OCR Text |
Show lies in the fact that she longs to be old so much that she is missing the childhood she should be enjoying. No one in the household is living, is making each moment of life that is left count. All are waiting for death, are living for the moment when Deirdre's time has run out rather than making the time she has valuable. Although this is exactly the idea the director wishes to convey, the general feeling and acting of the film makes this very aspect the uncomfortable part of the film. We are bar-raged bar-raged by speeches flowing with sentimentality, often deliberately deliber-ately pulling at our heart strings. There is far too much of Richard Harris looking pensive and sad while the mother hysterically hys-terically hopes for another doctor. Even Deirdre becomes infected by this malaise, until the idea of people building a house of death rather than life becomes suffocating. Although we sympathise with the parents and the child, although we know that they are going through an emotional hell, instead of involving in-volving ourselves in their plight, we begin to wait for something some-thing to happen. The emotional impact loses ground as we wait for action. Several audience members greeted each new scene with, "Does she die now?' The action of her death, that promise of an active emotional catharsis through a heavy death scene became the focal point of the film rather than the actual emotional involvement sought after right then and there in what was happening to the characters. Instead of being involved in-volved in the film, people were more involved in what might happen later. Suspense was generated when the film cried out for emotional involvement. What with this general failing of the film, the uplifting ending is almost anti-climatic. Everyone learns to cope with the reality of Deirdre's impending death as they celebrate "what will be her last birthday. With the acceptance of her fate, each is ready to begin to live fully each day she has left. Deirdre and her parents realize that "Deirdre Striden is a good idea," that her life need not be useless, for any life is worth something as long as it is lived gratefully. If the audience aud-ience had had better empathy with the emotional trials each character was going through, the film would have ended with the uplift intended. Not only could we sympathise with Deirdre and her parents, but we would realize that we, too, should go out and live life rather than live for the moment we will die. But, instead, we shed a tear at how wonderfully sad it all was, not feeling the elation of the characters. Instead of offering a beginning, the film offers a suspended ending. We almost wish that the film had succumbed to outright morbid sentimentality senti-mentality and given us a wonderfully melodramatic death scene. Deirdre Striden, at the film end, should be alive at last, but instead, she is already a memory. As family entertainment, the film fares better than most. It is a moving and arresting film, offering entertainment for all with some light moments to carry us through. It will probably prob-ably be one of the finer GP films offered this year and should enjoy considerable success. It is because of this that one mourns the failing of the film. Instead of a truly great film we are offered a good film, acceptable for viewing and well presented. It is a film the family can go see and enjoy. It is basically good film, but because it is so well conceived, because it has so many possibilities, we feel that, like Deirdre Striden, it would have been . nice to see it survive, to see it grow old and accomplish its potential. Echoes of a Summer is a good idea, but, like its main character, it dies before it can accomplish anything more than those fleeting moments of life it enjoyed. 8WSII The opening of Echoes of a Summer at the Utah 3 has been backed by a well planned ad campaign, giving the film a boost for audience attendance. Few films in the Salt Lake area are received by lines at the box office in their first week, unless they are big budget films like Cuckoo's Nest that have received re-ceived considerable acclaim prior to their run in Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City is one of the first big cities to view Echoes of A Summer, but it is already guaranteed a long run by its popularity generated by both publicity and personal recommendations. recom-mendations. Almost any critic views GP films with a jaundiced eye, having visions running in their heads of Dean Jones in another stupid situation while waiting for the credits to appear. Take a film that overtly advertises its sentimentality as in Echoes of a Summer, and you are bound to expect another Love Story. But, remarkably, this film proves to be polished and moving with a standard of quality that really is quite high for the GP film genre. The acting in the film belies its small production scale. Each performance is played well, without the flaws often allowed to pass because of the sentimentality of the subject. Often, the story of a film can carry the actors through second rate portrayals. But in Echoes of a Summer, it is the acting that carries us through some very outright sentimentality that could drown the film. Each character is believable, with few instances in-stances of overplaying and melodramatic acting. The weakest moments come in the beginning sections of the film in the portrayal por-trayal of Ruth Striden, the mother, by Lois Nettleton. But once her character begins to grow, her performance stands its ground and evolves from melodrama into realism of the mother's emotional plight. The subject of a 12-year old girl dying of a heart ailment is bound to flounder on the rocks of sentimentality at times. Mostly, it is a question of how often and how blantantly this happens that takes the film from schlock to enjoyable viewing fare. Echoes of a Summer weathers the voyage admirably well, avoiding the cliches for the most part. At times, though, the viewer is well aware of the fact that she is being taken for an emotional ride. But then, with a film subject such as a young person's impending death, the viewer expects this. This is a film in the tradition of entertainment, that relies on sentiment, on a good laugh and a good cry. The weaknesses of the film lie in the exposition of the characters' growth. At the outset of the film, we are viewing the emotional impact of Deirdre's heart ailment on all involved. in-volved. The . mother seeks hope through miracle cure and doctors, while the father seeks hope through the fantasy world he builds his daughter. Both are escaping the hard reality of Deirdre's condition. The only person who seems to be realizing rea-lizing the inevitability of Deirdre's death is Deirdre herself. But the influences of her parents attitudes have made it impossible im-possible for Deirdre to do anything more than cope with the situation. She is resigned to the fact, and a bit bitter. But she, alone, is realistic about it. All she wants is to be able to grow up, but she is, after all, still a child. Her conflict |