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Eternal Beauty Reviews

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2022

Eternal Beauty gets the balance right, portraying (Jane's) viewpoint as a surreal and scary world of whispers and fridges with dismembered limbs. However, Jane herself is always sympathetic, a woman trying her best to make her way through a dark place

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2022

Craig Roberts' heartfelt indie is more than just good looks...the director blends stunning visuals with scenes of emotional intensity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 23, 2021

The performance by Sally Hawkins as an English woman living with schizophrenia helps to better communicate what it's like to live with mental illness.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Feb 17, 2021

It's not a perfect film by any means and definitely not for all audiences, but there is plenty in it to appreciate, including Roberts's good intentions.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 1, 2021

Eternal Beauty is full of extremely talented people who aren't quite sure what they're doing.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2020

A committed performance by Sally Hawkins drives this well-intentioned British drama about mental illness, even if the ambition outweighs the execution.

Full Review | Oct 9, 2020

Empathetic, brutal and often funny...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2020

While the storyline and message are not solid across the board, Eternal Beauty is nonetheless an enjoyable film with admirable intentions, elevated by the sensitive work of Hawkins and her supporting cast.

Preserve the mystery or examine the motives, but showing the same mistakes made over and over again and expecting emotional resonance feels like the definition of inanity.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 8, 2020

The tone is darkly comedic, and that's the thing that makes it difficult. It's also the thing that makes it special. But the balancing act is so strange...not wholly successful but it is trying something.

Full Review | Oct 8, 2020

As a visual and audio experience, Eternal Beauty is simply stunning.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2020

Sally Hawkins gives a riveting performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2020

In the end... it's mainly the Sally Hawkins show and she encapsulates the bittersweet nature that Eternal Beauty possesses.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Oct 7, 2020

Roberts keeps easy conclusions to a minimum, refusing to box Jane into territory verging on uplifting or inspirational. His approach to her mental state is a complex one, with medications easing Jane's pain but not ending it.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Oct 7, 2020

A frothy comedy about laid-back people.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Oct 7, 2020

This certainly isn't comfort cinema, but it's impressive filmmaking with a cathartic kick.

Hawkins is masterly, as always, in a role that demands she calibrate her energy differently in almost every scene.

Full Review | Oct 7, 2020

A commendable performance from Sally Hawkins once again employs an empathetic nuance which assists in an authentic portrayal of what it feels like from her character's perspective.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 7, 2020

A completely original way to deal with mental health issues.

Full Review | Oct 5, 2020

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‘eternal beauty’: film review | london 2019.

Sally Hawkins (‘The Shape of Water’) stars as a woman with paranoid schizophrenia and a dysfunctional family to boot in 'Eternal Beauty,' the feature helming debut of actor-turned-director Craig Roberts (‘Submarine’).

By Leslie Felperin

Leslie Felperin

Contributing Film Critic

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Creating a highly unusual and welcome look at schizophrenia that neither demonizes those with the condition nor patronizes them as suffering martyrs, the British drama Eternal Beauty pulls off a tricky feat. Sally Hawkins stars as a fragile but also irrepressibly resilient woman who hears voices and has paranoid episodes, her symptoms sometimes aggravated by her mostly vile, self-centered family. The feature helming debut of Welsh actor turned writer-director Craig Roberts (who played Hawkins’ son in the indie hit Submarine ), this visually stylized work borrows buckets of quirk from the likes of Wes Anderson (design sensibility), Michel Gondry (in-camera trickery) and Paul Thomas Anderson (general gestalt), but that’s okay. A strong supporting cast that includes David Thewlis, Alice Lowe, Billy Piper, Penelope Wilton and suddenly-in-everything young actor Morfydd Clark (see also Saint Maud , The Personal History of David Copperfield ) fills out the bouquet around Hawkins’ hothouse-intense and many-petalled core performance.

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‘Eternal Beauty’ review: Craig Roberts’ heartfelt indie is more than just good looks

Rising director blends stunning visuals with scenes of emotional intensity

W hat if schizophrenia was actually a secret superpower? That’s the thinking behind Eternal Beauty – a heartfelt, eccentric British indie that takes a welcome sideways look at mental health. Directed by Craig Roberts ( Submarine , Just Jim ) and featuring an extraordinary lead performance from Sally Hawkins ( The Shape Of Water , Paddington ) spanning comedy, horror, social drama and high fantasy, it’s a rare film that juggles many ideas but still manages to keep some kind of balance.

Read more: Craig Roberts: “It’s OK to not feel normal”

Hawkins is Jane, a woman whose state of mind spirals out of control after she’s left at the altar – now shuffling through a medicated haze where voices speak from the walls and invisible spiders stare back with human faces, she lives almost entirely in her own orbit. Wonderfully though, it’s not Jane who has the problem. Surrounded by a truly awful family, Jane’s world might be spinning around her but she’s the only one in the film who knows how to hold on to what matters.

Her mum (Penelope Wilton, from After Life ) seems ashamed of her, her sister Alice (Alice Lowe, Prevenge and Sightseers ) won’t stand up for her and her other sister, Nicola (Billie Piper, just as fierce as she is in I Hate Suzie ), takes a perverse pleasure in being as cruel as possible.

Jane’s secret power comes from seeing the world the way she wants to see it, but as she comes off her meds she starts slowly remembering how bad things used to be, with Saint Maud ’s Morfydd Clark playing Jane as a young girl growing up in the most dysfunctional family flashbacks imaginable. Things get easier when fellow schizophrenic Mike (David Thewlis – Harry Potter, Fargo ) turns up and the pair start skipping through a sweet folksy romance that no one else seems to understand, but it doesn’t take long before her family starts trying to mess that up for her too.

There’s a whole lot of ideas packed into 90 minutes – swerving from offbeat comedy to raw-edged social drama as Jane’s world vibrates on and off kilter – and the film is just as crowded with visual ideas as it is with tonal shifts. Somehow though, Roberts makes it all work.

His directorial debut, Just Jim (2015), caught flak for borrowing too much from Richard Ayoade’s Submarine (2010), and there are still remnants of that film to be found here in the deadpan humour and retro vintage styling – but Eternal Beauty feels very much like its own animal. Confident and mature in its design; with a real eye for texture and colour, the film feels like it was made by someone with something to say.

More importantly, Sally Hawkins is there to say it. The film is filled with rich performances (Thewlis and Piper, especially), but Hawkins brings so much emotional honestly to Jane that she always feels like the most authentic part of all the unreality – grounding the whole film with one of the standout roles of her career. Of all the great on-screen representations of mental health throughout the years, it’s still rare to see an actor bring so much joy and so much pain to a character without ever feeling false.

