The Whisperers
Mrs Ross leads a lonely existence, one where she talks to the walls, her flat is cluttered and she spends her day shuffling back and forth to the assistance office and to the library to warm her feet. It is a solitary existence, a lonely one, but I wonder if she is truly lonely?
I ask that last question because she almost seems to prefer it that way. She’s unhappy when her husband is tracked down and forced to return to care for her, and her apartment has been cleaned and her old newspapers have been tossed. Miserable even.
She lives a life of neglect because she herself has been neglected. It isn’t until after she has been robbed that anyone has shown any care for her. Even then it almost seems like it is out of a sense of guilt.
The plot isn’t the focus here (though it does have a lot to say about ow we care for the elderly), really, but Mrs Ross herself. She’s portrayed with a sense of detachment by Dame Edith Evans, and magnificently so at that. Every close up of her craggy face conveys her situation perfectly.
And in the ending, where she finally returns to the life she has grown accustomed to, where she cracks a smile and asks her flat “Hello? Are you there?” She seems happier then she had been before.
Side note: After watching this film, I called my mom. Now excuse me as I wipe my eyes.
Mrs Ross leads a lonely existence, one where she talks to the walls, her flat is cluttered and she spends her day shuffling back and forth to the assistance office and to the library to warm her feet. It is a solitary existence, a lonely one, but I wonder if she is truly lonely?
I ask that last question because she almost seems to prefer it that way. She’s unhappy when her husband is tracked down and forced to return to care for her, and her apartment has been cleaned and her old newspapers have been tossed. Miserable even.
She lives a life of neglect because she herself has been neglected. It isn’t until after she has been robbed that anyone has shown any care for her. Even then it almost seems like it is out of a sense of guilt.
The plot isn’t the focus here (though it does have a lot to say about ow we care for the elderly), really, but Mrs Ross herself. She’s portrayed with a sense of detachment by Dame Edith Evans, and magnificently so at that. Every close up of her craggy face conveys her situation perfectly.
And in the ending, where she finally returns to the life she has grown accustomed to, where she cracks a smile and asks her flat “Hello? Are you there?” She seems happier then she had been before.
Side note: After watching this film, I called my mom. Now excuse me as I wipe my eyes.