Song For Marion: Film Reivew and Trailer
TERENCE STAMP and Vanessa Redgrave are so good in Song For Marion that you wish the film was more worthy of their talent.
Writer/director Paul Andrew Williams takes a decent idea and transforms it into a trite tearjerker with little subtlety or surprise.
A very able cast largely overcome the conventional storyline but it is touch and go in places.
Stamp’s stony, forbidding features are well used as Arthur, the very embodiment of a grumpy old man. He is devoted to wife Marion (Redgrave) but wouldn’t ever express his feelings or spare her a smile. He can barely offer a civil word to James (Christopher Eccleston) whom he regards more as a taxi service than a loving son.
Marion has terminal cancer but is determined to keep performing with her lively community choir led by Elizabeth (Gemma Arterton).
Naturally Arthur regards these game old crooners as a right royal pain. You suspect he will be croaking along and holding back a tear before the end credits roll. Sentimental stuff but when an ailing Redgrave sings True Colours it really does bring a lump to your throat.
Verdict: 3/5