Too in love with the way it looks to wallow too long in kitchen-sink drama, and too hard-hitting to feel like the high-flying Hollywood fantasy it sometimes wants to be, Eternal Beauty ends up being everything at once – an all or nothing psychodrama that revels in its own excess. It might be a bit messy, conflicted and chaotic at times, but that’s sort of the whole point.

Director: Craig Roberts
Starring: Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper
Released: October 2 (in cinemas and on demand)

Eternal Beauty

After Jane falls into a state of despair over her schizophrenia, she encounters new sources of love and life with surprising results. After Jane falls into a state of despair over her schizophrenia, she encounters new sources of love and life with surprising results. After Jane falls into a state of despair over her schizophrenia, she encounters new sources of love and life with surprising results.

Craig Roberts
Sally Hawkins
Morfydd Clark
Robert Pugh
38 User reviews
110 Critic reviews
71 Metascore
3 wins & 7 nominations

Top cast 22

Young Nicola

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Trivia Filmed during the 2018 British Isles heat wave. June in Wales in 2018 was the warmest ever recorded.

Nicola : Have you... It stinks in here. Have you washed?

Jane : Yeah, loads.

Nicola : You need to wash.

Jane : Yeah, you need to fucking shut it.

Soundtracks Silent Night Written by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr Performed by The London Metropolitan Orchestra

User reviews 38

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Feb 9, 2021
How long is Eternal Beauty? Powered by Alexa
October 2, 2020 (United Kingdom)
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Runtime 1 hour 35 minutes

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Eternal Beauty Review

02 Oct 2020

Eternal Beauty

A step up from his directorial debut Just Jim , Craig Roberts ’ second feature delivers a clear-eyed, compassionate view of a mental illness often botched by movies: schizophrenia. Anchored around a terrific Sally Hawkins as Jane, a fragile but functioning woman suffering from paranoid episodes, Eternal Beauty allies strong performances with imaginative direction, channelling the likes of Wes Anderson and Michel Gondry to bring Jane’s altered states to life.

This innovative filmmaking approach is refreshingly applied to bland, grey municipal housing units. Having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic following a breakdown (we see snatches of the past, with rising star Morfydd Clark playing young Jane being jilted on her wedding day), Jane lives a mostly self-sufficient life in a small apartment decked out with vintage ephemera (production designer Tim Dickel has a field day with bric-à-brac) and spending time with a mostly tough, uncaring family: browbeaten dad Dennis (Robert Pugh), pass-ag mum Vivian ( Penelope Wilton ) and mean-girl sister Nicola ( Billie Piper ). The sole point of kindness in her family comes from her understanding sister Alice ( Alice Lowe ).

The film shares some quirky DNA with Richard Ayoade’s _Submarine_.

The story rises up a level when Jane stops taking her medication. While there are unwanted side effects (she starts seeing huge spiders crawling everywhere), she begins to feel more alive, a sensation enhanced when she meets aspiring singer-songwriter Mike ( David Thewlis ), also suffering with mental health issues. At this point Eternal Beauty enters its most entertaining stretch as the pair enjoy an almost teenage rush of first love, complete with bad, awkward sex. It’s such a happy, joyous relationship, you know it can’t last.

In bringing Jane’s world to life, the film shares some quirky DNA with Richard Ayoade’s Submarine , which starred Roberts and had Hawkins playing his mother. The skewed camera angles, vivid colour palette and playing with focus (it was shot on 35mm film) are employed to put you right inside Jane’s headspace. But Eternal Beauty ’s ace in the hole remains Hawkins. Smartly interpreting Roberts’ sensitive writing (it’s also funnier than it sounds), she is superb, nuanced but never showy, delivering a complex performance filled with intelligent choices and empathy. It’s another top-tier turn that, along with Happy-Go-Lucky , Blue Jasmine , Maudie and The Shape Of Water , must put her in line for national-treasure status sometime soon.

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Eternal Beauty review: A more nuanced take on mental illness than most films are capable of

Sally hawkins’s enthralling performance doesn’t rely on the same old tropes – it stays truthful to psychological reality , article bookmarked.

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Dir: Craig Roberts. Starring: Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton, Alice Lowe, Morfydd Clark. 15 cert, 94 mins

A Sally Hawkins performance feels like an invitation. The actor’s so present, so enthralling, that it’s as if she’s beckoned the audience to climb inside another self with her and have a look around. Her latest role, in Craig Roberts ’s dark comedy Eternal Beauty, sees her play Jane, a woman living with paranoid schizophrenia. Hawkins doesn’t communicate mental illness through the usual cues – Jane is to be grasped and understood through small, mundane actions. It’s in the way she roughly tears off the crusts of her sandwich and throws them to the birds, taking half of the bread slice with it. Maybe that’s why she looks so thin, her hands swallowed up by the ends of her jumper. Jane is a woman of nervous giggles and laboured breathing, of nails digging into the space between her thumb and forefinger.

Voices drift out from the radio and fill her head with destructive thoughts. A telephone keeps ringing – the man on the other end of the line demands her devotion. But these are hallucinations. They are the ragged howls of her trauma, echoing forward from the day she was abandoned at the altar. She was young then (played in flashbacks by Morfydd Clark), naive and hopeful in equal measure. Now she wanders, ghost-like, between the houses of her heartless, self-pitying family. Her mother (Penelope Wilton) stuffs her mind with guilt. Her father (Robert Pugh) looks on, unmoved. One sister, Alice ( Alice Lowe ), is married to a man (Paul Hilton) with a puckered mouth, like he’s sucking an infinite lemon. The other, Nicola ( Billie Piper ), wears a perma-scowl. They treat Jane like a child. When she says her new medication makes her sleepy, her mother snaps back: “Well, you need to wake up.”

Roberts, who had a breakout role in Richard Ayoade’s Submarine (2010) and has since ventured into directing, marries personal cinephilia with a regard for past collaborators. There’s a stark sense of isolation here that harkens back to Ayoade’s work – scenes take place in rooms that are half-empty, but filled with long, hungry shadows. Yet the film, shot entirely on 35mm, has the look of muted Technicolour, like a faded Tinseltown fantasy. When Jane falls for Mike (David Thewlis), someone also chewed up and spat out by the mental health system, they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic. The dramatic zooms and twirling violins have a touch of Hitchcock to them, but only in the sense that mental illness can sometimes feel like living inside your own personal horror film.

When Jane (Sally Hawkins) falls for Mike (David Thewlis), they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic

But Roberts isn’t interested in empty homage, nor is his film ever unfaithful to the psychological reality of its central character. Jane was inspired by one of his relatives; he wrote the film’s screenplay after realising that all the warmth and vibrancy of her inner life, which walked hand-in-hand with her illness, was its own kind of “superpower”. His film is funny, but in a particular way – like how the world seems laughable when your life is falling apart. Jane, at one point, feels compelled to get up and leave a dinner party because she doesn’t like the coriander on her carrots. A hypnosis recording, which sets the scene, offers the advice: “Don’t fight depression. Make friends with it.” There’s a nugget of truth there – as Eternal Beauty shows, we might not be able to vanquish our demons, but we can try to make peace with them. It’s a far more nuanced, evolved take on mental illness than most films are capable of.

