Themes: Mothers and Daughters, Starting Over, Mischievous Children
Main Cast: Phyllida Law, Emma Thompson, Gary Hollywood, Arlene Cockburn, Sheila Reid
Release Year: 1997
Country: UK
Run Time: 106 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Adapted from a stage play by Sharman McDonald, this film marks the directorial debut of British character actor Alan Rickman. Set against a bleak winter landscape of rural Scotland, the story centers around the recently widowed Frances (Emma Thompson) and a visit from her mother, Elspeth (Phyllida Law, Thompson's real-life mother). Elspeth seeks to console Frances, but Frances resists. The mother and daughter have a prickly relationship. While they thrust and parry emotionally, Frances' son Alex (Gary Hollywood) longs for the tomboy Nita (Arlene Cockburn). Two young boys, Tom (Sean Biggerstaff) and Sam (Douglas Murphy), are in the neighborhood looking for adventure. Two older women, Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reed), go to funerals of strangers. The epidosic film eventually ties together all these characters in a surprising way, but the core of the drama is the evolution of the difficult mother-daughter relationship. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Sandra Voe - Chloe; Douglas Murphy - Sam; Sean Biggerstaff - Tom
Credit
Alan J. Wands - Associate Producer, Joyce Nettles - Casting, Steve Clark-Hall - Co-producer, Joan Bergin - Costume Designer, Christopher Newman - First Assistant Director, Alan Rickman - Director, Scott Thomas - Editor, Ruth Vitale - Executive Producer, Jonathan Weisgal - Executive Producer, Emmanuel Clarke - Executive Producer, Michael Kamen - Composer (Music Score), Robin Cameron Don - Production Designer, Seamus Mcgarvey - Cinematographer, Edward R. Pressman - Producer, Ken Lipper - Producer, Colin Nicholson - Sound/Sound Designer, Alan Rickman - Screenwriter, Sharman MacDonald - Screenwriter, Sharman MacDonald - Play Author
Michael Kamen's soundtrack to The Winter Guest is an appropriately sentimental collection of instrumentals that mirrors the relationship between the mother and daughter in the film. ~ Rodney Batdorf, All Music Guide
Michael Kamen (Producer), Michael Kamen (Performer), Elizabeth Fraser (Performer), Stephen McLaughlin (Engineer), Robert Townson (Executive Producer), Mark Kaufman (Coordination), Robert Urband (Coordination), David Harrod (Piano)
Set in Scotland on one cold winter's day, The Winter Guest focuses on 8 people; a mother and daughter, Elspeth (Phyllida Law) and Frances (Emma Thompson); two young boys skipping school, Sam (Douglas Murphy) and Tom (Sean Biggerstaff); two old women who frequently go to strangers' funerals, Chloe (Sandra Voe) and Lily (Sheila Reid); and two teenagers Nita (Arlene Cockburn) and Alex (Gary Hollywood).
The plot of the story is interactions between two young boys, two teenagers, a mother, a grandmother, and two elderly women. It can be said though that the main actor in the film is frozen sea, and the rest of the stories are only surreal background to it.
History
The film is based on Sharman MacDonald's warmly-received play, premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse (in the Quarry studio theatre, 23 January to 18 February 1995) before transferring to the Almeida Theatre in London (14 March to 15 April 1995).
Like the film it was also directed by Alan Rickman, starring Phyllida Law, Sandra Voe, John Wark & Sheila Reid, with Sian Thomas in the role of Frances, played in the film by Emma Thompson.
Reception
The film was met warmly by critics, with Thompson winning an award at the Venice Film Festival. But it was "Robin Don's remarkable set...that grabs you before anything else" (Michael Billington in The Guardian, 25 January 1995): a house interior, promenade and snowbound seascape, which won Don the Design award in the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards in 1995.
