The Last September: Movie, DVD Review (2009)

Directed by Deborah Warner, written by John Banville, based on the novel by Elizabeth Bowen, 104 minutes, rated R.

If you’ve seen Pat O’Connor’s 1990 film, “Fools of Fortune,” then you’ll know the terrain Deborah Warner stakes out in “The Last September.” Part coming-of-age story, part romance, part end of an era and part historical fact, her film follows the decline of the Anglo-Irish and the end of British rule in Ireland.

Based on Elizabeth Bowen’s novel, “September” is set in 1920 County Cork, southern Ireland, at the country home of Sir Richard Naylor (Michael Gambon) and his wife, Lady Myra (Maggie Smith), members of the Ascendancy whose moneyed, graceful way of life is quickly nearing an end.

Beautifully shot, sumptuously mounted, but sometimes too slowly paced and disjointed to suit, the film’s central protagonist is Lois (Keeley Hawes), a teenager being courted by a sweet, yet financially undesirable captain in the British army (David Tennant), but whose heart longs for the sexual freedom, excitement and experience only a gruff, renegade terrorist (Gary Lydon) could give her.

Other characters move about the set pieces with all the chill and bite of a late-September breeze. With the possible exception of the Naylor’s pet monkey, a furball that darts throughout the sets with abandon, nobody here is happy.

There’s Hugo and Francie Montmorency (Lambert Wilson and Jane Birkin), an emotionally dead couple locked in a sham of a marriage. And there’s Marda Norton (Fiona Shaw), a woman of a certain age who loves Hugo, but who cannot have him. The tension between them gives the film its raw power while also adding to its underlying tone of sadness, disillusionment and emotional bankruptcy.

If “September” moves too slowly, it more than compensates in its depiction of its characters, mirror images of their English counterparts--they dressed for dinner, rode to hounds, spoke in precisely the same sneering, vicious lilt--who increasingly found themselves living displaced lives: Neither Ireland nor England wanted them--and they knew it.

It’s this knowledge of being unwanted--and how these people push on in spite of it--that gives “September” its unsuspecting humanity.

Grade: B