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‘Eternal Beauty’ Review: Sally Hawkins Plays It to the Hilt in an Uneven Vision of Paranoid Schizophrenia

Craig Roberts' oddball comedy ambitiously tries to portray mental illness from the inside out, but despite a fine cast, it doesn't hold together.

By Guy Lodge

Film Critic

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“What if there’s no such thing as happiness, only moments of not being depressed?” So asks Jane, the paranoid schizophrenic heroine of “ Eternal Beauty ,” and it’s one of the more thought-provoking lines in Craig Roberts ‘ earnest but ungainly sophomore feature — a film that itself stumbles upon moments of clarity without ever finding a happy or consistent groove. Making a comedy about mental illness is a tall enough order without the tricky tonal embellishments, filched from influences as disparate as Paul Thomas Anderson and Terry Gilliam, that Roberts has attempted on an otherwise slender script. With an assist from Sally Hawkins ‘ valiantly committed lead performance, the result occasionally summons the genuinely disoriented perspective of an unstable protagonist, but more often, it’s the filmmaking that seems to spiral out of control.

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Explaining her paranoid schizophrenia to a bemused acquaintance, Jane offers this droll observation: “It means I think you’re out to kill me, as opposed to schizophrenic, where I’d be out to kill you.” She’s not averse to making wry jokes about her illness. It’s the best way to deflect the abuse she’s obviously received in spades since being diagnosed in her early twenties, after being ditched at the altar and retreating into an incoherent state of trauma.

Extensive, unenlightened electroshock therapy has left her a frail, shambling ghost of her former self — a point that actor-turned-director Roberts (best known for his lead turn in Richard Ayoade’s “Submarine”) underlines by having “Saint Maud” star Clark play the younger Jane in multiple flashbacks. The physical contrast between Clark’s green, tulip-like rigidity and Hawkins’ transformatively gnarled, stooped body language and teeth-chattering, almost self-echoing delivery couldn’t be more pronounced.

But sanity is a relative concept in this strange, distorted pocket of British suburbia, in which even the period is hard to identify — thanks to the smeary pastels of Kit Fraser’s lensing (shot on Kodak film that gives every appearance of having yellowed and warped with age) and Tim Dickel’s grimy-kitsch midcentury production design. It’s hard to tell from scene to scene if we’re in the real world that drove Jane to the edge, or simply in her off-kilter vision of it.

Either way, hardly anybody in it seems altogether together. Her mother (Wilton) is portrayed as a vindictive shrew who may or may not have imagined a terminal illness, her father (Robert Pugh) seems stunned into catatonic submission, while the younger of her two sisters, Nicola (Piper), is a spiteful gold-digger determined to ape Jane’s schizophrenic symptoms for welfare benefits. Does the act mask mental health issues of her own? Most likely. Only Jane’s kindly, patient older sister Alice (ensemble standout Lowe) might pass for “normal” in this glumly topsy-turvy world — though as she counsels Jane, “You don’t want to be normal, it’s hard work.”

Lowe’s gentle, attentive underplaying is a lifeline of humanity in a film that goes big on loud, freewheeling affectation, both in performance style and formal gimmickry. Jane’s irregular episodes and breakdowns trigger cacophonous surges in score and sound design, along with a succession of variable sight gags — some of which seem plausibly conjured by an unraveled mind, and some of which (in particular macabre series of visions at a Halloween party) play more as forced directorial quirk.

Roberts’ original screenplay, meanwhile, doesn’t offer quite enough character detail or progression to hold this intermittently striking jumble of visual, sonic and atmospheric ideas together. Midway through, Jane’s trudging progress through life is disrupted by a sweet soul connection with fellow psychiatric patient Mike (a porkpie-hatted David Thewlis, exuding a ratty boho charm), and a flare of coy misfit romance suddenly lifts the film into another dimension — until it doesn’t, and a lentil-soupy depressive fog descends once more. There’s something honest here about the way mental health doesn’t follow a clean dramatic arc of betterment and catharsis. Yet even that eventually feels obscured in the juggling labors of a film too eager to amuse, rather than simply observe.

Reviewed online, San Sebastian, Sept. 29, 2020. (In London Film Festival.) MPAA rating: R. Running time: 94 MIN.

Production: A British Film Institute, Welsh Government, Ffilm Cymru Wales presentation in association with Wellcome of a Cliff Edge Pictures production. (International sales: Bankside Films, London.) Producer: Adrian Bate. Executive producers: Mark Burke, Adam Partridge, Emma Duffy, Craig Roberts, Pip Broughton, Paul Higgins, Stephen Kelliher, Hilary Davis.
Crew: Director, screenplay: Craig Roberts. Camera: Kit Fraser. Editor: Stephen Haren. Music: Michael Price.
With: Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Alice Lowe, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton, Morfydd Clark, Robert Pugh, Paul Hilton, Spencer Deere

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Eternal beauty, common sense media reviewers.

Intense mental illness drama has dark humor, salty language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The value of family and importance of supporting t

Jane can be warm, gentle, and well-meaning, at tim

Parent hits their teenage offspring. Character scr

Character clenches their fist to show being turned

Several instances of "s--t" and variants of "f--k.

Multiple scenes have characters drinking alcohol,

Positive Messages

The value of family and importance of supporting the ones you love is a key theme, although it's largely expressed by revealing the shocking and negative impact of most of the characters' lack of compassion or empathy. Mental illness is portrayed in a hopeful and non-stigmatized manner, without shying away from some of the challenges it can cause. The message that "normal is boring" is delivered with a certain irony, but also with positive connotations.

Positive Role Models

Jane can be warm, gentle, and well-meaning, at times showing inner strength amid her paranoid schizophrenia. She can also be irrational, unreasonable, and out of control. The people around her show very few positive character traits, although her sister Alice clearly loves and cares for her, doing her best under difficult circumstances.

