HOLLOW REED
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(CFP) Starring: Martin Donovan, Joely Richardson, Ian Hart, Jason Flemyng, Sam Bould. Screenplay: Paula Milne. Producer: Elizabeth Karlsen Director: Angela Pope. MPAA Rating: R (violence, adult themes, profanity) Running Time: 104 minutes Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I have come up with a definition -- admittedly arbitrary -- for "TV-movie" as it tends to be used in a derogatory fashion. Melodrama certainly plays a part in that definition, but it is more symptom than disease. The real problem with TV-movies is that they tend to be about issues, not about people. Melodrama results from a story about a situation; drama results from a story about people responding to a situation.
HOLLOW REED has been garnering some comparisons to TV-movies which are only half fair. The story concerns that TV-movie standby the custody battle, with a few provocative twists. Young Oliver Wyatt (Sam Bould) lives with his mother Hannah (Joely Richardson) and Hannah's new boyfriend Frank (Jason Flemyng); Oliver's father Martyn (Martin Donovan) lives with his gay lover Tom (Ian Hart). One day Oliver shows up at Martyn's door with injuries the boy claims came in a schoolyard fight, and later turns up with a broken wrist supposedly slammed in a car door. Martyn begins to suspect that the cause of the injuries may be Frank, and sues for custody when Hannah is unresponsive to his concerns. Thus begins a legal battle which will expose the biases in the system and force a family to confront its own biases.
HOLLOW REED really covers two issues, then: domestic violence, and attitudes about homosexuality both institutional and personal. On the first front, cries of "TV-movie" amount to utter nonsense. Director Angela Pope has crafted a splendid domestic drama which includes many wrenching scenes of people coping with personal turmoil. Sam Bould's performance as Oliver is the centerpiece of that story, a quiet and reflective piece of work which allows the audience to feel his fear, confusion and isolation. Oliver's perspective is everywhere, from furtive glances through window blinds to the boy's use of a radio-controlled car fitted with a rear-view mirror to observe things from a distance. Pope also includes a marvelous reconciliation scene between Hannah and Frank which captures a dysfunctional relationship to chilling perfection. As long as HOLLOW REED is focused on the dynamics of Hannah, Frank and Oliver, it is truly exceptional.
There is, however, another issue with which to grapple, and the grappling is frequently clumsy. Martin Donovan, the laconic protagonist of Hal Hartley's TRUST, SIMPLE MEN and FLIRT, here plays another laconic protagonist. In Hartley's films, Donovan's mannered delivery works with the surreal situations; in HOLLOW REED, Donovan is like a mugging victim who mutters "Stop, thief." There is a passion missing from his interactions with every character in the film which blunts the impact of his relationship with his son _and_ his relationship with Tom (a more effective but under-developed Ian Hart). Pope tries to make up for that lack of spark by providing a big court-room scene where HOLLOW REED begins to feel exactly like a TV-movie. The testimony is treated like a therapy session where the characters' deep dark feelings are exposed, turning the climax into a lecture. Like the least effective TV-movies, HOLLOW REED starts to feel like it is exists to arouse your indignation rather than to involve you emotionally.
If HOLLOW REED is ultimately worthwhile viewing, it is because there is much more right with the domestic violence story-line than there is wrong with the gay rights story-line. Still, the way Pope and writer Paula Milne approach each issue shows that a timely topic does not a TV-movie make. HOLLOW REED is a sensitive study of a particular family responding in a very personal way to child abuse; it is also a study of Homosexuality in Society in capital letters. It's only the latter that you'd probably see on Fox starring one of the cast members of "Melrose Place."
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 network solutions: 7.
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