LOVING GHOST SEEMS HAUNTINGLY FAMILIAR

By John Anderson

(Newsday, 1991)

* * TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY (U) Sort of a "Ghost" for Anglophiles, with decent performances. Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman, Bill Patterson, Stella Maris. Produced by Robert Cooper. Written and directed by Anthony Minghella.

According to "Truly Madly, Deeply," one actually can cry loud enough to wake the dead.

Nina (Juliet Stevenson) is hearing voices - a voice, actually: her dead husband's. He's even speaking in Spanish, something he apparently learned beyond the grave. She's living in a rat-infested London flat, and her life is slipping into mere existence. Her friends are concerned. Her analyst is concerned. The audience is concer . . . well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

Nina's grief is all-consuming and she possesses the full-blown outrage of the victimized. During one therapy session (there are several) she exhibits such despair, as well as anger at her deceased husband, that it's almost frightening. And while most of "Truly, Madly, Deeply," can be taken for exactly what it looks like, a light comedy with an otherworldly plot, there's something else happening with Nina that isn't exactly pleasant.

That something else is about beauty: how we define it, how we perceive it and how we perceive ourselves. Nina is a sweet woman surrounded by men who love her: her Polish superintendent, Titus (Christopher Rozycki), her boss at the language lab, Sandy (Bill Patterson), and her exterminator. But in Juliet Stevenson's handsome-but-less-than-pretty face, we see a woman who thinks she was playing out of her league all along. How will she ever find a love to match Jamie (Alan Rickman, looking a good deal more handsome than he did in "Die Hard" or "January Man")? It's an aspect of the story that isn't pursued with any vigor by director / writer Anthony Minghella, but that's in keeping with his treatment of the entire film.

Jamie was a world-class cellist who dropped dead after a sore throat. When Nina's sister, Claire (Deborah Findlay) presumes to ask whether Nina will consider selling Jamie's cello to her son, Nina reacts badly, although it's a good thing she does.

While Nina is playing her piano one night, Jamie begins to accompany her. She think she's hearing him play in her head, but no: He's back. The quality of her grief is responsible for this miracle, apparently; the answers are vague, as is Jamie's account of the afterlife. Minghella perhaps wanted to avoid trouble with fundamentalists, which would explain another issue the film avoids: Is there sex after death? They never really say.

What we do know is that life goes on. Nina's friend Maura (Stella Maris) is having a baby, and it helps revive Nina's spirit. When the two get in the middle of someone else's altercation in a restaurant, a stranger named Mark (Michael Maloney) turns a book (it's difficult to make out, but it happens to be Dostoyevsky's "The Idiot") into a bird, thus defusing the argument. It's clear that Nina and Mark are going to get together, especially when she accepts a date without even thinking about the small problem she has at home. Jamie, meanwhile, is inviting his pals from the netherworld over to watch videos in the living room. Then they take over the bedroom. Then they start redecorating the house. Although the ghosts have chased out the rats, Nina's not sure she wasn't better off before.

"Truly, Madly, Deeply," has a certain sweetness about it, but, unless we're making a grave error, you won't really care if the characters live or die.

 

 

Originally on KelClancy's Page