Violence & Scariness

Parent hits their teenage offspring. Character screams for help as they are dragged out of their house by psychiatric nurses. They are later restrained while in hospital. Character receives electric shock therapy.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Character clenches their fist to show being turned on. Characters kiss and later have sex, fully clothed. One sex scene sees a character straddling another -- they are naked from the waist up, but the scene is filmed from behind.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Several instances of "s--t" and variants of "f--k." Also "bulls--t," "silly buggers," "bloody," and obscene finger gestures.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Multiple scenes have characters drinking alcohol, either at a dinner table at home, or in a pub, or restaurant. No explicitly drunken behavior is shown. Infrequent cigarette smoking. Several instances of characters taking prescription drugs.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Eternal Beauty is a brilliant, yet intense, British drama about mental illness with some distressing scenes and strong language but also some comedic moments. Sally Hawkins plays Jane, a woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The movie offers a no-holds-barred insight into how mental illness was treated -- both medically and culturally -- in the 1970s and 1980s. Jane is seen being dragged out of her house by psychiatric nurses and there are distressing scenes involving shock therapy. Darkly comic, with warm and tender moments dotted throughout, the story is nevertheless bleak, shining an unforgiving light on a family struggling to cope. There is bad language throughout, including variants of "f--k" and "s--t." There also brief sex scenes, although these are not explicit nor do they feature any graphic nudity. With powerful themes around anxiety and depression, it is best-suited to emotionally mature teens. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

ETERNAL BEAUTY tells the story of Jane ( Sally Hawkins ), a middle-aged woman who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia after being jilted on her wedding day many years ago. Now living semi-independently, she relies on medication to help control her mood swings, hallucinations, and tendency to hear voices. When she meets Mike ( David Thewlis ), a musician with his own mental health challenges, she begins to see life differently and decides to stop taking her pills. But this new romance, as well as difficult relationships with her dysfunctional family, may not be what Jane needs to bring stability and happiness to her life.

Is It Any Good?

Raw, imaginative, and eye-opening, this darkly comic drama is a haunting insight into mental illness in the 1970s and 1980s -- though you can't help wondering how much has changed since then. Hawkins gives an incredible performance as paranoid schizophrenic Jane, as warm and well-meaning as she is unreasonable and unnerving. With a supporting cast including a vile Penelope Wilton , an odious Billie Piper , and an anguished Alice Lowe , we know we are in safe -- if somber -- hands.

As the drama switches between real life and Jane's troubled imagination, we're often left wondering how much of this disturbing experience is reality or fantasy. But while it may be painful to watch, there is a sensitivity to the storytelling that is testament to writer-director Craig Roberts ' talent -- having the intuition to be both restrained and outlandish. He even manages some moments of tenderness and levity. It's hard to pull off humor amid such a bleak tale, but much of the comedy -- though dark and often steeped in irony -- is well-judged. You won't walk away feeling uplifted, but you will have seen some glimmers of hope in an otherwise tragic tale of tortured souls.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the way mental illness is depicted in Eternal Beauty . How is Jane's illness treated -- both medically and culturally? Did it seem a realistic portrayal to you? How do you think things have changed since the 1970s and 1980s, when the movie was set?

Talk about the strong language in the movie. Does it seem necessary or excessive? What does it contribute to the movie?

How is sex portrayed in the movie. Is it affectionate? Respectful? Parents, talk to your teens about your own values regarding sex and relationships.

Although many of the film's characters are flawed, they are also realistic. Are any of them good role models? Did you relate to any of them?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 2, 2020
On DVD or streaming : October 2, 2020
Cast : David Thewlis , Billie Piper , Sally Hawkins
Director : Craig Roberts
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Samuel Goldwyn Films
Genre : Drama
Run time : 95 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language and some sexuality
Last updated : June 20, 2023

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Eternal Beauty makes perfect use of Sally Hawkins’ tremulous energy

Craig Roberts’ new feature focuses on mental illness

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Guillermo del Toro once said that when he casts a movie, he casts eyes . The main eyes in his Best Picture winner The Shape of Water belong to Sally Hawkins, and they’re impossible to confuse with anyone else’s. There’s a warmth to her face that’s used well in films like Paddington and Happy-Go-Lucky , but there’s a brittleness to her features, too. Her forehead always seems furrowed in sadness or concern, even when she’s smiling, as if she could break down at any moment. Her latest role, as the lead in Craig Roberts’ Eternal Beauty , takes full advantage of that dangerous, fragile quality.

Hawkins stars as Jane, a woman struggling with schizophrenia and depression. Her visits to her doctor, who reproaches her for saying she’s “doing fine” instead of “doing better,” are fruitless, and her medication isn’t making her feel any better. Her family — her mother Vivian (Penelope Wilton) and her sisters Alice (Alice Lowe) and Nicola (Billie Piper) — provide varying degrees of support. Only Alice, who is estranged from their passive-aggressive mother, offers any sort of refuge, driving Jane places and having her over for dinner with Alice’s husband and young son.

Through flashbacks, it’s revealed that as a young woman (played by Morfydd Clark), Jane was abandoned at the altar. Her heartbreak seems to have been the catalyst for her breakdown, though other memories make it clear that it was just one among many stressors. Even in the present day, Jane imagines that her ex-fiancé is trying to reach her to apologize and pledge his everlasting love. But the arrival of a new man in her life signals a change in the status quo.

Roberts communicates Jane’s state of mind through bright primary colors, as new love and her decision to stop (then eventually resume) taking her medication affect how the world feels to her. As she falls in love with Mike (David Thewlis), the world becomes vibrant and fresh, rather than stolid and pallid, but the presence of color doesn’t always signify positive emotions — Jane’s world turns red during moments of anguish and stress.

To that end, Eternal Beauty feels a tad like a Wes Anderson movie in how carefully considered and bordering on twee the aesthetics are, especially as Roberts manipulates parts of Jane’s apartment as though pulling apart a theater set. Those theatrics are dazzling, and compelling in the case of Roberts’ color-coding, but they also feel facile in relation to the film’s core story about dealing with mental illness.

As the screenwriter, Roberts doesn’t seem to know what he wants to say about taking medication as a way to manage mental illness. The bent of the story reduces it to a negative. When Jane is off her medication, she sees spiders crawling up and down the walls — or so she says, since the hallucinations don’t have much effect on her ability to remain calm. But she’s also much more lively in her day-to-day, compared to her dispassionate response to the world when she is taking her pills. There’s also a strange sense of romanticization around the way Jane seems to be the only character who sees the truth of what’s happening around her. (The fact that Alice’s husband is cheating on her, for instance.) But the film excels in Roberts’ portrayal of a familial history of mental illness, as Vivian’s bursts of mean-spiritedness suggest that the matriarch is struggling with mental illness herself, and a late twist makes it clear that it runs in the family genes.

Eternal Beauty ’s success ultimately comes down to the strength of the film’s cast. Hawkins is masterly, as always, in a role that demands she calibrate her energy differently in almost every scene. When she suffers a particularly bad emotional blow and collapses to the floor, clutching her chest and repeatedly wailing, “Ow,” the idea that emotional pain could be so physically felt goes without question. And Clark, as Hawkins’ younger self, doesn’t bear much physical resemblance to Hawkins, but nails her tremulous energy. Wilton, Piper, and Lowe play off of that fragility skillfully, building out a coherent family unit.

