Sometimes Always Never by Frank Cottrell Boyce - Nine out of 10

Sometimes Always Never by Frank Cottrell Boyce

Nine out of 10

Although this is a subdued, perhaps somewhat unglamorous, without the loud bangs that are the recipe of comic books based motion pictures that flood the theaters these days, film, Sometimes Always Never has a subtlety, undercurrents, splendid moments, maybe perfect acting – especially the legendary Bill Nighy – that make this a great movie.

The hero of the narrative is Alan aka reserved, minimalist and marvelously efficient Bill Nighy, a tailor with aristocratic manners, who has made mistakes in his past – perhaps also the present in which he can miscommunicate with his son, Peter, come across as aloof, indifferent at times, unable to understand better the feelings of others.

Alan is also brave, we learn from his talks with Peter that he has been a single parent, when they argue over the fact that the father used substitutes, surrogates, cheap replicas of games – they had not played the authentic scrabble, but something which was ersatz scrabble, maybe because they were in financial straits, or as an alternative, the parent was just spend thrift – the father replies at one point that the two brothers had to make do with a mother surrogate in his own person…he had to play the mother as well.

The protagonist tries to find his missing son, Michael, and in the beginning, he is on the beach, talking to his other son, Alan, on the mobile phone, and then he arrives at a van that sells ice-cream and appreciates the pastel colors, that are so…pastel and then thinks it might be Alan who has done the work, for it is something he does, generally.

The humor in this and many other scenes is minimalist, for there is no reaction from the man in the van, the one who sells ice-cream, but may not provide this peculiar customer with the coffee he wants, and yet, the mannerisms, attitude, presence and charm of Alan aka Bill Nighy offer such a good show, albeit not a noisy, exuberant, or exaggerated one as in some flawed comedies …say I Feel Pretty (destroyed here: http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/04/i-feel-pretty-written-and-directed-by.html)

Alan and Peter drive to a morgue, to see if a body they have there belongs to the missing Michael, and they meet at the motel where they spend the night, in spite of the initial protestation of Peter, a couple that is there for the same reason, to look at the corpse in the mortuary.

Arthur aka the very good Tim McInnerny (appreciated by this cinephile recently in Agatha and the Truth of Murder - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/03/agatha-and-truth-of-murder-by-tom.html ) is challenged to a scrabble duel by Alan, but this turns out to be something of a hustle, for Alan is so good as to be the equivalent of a black belt in martial arts looking for sparring partners in a small hotel in middle England…

Arthur and his wife, Margaret, meet with father and son at the morgue, where they all wait for the terrible identification, where it is revealed that the game took place and furthermore, Alan has won two hundred pounds, making the wife angry with this stupid act and then rather satisfied, stating that if the husband has been such a fool, then it is splendid that he had to pay for it.

Alan is then invited to stay over by Sue, his daughter in the law, although her husband, Peter, is not very keen on this, perhaps unwilling to have this guest and he says that they have no bed for him, except for a bunk in their son’s room and the grandfather is quick to say …’that will do’.

Hence, he is inside the room of his grandson, who is playing a game on his computer, which is so slow that Alan offers to play with the settings to improve graphics and what not…

As aforementioned, we do not have in this film Avengers clashing with giants, creatures from other dimensions, X-Men travelling thorough time and nay of the paraphernalia of the fashionable, blockbusters that alas, we see in such huge numbers today – well, they are on offer, we could avoid them actually

However, Sometimes Always Never is a charming motion picture…almost Always.