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Turtle Diary (1985) - Irvin
The long run
The set-up? Two rank amateurs are going to try to smuggle 500 kilos of ... sea turtle back into the ocean.
William Snow (Ben Kingsley) and Neaera Duncan (Glenda Jackson) are too queer birds indeed. Snow is not quite explained. Once upon a time he was married, had a couple of daughters, owned a thriving business. But he's taken a break with all that. He lives alone in a small rooming house, works in a bookstore, he's kind of retired from the rat race.
Neaera is a children's author who writes and illustrates her own books about wee anthropomorphized animals; but she's right in the middle of her own break down as she believes the fount has run dry. She wonders aloud to her editors, if another book is even possible. She's lowered the bar and switched to insects, putting an aquarium in the middle of her living room; dropped a water beetle inside and waits for something awesome to happen.
The three oldest turtles have been swimming in circles for 30 years now, which has the tinge of mortality, that's almost the average working life of the people watching them. But unlike sea turtles that were captured and placed in their glass cage; the lives the characters live in are self imposed; best expressed in the character of the painfully shy Miss Neap. She's mortified and struck to the core when she sees the little sign Snow has put up in the shared bathroom. She assumes he is calling her a filthy pig, and she confronts him on the verge of tears; he has to explain it 's not meant for her---pointing with his head (indicating the door next to them) but that slob. But Snow's glass cage is only marginally larger than Miss Neap's.
When Neaera tells him about the troubling nightmare she's had, he's the picture of reassurance, until she informs him the dream is not about her, it's about him which clearly throws a scare into him. One can see why they're been mutually drawn to the sea turtle exhibit in the London zoo; they can't summon up the energy required to make a change in their own lives. However, Snow has been so rattled that the next day, despite having toiled next to Harriet for years, he finally asks her out for a pint after work.
The writing is effortless. Simple things like a minor twist of character: the zookeeper who---in contrast to his chosen profession---believes that animals shouldn't be caged, they should live free. Or the little scene at the gas station, just having the attendant walk around to the back of his station and press his nose against the window, while Snow fills a pail of water, goes to the back of his lorry, throws into inside, then repeats the gesture a couple of times, transforms what would have been a simple transition scene into high drama. Pinter sets the climax back from where should normally be in a movie, allowing the effects of their "heist" to reverberate in their lives. Snow has moved onto an even more dangerous project, one that almost guarantees physical danger. He's going to teach Mr Sandor how to clean up after himself, even if he has to use his face to scrub the scum ring from the bathtub after each time he uses it.
And a few nice cameos: Nigel Hawthornne (The madness of King George) Harold Pinter (2005 Nobel Prize for literature) as a boob in the book store who has read the wrong book first. And Peter Capaldii (In the loop) as an assistant aquarium keeper.
Of course, this is an acting film, you're here for Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson, quietly marvelous. This is like an old fashioned movie that just percolates with drama. The overview would be essentially be: unremarkable people doing unremarkable things.
Turtle Diary -
Turtle Diary (1985) - Irvin
The long run
The set-up? Two rank amateurs are going to try to smuggle 500 kilos of ... sea turtle back into the ocean.
William Snow (Ben Kingsley) and Neaera Duncan (Glenda Jackson) are too queer birds indeed. Snow is not quite explained. Once upon a time he was married, had a couple of daughters, owned a thriving business. But he's taken a break with all that. He lives alone in a small rooming house, works in a bookstore, he's kind of retired from the rat race.
Neaera is a children's author who writes and illustrates her own books about wee anthropomorphized animals; but she's right in the middle of her own break down as she believes the fount has run dry. She wonders aloud to her editors, if another book is even possible. She's lowered the bar and switched to insects, putting an aquarium in the middle of her living room; dropped a water beetle inside and waits for something awesome to happen.
The three oldest turtles have been swimming in circles for 30 years now, which has the tinge of mortality, that's almost the average working life of the people watching them. But unlike sea turtles that were captured and placed in their glass cage; the lives the characters live in are self imposed; best expressed in the character of the painfully shy Miss Neap. She's mortified and struck to the core when she sees the little sign Snow has put up in the shared bathroom. She assumes he is calling her a filthy pig, and she confronts him on the verge of tears; he has to explain it 's not meant for her---pointing with his head (indicating the door next to them) but that slob. But Snow's glass cage is only marginally larger than Miss Neap's.
When Neaera tells him about the troubling nightmare she's had, he's the picture of reassurance, until she informs him the dream is not about her, it's about him which clearly throws a scare into him. One can see why they're been mutually drawn to the sea turtle exhibit in the London zoo; they can't summon up the energy required to make a change in their own lives. However, Snow has been so rattled that the next day, despite having toiled next to Harriet for years, he finally asks her out for a pint after work.
The writing is effortless. Simple things like a minor twist of character: the zookeeper who---in contrast to his chosen profession---believes that animals shouldn't be caged, they should live free. Or the little scene at the gas station, just having the attendant walk around to the back of his station and press his nose against the window, while Snow fills a pail of water, goes to the back of his lorry, throws into inside, then repeats the gesture a couple of times, transforms what would have been a simple transition scene into high drama. Pinter sets the climax back from where should normally be in a movie, allowing the effects of their "heist" to reverberate in their lives. Snow has moved onto an even more dangerous project, one that almost guarantees physical danger. He's going to teach Mr Sandor how to clean up after himself, even if he has to use his face to scrub the scum ring from the bathtub after each time he uses it.
And a few nice cameos: Nigel Hawthornne (The madness of King George) Harold Pinter (2005 Nobel Prize for literature) as a boob in the book store who has read the wrong book first. And Peter Capaldii (In the loop) as an assistant aquarium keeper.
Of course, this is an acting film, you're here for Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson, quietly marvelous. This is like an old fashioned movie that just percolates with drama. The overview would be essentially be: unremarkable people doing unremarkable things.
Turtle Diary -