Through the performances of Ruth Wilson and Maggie Smith, the character of Mary Gilbert comes to life, a promising journalist who visits a great home and finds out through a disturbing conversation some horrible secrets that ultimately ruins her career. The fascinating Dame Maggie drops into the house years later and finds a willing ear (caretaker Danny Lee Wynter) to share the story with, going from her initial visit to another visit years later, seeing the source of those stories (David Walliams) the first time since that earlier encounter.
While Ruth Wilson does not look like the younger Maggie Smith did, you could imagine the older Dame Maggie once looking like the younger Wilson. This is quite a different Maggie Smith that is nothing like her many famous characters, someone I could see her being away from the stage, nowhere near a film set, quiet and introspective, and humble as a private citizen. She somehow seems happier here letting things out as if it was her finally able to look into who she was as opposed to her public image. This is the younger, calmer Maggie of "The Honey Pot", "Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing" and "Lily in Love" rather than the wisecracking or loveable sour characters she's beloved for.
At times, the flashbacks with Wilson seem to go too far close to the present day (the swinging 60's and early 70's in particular), and it seems like she's aging far too slowly to be Maggie during the era of Jean Brodie, looking closer to a younger Vanessa Redgrave or even Glenda Jackson at that time. But it's easy to get past this one little flaw because as long as Dame Maggie is speaking, she manages to convince you that she could be anywhere. As far as the secrets that she reveals are concerned, they are revealed in such a subtle way but have an underlying feeling of evil behind them that it becomes creepy to see Walliams age during the times of the future that Smith through the eyes of Wilson sees. It's best to look on this with suspended disbelief, and the unexpected will not be surprising when it occurs. Wynter, a rising young British stage actor, is polite and charming and hospitable, a delightful discovery in my film viewing research.
While Ruth Wilson does not look like the younger Maggie Smith did, you could imagine the older Dame Maggie once looking like the younger Wilson. This is quite a different Maggie Smith that is nothing like her many famous characters, someone I could see her being away from the stage, nowhere near a film set, quiet and introspective, and humble as a private citizen. She somehow seems happier here letting things out as if it was her finally able to look into who she was as opposed to her public image. This is the younger, calmer Maggie of "The Honey Pot", "Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing" and "Lily in Love" rather than the wisecracking or loveable sour characters she's beloved for.
At times, the flashbacks with Wilson seem to go too far close to the present day (the swinging 60's and early 70's in particular), and it seems like she's aging far too slowly to be Maggie during the era of Jean Brodie, looking closer to a younger Vanessa Redgrave or even Glenda Jackson at that time. But it's easy to get past this one little flaw because as long as Dame Maggie is speaking, she manages to convince you that she could be anywhere. As far as the secrets that she reveals are concerned, they are revealed in such a subtle way but have an underlying feeling of evil behind them that it becomes creepy to see Walliams age during the times of the future that Smith through the eyes of Wilson sees. It's best to look on this with suspended disbelief, and the unexpected will not be surprising when it occurs. Wynter, a rising young British stage actor, is polite and charming and hospitable, a delightful discovery in my film viewing research.