and it's his duty to honor her.
It's a cliché to say that films like this are life-enhancing, but A SONG FOR MARION proves the truth of this statement.
More recent variations on this story have included ONE CHANCE, the story of BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT winner Paul Potts with James Corden (2014). In Williams's film the two protagonists don't have to do much other than provide contrasting characterizations: the perpetually scowling Stamp set against the more optimistically inclined Marion. There is one memorable sequence where she refuses to talk to him unless he accedes to her wishes.
What makes the film touching is the way in which Williams handles his subject-matter. He does not shy away from the idea that cancer is a killer; however much we like to pretend otherwise, Marion's death is imminent. Having one's partner cruelly taken away after years of happy marriage is traumatic, as it proves for Arthur - especially as he cannot seem to get on with his son James (Christopher Eccleston). A group of OAPs in a choir singing Motorhead might seem incongruous, but the experience gives them a renewed belief in life.
The film makes some telling visual contrasts between the prison-like suburban life Arthur follows, and the beauties of the sky above. As he watches the sun rise and set, he understands how there are far more important things in life than sitting in the house. Marion looks down upon him from the heavens; and it's his duty to honor her.
It's a cliché to say that films like this are life-enhancing, but A SONG FOR MARION proves the truth of this statement.