But the film is, in the end, Hawkins’ to own. Her eyes — and her posture, her voice, her jittery movements — defy any show-stealing, and lend a solidity to a film that might be a little flimsy otherwise. Her vulnerability balances the occasionally otherworldly quality of the film’s visuals, helping it all coalesce into a striking portrait of a woman’s attempt to enjoy being alive.

Eternal Beauty is on VOD and in theaters now.

ETERNAL BEAUTY: Sally Hawkins Does It Again

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“What if there’s no such thing as happiness, only moments of not being depressed?” So asks the schizophrenic protagonist of Eternal Beauty , the sophomore feature from Welsh actor-turned-director Craig Roberts. A darkly funny portrait of the agony and ecstasy of mental illness, with a hearty side of familial dysfunction, the film thrives courtesy of some inventive visual storytelling and yet another transformative performance from Sally Hawkins , the queen mother of lovable oddballs everywhere.

Family Matters

Jane’s family, including her emotionally abusive mother Vivian ( Penelope Wilton ) and her sisters Alice ( Alice Lowe ) and Nicola ( Billie Piper ), all have different ways of dealing with Jane’s behavior; Alice is overprotective to a fault, Nicola is obsessed with getting her own diagnosis so that she can get health benefits, and Vivian harasses her about her appearance, her flat, and anything else that might make her, Vivian, feel better about her own life. And while Jane’s actions do occasionally cross the line from harmlessly odd to potentially dangerous — she is seemingly obsessed with trying to kidnap Alice’s son, her nephew, and even tells him he is actually her kid — for the most part, she’s content with her state of being. The voices she hears in her head keep her from being lonely, and her awareness that she is different means she lacks self-consciousness in a way that is almost enviable.

Jane’s life changes when she meets Mike ( David Thewlis ) a bipolar musician who recognizes her from their childhood in a doctor’s waiting room and comes on to her in a big way. In record time, Jane goes from rejecting him, to dating him, to being so in love with him that she accepts his abrupt proposal of marriage, much to her family’s chagrin. Jane believes they should just want what’s best for her and be happy if she is happy; they worry that embarking on a whirlwind romance with another individual with mental illness will do more harm than good.

Spectacular Sally

That being said, the film’s schizophrenia-as-superpower message does flounder a bit whenever Jane’s nephew is involved; the mind games she plays with him and the dangerous situations she puts him in, including injuring him when she stops short while he’s sitting in her car and then attempting to cover it up with lies, present valid arguments that Jane should continue taking her medication. Nonetheless, it is refreshing to see mental illness portrayed onscreen as something that shouldn’t necessarily be “cured,” but rather, something that makes someone themselves…something that shouldn’t be treated with scorn or pity, but with empathy and humor. The latter is particularly strong in Eternal Beauty , a film that encourages us to laugh with Jane but never at her, and finds the funny in the most painful and awkward of human interactions.

From her Oscar-nominated performances in Happy-Go-Lucky and The Shape of Water to her equally brilliant but less heralded turns in Maudie and Made in Dagenham , Sally Hawkins has already cemented herself as one of the most talented performers of her generation, with a unique ability to elevate any role from merely quirky to a complex character. Her filmography embraces characters outside of the margins of so-called respectable society and shows us they deserve our love and respect, not our ridicule. Her work in Eternal Beauty fits neatly into this oeuvre and yet also feels like a new high point for her, which is not a small feat. It helps that she is surrounded by a supporting cast who is equally up to the challenge, in particular, Thewlis as the man who may be good news or bad depending on where you stand in the room.

Roberts renders Jane’s unique world — both inside and outside of her head — with bold use of color. Before being left at the altar, Jane entered beauty pageants in a bold blue dress that made her feel like a princess, although her social awkwardness ensured she never won any of them. Afterward, she goes about her life mostly clad in washed-out white, reminiscent of the wedding gown that she was wearing that fateful day, while her sisters are associated with bold reds (Alice) and greens (Nicola). When Jane is doing well and feels in control of her own life, the bright blues start to seep back into her life, a sign that she is regaining some of her youthful vigors even in the face of continual family dysfunction. In addition, creative use of visual storytelling, including allowing Jane to peer through a hole in the wall into her past and revealing a refrigerator with severed limbs after Jane accuses everyone at a family party of being cannibals, helps bring Jane’s vivid imagination to life.

What do you think? What do you think are some of the best portrayals of mental illness onscreen? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Eternal Beauty is available in select theaters and on-demand in the U.S. and the UK starting Friday, October 2. You can find more international release dates here .

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Eternal Beauty review – Sally Hawkins shines in audacious, offbeat triumph

Craig Roberts’ story of a traumatised woman piecing her life together is a tonally bold work of enduring charm

W riter-director Craig Roberts has created a thoughtful, valuable, humane drama about mental illness. The setting is a British suburbia around the 1980s – pay phones, dodgy clothes, terrible cars – and Sally Hawkins plays Jane, a young woman experiencing depression and schizophrenia following the trauma of being stood up at the altar. Morfydd Clark plays Jane in flashback as a young woman. Jane has mood swings, hears voices and has a bullying mum (Penelope Wilton) and sister (Billie Piper). Another, more caring sister (Alice Lowe) is pretty much her only friend and ally. Her life appears to turn around when she meets another patient, Mike (David Thewlis), but this whirlwind affair alarms her family and brings problems of its own.

Roberts and Hawkins intriguingly take this movie, and us, on a kind of tonal journey: it begins on a note of standard-issue satirical black comedy; then morphs into suppressed horror as the film guides us inside Jane’s lonely and bewildered world, disturbingly repeating a certain image and phrase; and then it moves into something more tender, and more moving, as Jane comes to terms with her condition and builds a new relationship with her family.

Hawkins delivers a very detailed and mannered performance in her distinctive style. At first this fluttery, jittery persona can be a lot to take, and if all the movie had to offer was a sustained exercise in quirky irony it would not have worked. Instead, it finds its way through the archness and flippancy, towards something richer. As in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky , the film allows you a sympathetic and emotional connection with the vulnerabilities of Hawkins’s character. This is substantial and rewarding.

In cinemas and on digital platforms from 2 October.

Sally Hawkins
David Thewlis
Penelope Wilton
Billie Piper
Mental health
Drama films

Movie Review: Eternal Beauty (2019)

Dalin Rowell
Movie Reviews
--> October 25, 2020

As a famous nanny once said, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” And in the case of actor turned director Craig Roberts latest film, Eternal Beauty, there’s a lot of sweetness to help digest this painful tale. And with such acting talents as Sally Hawkins and David Thewlis starring within it, this sophomore feature feels like a delight even with its ultimately saddening subject matter.

