Third Star (2010)
Director: Hattie Dalton
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, JJ Feild, Tom Burke, & Adam Robertson
(This review contains spoilers)
For someone who at the moment can only aspire to anyone lucky enough to have been able to make their own film, Third Star, the low-budget directorial debut of Hattie Dalton, stands up as something I kind of wish I’d made or worked on.
Third Star (name coming from a misunderstanding of phrase 'second star to the right and straight on till morning') follows a “wagon-trip” along the Pembrokeshire coast, you know the kind of thing we’re all used to – characters go on road trip – something changes - characters change forever. Textbook.
Nothing much happens for the 92 minute running time. We know James won’t see his 30th birthday and thus this is his final trip. His best friend Davey currently lives to look after him, Bill may soon be a father and Miles has been having a secret affair with James’ married sister. That 92 minutes seems directionless for a lot of time; it’s more a study of the relationship between these four friends who just don’t come from a hard-done-by era – our problems here are marital affairs and mobile phones. These minute problems when placed side-by-side with James illness and his obvious obsession over life create tension and painfully honest arguments.
Once again it’s proven that dynamic character relationships can triumph over lack of narrative drive and action sequences. Every single character at some point shows themselves to be totally selfish and absorbed in their own existence, and dying James’ constant cries that “you’re wasting your lives” (‘you’re’ extending right to us, it seems) are presented not so much as sentimental values but something that we all know perfectly bloody well – it’s only when we are presented face on with death ourselves that it seems to matter.
After seeing the trailer to Third Star I convinced myself I was going to be a weeping mess at the end, but weirdly enough I wasn’t. It was only on contemplation afterward that I got a lump in my throat. Not because of the fact you see James take his own life, immersing himself in the cold, unforgiving salt water of the Welsh sea. I was more taken with the utter certainty he had over such a choice. Earlier on he had angrily ranted in frustration that he wanted “more time” and then a day or two later explains with no ounce of unease that he wants his friends to be with him when he dies, to actually let him do this. He wants to die in his favourite place in the world. His fragility combined with mental strength is what I found so extraordinary.
Third Star is a truly beautiful piece of work, and a welcome break from all the blockbuster predict-a-thons that are inevitable in the coming summer months. There are moments of true hilarity, the quirky, short-shorts-wearing star-wars-action-figure-searching characters met along the way, beautiful men (wink) and boy conversation, and a counter-balacing heart-stopping conclusion. It’s incredibly sad and typical that such a touching, worthy film only gets an extremely limited release (and two years after production!). The cinematography and gorgeous landscape photography are just exquisite, and there was not a single performance who I could fault. The mechanics behind the male friendship are clearly something I’m not going to understand personally but the petty wrestling around every corner (one source of comic relief at least) and anger felt so real that at times you couldn’t help but wonder how the hell any of these men had become friends in the first place. But Benedict Cumberbatch is the unparalleled central performance and when you see it you’ll understand why.
If you can get to a venue to support the filmmakers, then I urge to you do so. And probably pack tissues.
www.thirdstarfilm.co.uk
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