First segment: Nell is married to alcholic Tommy, who is violent and sometimes even beats her. They live in Liverpool and have three children: Maisie, Eileen and Tony. After being drafted to the army, Tony rebels against his dad and even breaks the window with his fists. Tommy becomes sick and lands in a hospital. He returns back home and dies. At Eileen's wedding, the siblings are split between those who wish their father was still there and those who are glad he is dead. Second segment: Eileen and her husband Dave have a baby. Maisie also marries, but their marriages aren't always good. Tony falls and is injured in a construction accident. Tony recovers and marries Rose.
A critically acclaimed independent British film drama, "Distant Voices, Still Lives" is a more bitter than sweet anti-nostalgic and semi-autobiographical depiction of director Terence Davies' childhood, but also the working class in the UK during the 40s and 50s in general. Assembled like a stream-of-consciousness, it goes back-and-forth in time, with the three siblings intermittently having flashbacks of their agonizing relationship with their alcoholic father Tommy (very good Pete Postlethwaite), thereby making the movie seem like a very loose collection of episodes, reminiscent of impressionism. The first half of the film is the best precisely because this tension between the three kids and father is sometimes electrifying. In one such moment, Tony, in his 20s, wearing a military uniform, wants to have a drink with dad sitting in the home, who refuses, so Tony shows him the money he received as severance pay and throws the coins into the fireplace: "That's all I've got. But I wouldn't give you daylight." During the Blitz air raid, several people hide in a bomb shelter, but Tommy sleps one of his little daughters in front of everyone ("Where the bleeding hell have you been?!"), showing heavy-handed negligence and inability to be considerate. After dad becomes sick and lands in hospital, Eileen opens the door and sees him standing there: "I've signed myself out of the hospital! I've walked home." The second segment is weaker, though, and feels rather aimless. It has some poetic moments and a few neat camera drives (70 minutes into the film, Maisie holds the hand of her injured husband on the hospital bed, the camera pans up and looks through the window, and then there is a "time jump" to the mother and the family holding the hand of the injured Tony on the hospital bed), but the dialogue and the events are standard, bland and routine, not managing to ignite a bigger enjoyment or spark out of this material.
Grade:++
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