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With Or Without You
The plot is a bog-standard romantic triangle. Rosie and Vincent, who have been married five years or so, want a baby, but nothing's happening. It doesn't help that Rosie's older sister has sprogs burgeoning like mushrooms wherever you look. Then up pops a figure from Rosie's past--Benoît, her pen-pal from before she met Vincent. And being French, he's naturally charming, witty, romantic and everything poor old Vincent isn't. Think you can guess what's coming? Well, most likely you can--right down to the all-too-pat happy ending. Still, the actors (Christopher Ecclestone, Dervla Kirwan and Yvan Attal are the leads) are accomplished and watchable, the dialogue stays the right side of banal and it's refreshing to see Belfast shown as a civilised, cultured place to live. With or Without You passes an hour and a half pleasantly enough and may even raise the odd chuckle, but it covers well-trodden territory without much new to say. On the DVD: aptly routine stuff--the theatrical trailer, a bland "making of" featurette and some interviews with the three principal players. Widescreen (16:9 anamorphic) and Dolby Surround Sound give the material the best possible showcase. --Philip Kemp Winterbottom is here aided by a strong cast, which features regular collaborator Christopher Eccleston alongside former Goodnight Sweetheart/Ballykissangel star Dervla Kirwan as the couple going through a series of personal-problems, whilst such impressive performers as Julie Graham, Yvan Attal, Alun Armstrong, Doon Mackichan and Fionnula Flanagan fill in the supporting roles. The film is given a fragment of originality through Wintebottom’s use of cinematic technique, with many of the images often composed so as to appear as windows within windows... sort of like what Peter Greenaway did with Prospero and the Pillow Book. There’s no real need for this device here, other than the fact that it seems to conform to the director’s view of the material as a sort of Godardian retelling of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, complete with the evil mystery woman, a forest scene and many, many attempts at mirror symbolism. Winterbottom is an intelligent filmmaker, and it is this intelligence that makes even his most insipid films (this is one of them) at least watch-able on a first-hand level. The film’s climax on the beach seems like a direct reference to Godard’s Pierre Le Fu and Weekend respectively, whilst for a film that aims it’s self so squarely at the made for TV demographic, there sure are a great deal of adventurous (and somewhat explicit) sex scenes peppered throughout. With Or Without You does now, seem somewhat out of place on the filmmaker’s CV (which also features the award winners, 24 Hour Party People and In This World), though despite it’s bland plotting and MOR characterisations, it does at least offer an hour and a half of easy-to-digest, undemanding entertainment.
RRP: £9.99
Our Price: £11.09 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
With or Without You works as an above-average television drama; but that's about the height of its ambition. It's strange that Michael Winterbottom, director of the hard-edged, bitter Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and the grandiose snowy western The Claim (2000) should have bothered with anything as routine and undemanding. Perhaps its greatest distinction is that it's set in present-day Belfast without so much as a mention of the Troubles.
Snow White... by way of the French New Wave!
Review date: 2004-03-23 Rating: 6 out of 10
The Amazon review says it all really... quite why Winterbottom decided to follow up a serious trilogy of films (Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo & I Want You) with this throwaway soap-pilot is completely beyond me. If it was simply an excuse for him and his ever-changing line-up of European cinematographers to experiment with handheld-camera techniques before making the modern-classic Wonderland, then I suppose the end justifies the means. However, for the most part, this is a pretty unassuming rom-com dealing with the love, (in)fidelity and fertility of a humble, middle-class couple from Belfast, and the problems that arise when old flames (and old desires) re-emerge from the past.
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Reviews
Belfast seems a beautiful town with ordinary lives
Review date: 2001-04-25 Rating: 6 out of 10
We have had a lot of notorious images of Belfast, through reading Joan Linguard's Kevin and Sadie story and seeing films like Cal or Nothing Personal. I am greatly relieved with ordinary lives with ordinary cares and troubles in this town. Eccleston is always sexy, though I do not why, in Jude, in Shallow Grave and in this film. by Yoriko
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Dervla Kirwan
Julie Graham
Alun Armstrong
Christopher Eccleston
Yvan Attal
Creators:
Christopher Eccleston (Primary Contributor)
Dervla Kirwan (Primary Contributor)
Benoît Delhomme (Cinematographer)
Trevor Waite (Editor)
Andrew Eaton (Producer)
Gina Carter (Producer)
Sandra Nixon (Producer)
John Forte (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Cinema Club
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
EAN: 5014138286934
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2001-12-03
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 93 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1999-12-15
Language: English (Original Language)