Filled with the sounds of various voices, we meet Jane (Hawkins, “ Maudie ”), a paranoid schizophrenic woman going through a rough patch. She’s dealing with various levels of shame from her family, struggling with taking her new medication and continues to hear the sounds of a past romance at the worst of times. But as luck would have it, Jane meets Mike (Thewlis, “ The Mercy ”), an odd ball musician who captures her heart. Sure, he might not be able to sing like an angel, but he worships Jane’s sparkle like no one else. Yet not even the magic of love can concur the demons within our heroine — an element that Roberts never shies from. And thus we, as the audience, go on Jane’s journey towards discovering her own sense of solace, bumpy roads and all.

Permeated with fascinating visuals from beginning to end, Roberts freely takes us into Jane’s quirky world. It is one that is equally inviting as it is uncomfortable. Think Wes Anderson’s delicate touches mixed with Darren Aronofsky’s bold realities — a description that works in many facets, but mostly towards describing Jane herself. She’s a character that has a flat covered in precious decor, but is convinced she hears voices through the walls. Jane wears cozy cardigan sweaters, yet often dwells on thoughts of cannibalism. And to say this overall juxtaposition is unsettling may be the understatement of the year.

But what makes Eternal Beauty so refreshing is its overall optimistic view point. For Roberts’ examination of mental illness is not colored in muted tones, but rather pastel whimsy in every corner of the frame. And with the excellent talents of cinematographer Kit Fraser, art director Alison Adams, and production designer Tim Dickel working behind the scenes, this female gaze approach to something so grim is a stimulating shift from the norm.

The same set of descriptions can be used towards Roberts’ screenplay, for Eternal Beauty is narratively a blend of cringe and comfort. From Jane bringing over gifts for herself on Christmas morning, to the terrifying messages she hears over the radio, some scenes are earnestly charming while others evoke spine-tingling levels of creepy. This particularly comes across in a sequence involving Jane driving a car with a child inside. It’s the kind of moment that will either leave audiences wanting to continue or stop them right in their tracks. But regardless of your own reaction, Roberts should be commended for his willingness to go the cinematic distance for the emotional punch to the gut.

Yet even with all of Jane’s drama on display, Eternal Beauty never judges its lead character. Because Jane is an unconventional leading lady that, despite her flaws, is easy to cheer for. This aspect is due in large part to Sally Hawkins’ beautiful yet calculated performance. From quite moments of melancholy to warm looks of glee, Hawkins knows exactly when to punch up the dramatics and when to hold back like a skilled athlete. And though Jane shares a lot of similarities to Hawkins’ character Eliza from “ The Shape of Water ” (including a singing day dream sequence), Hawkins makes Jane a unique individual that is hard for any viewer to ever forget.

The rest of the cast does a lovely job of bringing Jane’s family and friends to life as well. David Thewlis gives Mike the right amount of heart and awkwardness to make him problematically lovable, while Penelope Wilton (“ Summerland ”) gives quite a cold, yet believable, performance as Jane’s strict mother. But the true standouts next to Hawkins is Billie Piper (“Doctor Who” TV series) and Alice Lowe (“ Sometimes Always Never ” ) as Jane’s sisters, Nicola and Alice. When it comes to Nicola, Piper perfectly personifies the failed prom queen archetype, who has no moral code. Lowe’s Alice on the other hand, is the glue that holds this dysfunctional family together, even in the midst of her own internal drama.

The organic quality shown through the characters, along with the story itself, is what makes Eternal Beauty a fascinating cinematic gem. It’s by no means an easy watch and may require a few breaks to get through, but the conclusion to Jane’s story is one that is relatable to a fault. And in a year in which happy endings are hard to come by, audiences may find themselves looking to characters like Jane for guidance. For she’s taking life one step at a time — a lesson we all should follow.

Tagged: hospital , mental illness , relationships , self-discovery , sisters

Dalin “Duckie” Rowell is a New York born, pastel loving film nerd. She graduated from The Art Institute for New York City, and currently works in the TV industry.

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REVIEW: “Eternal Beauty” (2020)

The sophomore writing and directing effort from Craig Roberts sets up quite the challenge for itself. Simply making a movie about mental illness brings with it a number of thorny obstacles to maneuver. Turning it into an eccentric black comedy about depression and schizophrenia adds even more mines to the proverbial minefield. Yet that’s what we get with “Eternal Beauty”.

This strangely brewed concoction of off-kilter humor and personal drama builds itself on a relatively simple premise. It’s about a woman named Jane (an intensely committed Sally Hawkins) with a deeply troubled past living day-to-day with schizophrenia. The catch is Roberts looks at everything through Jane’s eyes which opens the doors to a much more visual form of storytelling.

Photo Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Roberts unpacks Jane’s past through a series of flashbacks that play mostly like brief reflections. We see glimpses of young Jane (played by Morfydd Clark), one of three sisters living under the iron fist of their domineering mother (Penelope Wilton). We see the happiest moment of her life instantly shattered when she is stood up on her wedding day. We see her fall into depression before being diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. Flashes to stays in mental institutions add to the heartbreak.

Now Jane lives alone in a low-income apartment managing her illness with pills prescribed by her doctor who constantly scolds her for saying she’s “ fine “. He wants to hear “ better ” from his patient as if uttering the words would somehow validate hit treatments. Yet despite the physical, economical and psychological hurdles, Hawkins brings out Jane’s warmth and resilience. You can’t help but root for her. By being in her head we aren’t always sure of what we’re seeing or hearing. It becomes even more challenging once Jane quits taking her meds.

Perhaps the most vivid display of Jane’s emotions and psyche comes in the film’s use of color. Take Jane and her sisters who are represented by colors – Alice (Alice Lowe) in red, Nicola (Billie Piper) in green, and young Jane in blue. But after her heartbreak at the altar, Jane lost her hue. Now her apartment, her hair, her frumpy wardrobe – it’s all bland and colorless. But a chance meeting with an old acquaintance (David Thewlis) in a waiting room livens things up.

So where is the comedy you ask? Most of the above story beats have scenes of straight-faced and at times almost wacky humor. To be fair several are quite funny. But they do make for this odd tonal mish-mash that’s understandable coming from Jane’s perspective but a bit jarring when it comes to movie watching. It also gets a little bogged down narratively when trying to visualize Jane’s headspace. It snaps out of it with a moving third act where some pent-up family drama finally comes to a head. And it finishes with a final shot that injects the entire story with some welcomed hope.

“Eternal Beauty” is an odd and audacious package built on the back of yet another terrific Sally Hawkins performance. Even when the movie loses its way a bit she maintains a strong and emotionally honest character presence. It walks that tightrope of empathy and real-life experience, never exploiting mental illness or taking it lightly. Still it wasn’t an easy movie for me to connect with. That is until the final 15 minutes or so where the movie’s payoff makes the entire 95 minutes worthwhile. “Eternal Beauty” is now available on VOD.

