One of Finney’s finest performances is his work in “A Man of No
Importance,” a charming film, set in Ireland, that opens today in
several Bay Area theaters.
Finney plays a middle-aged bus conductor in 1960s Dublin, a city
that, even 30 years ago, had barely entered the libertine world of
the 20th century. That sense of a Dublin whose gray skies match its
veil of Victorian strictures is captured affectionately in “A Man of
No Importance.” The fine cast includes Brenda Fricker (“My Left
Foot”) and Tara Fitzgerald (“Bitter Moon”).
REMOVING MASKS
The movie, billed as a comedy and directed by the Indian Briton
Suri Krishnamma, is about people taking off their masks — or, in
some cases, just staying put. And that’s where Finney’s amazing gifts
as an actor come into play.
He plays a bus conductor, Alfie, who lives the life of an
ordinary working stiff but whose soul, seething with vitality and
longing — much of it fueled by a love of literature and theater —
won’t let him be ordinary. And yet he lives in terror of revealing
his true face and risking being thought a freak.
The role was a plum for any actor, but only one like Finney
could make it extraordinary, making Alfie so funny and so
heartrendingly human that you feel befriended just sitting there in a
movie
Music Search engine gives you an opportunity to find lots of free mp3 downloads. As I Lay Dying free mp3 download. Explore large collection of free music.
theater.
And the other characters in this wonderfully offbeat film — a
young woman named Adele (Fitzgerald); Alfie’s sister, Lily (Fricker),
with whom he lives; and his best friend, Baldy (David Kelly) — make
you feel the same way.
Alfie is a zealot about Oscar Wilde, and he could easily be an
insufferable bore about it. But Alfie doesn’t worry about that. He
charms his small world with a Wildean essence that he has lovingly
distilled — every day his passengers get huge doses of Wilde
quotations and witticisms, which Alfie delivers with sonorous
theatricality.
Most of the passengers are captivated by Alfie’s flowery, friendly
eccentricities rather than Wilde’s phrases — and besides, they’re a
captive audience on a bus that is part of the prosaic routine of
their daily lives. They relish the nutty conductor’s hamminess.
The convivial, neighborly world Alfie inhabits has barely a clue
about what Wilde signifies, other than highfalutin language and
something about theater — they love “The Importance of Being
Earnest.” The passengers, his friends, even his sister seem
oblivious to the fact that Wilde was a homosexual or that he served a
famous sentence, on account of being gay, in Britain’s Reading Gaol.
And nobody even blushes when Alfie calls the handsome young bus
driver (Rufus Sewell of “Masterpiece Theatre’s” “Middlemarch”) by
a pet name, Bosie. They’re not remotely aware that Bosie was the
nickname of Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas, son of the Marquis of
Queensbury, who brought charges against the famous Irish dramatist
(almost exactly 100 years ago today).
When Alfie decides to mount an amateur community theater
production of Wilde’s racy, and once-banned, play “Salome,” the
film opens up delicious comic possibilities and poignant drama as
people shed their masks while also delving into the artifice of
theater.
Imbued with the grandiose spirit of Wilde, but with no money or
professional help, Alfie casts the play from his bus
passengers. His butcher landlord (Michael Gambon) is tickled by the
prospect of playing wicked King Herod — until he discovers the
sordid themes of “Salome.”
MEETING HIS MATCH
A young woman (Fitzgerald) who boards the bus one day immediately
captivates Alfie as ideal to play the lead. But nobody can see that
Alfie’s interest is entirely theatrical. In one of the film’s most
touching moments, Alfie and his Salome go on an arranged date — his
sister and others are excited that perhaps he has finally met his
perfect match.
Delightfully comic — and the funniest moments are rich in meaning
– “A Man of No Importance” is laced with memorable scenes. In the
parish auditorium Alfie has been given for rehearsals, the Oscar
Wilde wannabe struggles to
turn his ragtag actors into grand stage figures. One is a drunk,
another objects to the way lines are to be read, a costumer
mistakenly has sent gowns and helmets that belong to a Wagnerian
opera.
Not every detail of this film is perfect. Some segments come off
as stagey or a little flat, but not by any fault of the actors.
In the interest of preserving surprises in this warm, lovely
movie, suffice it to say that Alfie learns hard, brutal lessons when
he decides to play the character he most longs to be in life. You’re
never sure, in the end, how much hope there is for him, but you go
away believing that with a bit of luck and love, an ordinary man may
finally know truths about the capacity of humans to care.