Monday, May 9, 2022

The Song of Lunch (2010)

IMDb plot summary: A London publisher recounts a lunchtime reunion with a former lover, in poetic monologue.
Directed by Niall MacCormick. Starring Alan Rickman, Emma Thompson, and Andi Soric.

The Song of Lunch is an hour-long television adaptation of a poem of the same name by Christopher Reid. It tells the story of a man (played by Alan Rickman) meeting an old flame for lunch (played by Emma Thompson). The majority of the spoken dialogue is actually voiceover of the man's internal monologue -- taken, I suspect, directly from the poem, given the nature of the way the words flow. And it FEELS like a poem, the way it's written out. It's wholly different from anything else I've seen recently, and that alone made it worth a watch for me. Rickman crushes it here. Both he and Thompson are experts in the art of showing seething resentment hidden behind a wall of polite British restraint, and that serves them well as the lunch goes rather badly. Sometimes it's difficult to listen to the thoughts in Rickman's character's head -- he's a pretty loathsome, self-centered individual -- but watching him unravel is a fascinating journey. It definitely makes me want to read the poem itself someday, and I'm glad to have seen this short piece.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Song of Lunch > The Misfits
The Song of Lunch < The Black Cat
The Song of Lunch > The River Wild
The Song of Lunch < Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
The Song of Lunch > Mickey Blue Eyes
The Song of Lunch > The Death of Stalin
The Song of Lunch < Wolf
The Song of Lunch > How to Train Your Dragon
The Song of Lunch > Orgazmo
The Song of Lunch > In Search of a Midnight Kiss
The Song of Lunch > There Will Be Blood
The Song of Lunch > Carefree
Final spot: #1147 out of 3579, or 68%.

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