VERDICT – 3 STARS

Eternal Beauty review: a stylish mental health drama with skin deep insight

In a deadpan comedy structured around Sally Hawkins’s schizophrenia sufferer, technical accomplishments fail to mask thinness of texture.

▶ Eternal Beauty is screening in UK cinemas and available on many online platforms .

Craig Roberts’s Eternal Beauty is a technically more accomplished but ultimately less satisfying follow up to his directorial debut Just Jim (2015). A child actor before his star turn as the Swansea teen in Submarine (2010) won him widespread acclaim, Roberts doesn’t feature in the new film as he did in Just Jim. But the material again comes from a personal place, with Roberts basing his script on the experiences of an aunt who was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite its heartfelt biographical basis, though, Eternal Beauty ends up peculiarly unpersuasive.

Roberts’s debut already demonstrated an interest in the expressionistic depiction of mental states, and the new film continues that approach. It comes filtered through the perceptions of Sally Hawkins ’s Jane, a fortyish woman negotiating mental health issues in the context of a troublesome family situation and a new romance. Flashbacks featuring Morfydd Clark as the younger Jane fill in bits of the protagonist’s past, with a Havisham-esque wedding-day jilting presented as a trigger for the character’s condition.

Deadpan comedy remains a default mode here, but Roberts also cites Bergman’s Through a Glass Darkly (1961) and Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Blue (1993) as inspirations; shooting on film, he and DP Kit Fraser work strenuously to place us in the protagonist’s headspace. Still, the mix of art-conscious style and some sitcom-level writing jars. Despite scattered arresting images, the film sometimes resorts to banal symbolism, too, with a key step in Jane’s journey signalled by her snipping of the telephone cord that’s tethered her to her absent ex.

The film’s problems aren’t mitigated by Hawkins – who played Roberts’s mother in Submarine – here acting at full tilt. With a tottering gait, curious gazes and sudden goofy grins, it’s a performance that utilises every tic in the book but, apart from a touching hospital scene, little that Hawkins does here is as memorable as, for instance, her delicate work in Maudie (2016).

With the film structured as a showcase for its star, the other actors get short shrift in mostly unsympathetic roles. Billie Piper contributes a Julia Davis impersonation as the sister willing to fake mental illness for state benefits, and Penelope Wilton shows little of her customary subtlety as the abruptly ailing matriarch. David Thewlis provides some fresh energy as the musician love interest, but key relationships remain underexplored and, unlike the specifically rooted Just Jim, Eternal Beauty’s vagueness about its setting (locations are Welsh again but accents are London) exacerbates the thinness of its texture.

As a portrait of a woman dealing with the challenges of love, family, independence and mental health the film offers less in the way of insight than Benny & Joon did back in 1993.

Eternal Beauty Review: A Charming But Meaningless Exploration of Mental Illness

By Grant Hermanns

Sally Hawkins as Jane

Morfydd Clark as Young Jane

David Thewlis as Mike

Billie Piper as Nicola

Natalie O’Niel as Young Nicola

Penelope Wilton as Vivian

Alice Lowe as Alice

Elysia Welch as Young Alice

Robert Aramayo as Johnny

Robert Pugh as Dennis

Written and Directed by Craig Roberts

Click here to rent or purchase Eternal Beauty !

Eternal Beauty Review:

Exploring the world of mental illness in film is really a tricky balancing act and many have succeeded in telling their tales, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shutter Island and Silver Linings Playbook while others drop the ball in misunderstanding how to respectfully depict their central subjects and while Craig Roberts certainly creates charming and fairly sympathetic characters in Eternal Beauty , he unfortunately fails to give them any meaningful story or development to go with it.

As she struggles to get her life back on track following being jilted at the altar by her fiancé and falling into a state of despair, schizophrenic Jane (Sally Hawkins) finds new sources of love and live while receiving treatment, changing her life for the better and for the worst.

The concept of a broken woman being able to break free from the shackles of her illness solely through the prospect of love is a tale frequently told on the big screen to varying results and Roberts falls very much in the middle in chronicling the life of Jane. The first act or two of the film proves to be a quirky and offbeat delight, one born from the tightrope nature of the viewer deciding whether to sympathize for the protagonist or laugh along with her odd behavior and antics, but as it progresses, it too often can’t decide which it wants the audience to do.

From attempted kidnappings of her nephew to appease an unknown voice over the phone to hallucinations of nefarious radio messages, it feels like an honest portrayal of the dangerous and heartbreaking confusion that spawns from the mind of a schizophrenic and yet the story plays such a teeter-totter with both Jane’s state of mind and the events in the story it’s hard to decide where our own minds should lie.

Roberts is no stranger to the world of dramedies, breaking out with his performance in Richard Ayoade’s 2010 hit Submarine , but yet it seems like his experience in front of the camera doesn’t carry over behind it when it comes to juggling its two drastically different tones. When it’s clear it wants to be a dark comedy in the vein of Harold and Maude , it works nicely, when it wants to be a powerful exploration of mental illness akin to A Beautiful Mind , it’s devastatingly real, but there’s too much that feels like it can’t decide which it would like to be that results in a relatively disappointing affair.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t positives to the film, however, as Jenkins delivers what could be an Oscar-worthy performance as Jane, never letting her character break even in the slightest and fully committing to the eccentric behaviors that come from her mental illness. She is further joined by an always-brilliant David Thewlis, whose role may prove much more minimal than some may expect or desire but is an absolute delight to watch every moment he gets on screen.

While he may struggle with the tonal balancing act of the story, Roberts’ directorial eye is nothing short of beautiful as the 29-year-old Welsh filmmaker delivers a number of stylish and compellingly shot moments throughout the film and utilizing a simple-yet-rich color palette that gives the film a vibrant look even in the most dour of scenes.

Though the film may contradict a number of its own messages and add up to practically nothing in the end in the way of character development of compelling storytelling, Roberts delivers a relatively charming atmosphere, some nice offbeat humor and a stellar performance that Jenkins that keeps Eternal Beauty from sinking entirely.

No Donald Glover's Lando wasn't canceled

Eternal Beauty review: a difficult watch, a very good movie

Eternal Beauty

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Eternal Beauty Movie

Who's Involved:

Sally Hawkins, Billie Piper, David Thewlis, Penelope Wilton, Craig Roberts, Alice Lowe

Release Date:

Friday, October 2, 2020 VOD / Digital

Plot: What's the story about?

After being left at the altar, Jane (Sally Hawkins) turns to pills, a relationship with a musician (Thewlis) as she struggles with mental illness and a difficult family situation.

5.00 / 5 stars ( 1 users)

Poll: Will you see Eternal Beauty?

Who stars in Eternal Beauty: Cast List

Sally Hawkins

Kensuke’s Kingdom, Paddington 2

David Thewlis

Zero Theorem, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II

Boyz in the Wood, Locke

Billie Piper

Scoop, Rare Beasts

Penelope Wilton

Shaun of the Dead, Downton Abbey 3

Who's making Eternal Beauty: Crew List

A look at the Eternal Beauty behind-the-scenes crew and production team. The film's director Craig Roberts last directed The Phantom of the Open .

Craig Roberts

Screenwriter

Production Companies

Watch eternal beauty trailers & videos.

No trailer available.

Production: What we know about Eternal Beauty?

Premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2019.

Filming Timeline

2020 - August : The film was set to Completed status.

Eternal Beauty Release Date: When was the film released?

Eternal Beauty was a VOD / Digital release in 2020 on Friday, October 2, 2020 . There were 14 other movies released on the same date, including Then Came You , Death of Me and La Belle Epoque .

Q&A Asked about Eternal Beauty

Seen the movie? Rate It!

Follow the Updates

Fri., Dec. 31, 2021
set the MPAA rating to R for language and some sexuality
added a running time of 94 minutes
added a poster to the photo gallery
changed the US film release date from TBA 2020 to October 2, 2020
set film release to VOD / Digital
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changed the movie production status to Completed
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The name Hammer used to command a certain level of respect in the annals of horror cinema - from the late 1950s to the early '70s, you could pin the label to some of the campiest, schlockiest, most entertaining creature features around, from camp retellings of Universal monsters to sci-fi Quatermass mysteries. But the Hammer Films of this year's "Doctor Jekyll" is hardly the same company William Hinds and James Carreras built; the opening titles proudly plaster "A John Gore Company" below its production logo. Indeed, for as much as "Doctor Jekyll" rides high on its compelling central performance (and the gender politics therein), the film that surrounds that star turn can't quite hide (or Hyde?) its weightlessness.

This isn't the first time Hammer has put a gender-swapped spin on the acclaimed Robert Louis Stevenson story - see 1971's "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde," in which a serum transformed a male Henry Jekyll into a libidinous female alter ego. But "Chicken" director Joe Stephenson and screenwriter Dan Kelly-Mulhern have re-adapted the story into a low-fi chamber play whose campy delights take far too long to take murderous shape.

Its delights, apart from Blair Mowat's delightfully outre, baroque score, fall mostly on Eddie Izzard , and her mesmerizingly controlled turn as Dr. Nina Jekyll. She's a reclusive billionaire with a mysterious condition that requires her to take her meds on time (gee, I wonder what happens if she skips a dose?). With her stern handler Sandra ( Lindsay Duncan ) overwhelmed, she puts out a call for hired help, and who should answer but Rob Stevenson ("Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2"'s Scott Chambers ), a baby-faced bad dad fresh out of prison and rehab, trying to get his life together so he can see his daughter.

In its first act, "Doctor Jekyll" plays out like a perverse low-budget spin on " Phantom Thread " - the tortured genius puttering away in their empty home, the fresh-faced muse unwittingly wrapped up in their machinations, the taskmaster training a jaundiced eye at the both of them. But the film struggles to maintain any kind of suspense as to Jekyll's true motivations for hiring Rob, and the secretive nature of her condition; subplots involving motion-sensor cameras, locked rooms, and Rob's drug-addict ex-wife flail about aimlessly before colliding in a bloody mess near the film's end.

To her credit, Izzard holds the lean script aloft with aplomb, and she's a solid 80% of the reason to watch this. She's always been a tremendous performer, but being given the chance to lean so hard into her transness in these more recent roles unfolds new layers of performance that are nothing short of mesmerizing. As Nina, she's prim, quiet, and commanding; she tears into a bowl of "crunchy, nutty corn flakes" with all the fervor of a filet mignon. As Rachel Hyde, she sneers and purrs her way through each line with divine camp. It's hardly Shakespeare - funny, since she just came off a one-woman production of "Hamlet" - but she has tremendous fun with the part.

It's her co-stars that let her down, for the most part. Sure, Lindsey Duncan frowns with the best of them, offering a Lesley Manville-sized fly in the ointment. But Chambers is simply not up to the task of keeping up with any of his co-stars, mugging and pouting and stammering his way through his lines as if the producers just couldn't get Freddie Highmore on the phone.

Of course, it's impossible to ignore "Jekyll"'s implications regarding gender and transness; the original story, after all, is about transformation, of finding the hidden self that lies within and setting it free. By casting a trans woman as Jekyll in the first place, Stephenson complicates that narrative in ways both intriguing and befuddling. After all, both Jekyll and Hyde in this version are women, the split becoming less about her gender and more about her morality. (A black-and-white flashback awkwardly ties Nina to the original Henry Jekyll, though it humorously establishes that the "drug" that keeps Hyde in place comes in a cigarette that glows green when you smoke it. Talk about a hybrid strain.) But as the film barrels towards twists both predictable and not, a final turn throws some deeper confusion into the allegory in ways I can't spoil but would be eager to hear other trans viewers' thoughts on.

At 90 minutes, one could hardly fault "Doctor Jekyll" for being languorous. But it's often too patient for its own good, content to slow-roll its inevitable outcome without giving us much to chew on besides Izzard and some cornflakes. The chance to explore the Jekyll-and-Hyde story through the lens of a late-in-life trans woman is too enticing to botch, especially with a performer as layered as Izzard in the title role. But it teeters too precariously between camp and character study, and never quite lands successfully on either side. And its final minutes seem to imply that, no matter how you identify, the body you truly want to occupy might not really belong to you. That's a troubling implication to unpack.

Clint Worthington

Clint Worthington is a Chicago-based film/TV critic and podcaster. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Spool , as well as a Senior Staff Writer for Consequence . He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics Choice Association. You can also find his byline at RogerEbert.com, Vulture, The Companion, FOX Digital, and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

Doctor Jekyll (2024)

Eddie Izzard as Dr. Nina Jekyll

Scott Chambers as Rob

Lindsay Duncan

Robyn Cara as Maeve

Jonathan Hyde

Joe Stephenson
Dan Kelly-Mulhern

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Deadpool & Wolverine review: A foul-mouthed, bloody treat for Marvel fans

Our SPOILER-FREE thoughts here.

preview for Deadpool & Wolverine stars talk the movie's new villain and unexpected moments

And we'll get it out of the way first. If you were worried that Deadpool has been Disney-fied, he has not. This is still the foul-mouthed, violent anti-hero of the first two movies, complete with copious puerile dick jokes, meta gags and fourth-wall-breaking as he slices and dices victims.

Hugh Jackman is also back as Wolverine , but think more Logan than X-Men . This Wolverine is as liberal with the bloodletting and F-bombs as Deadpool is. For Fox Marvel universe fans, this is their Spider-Man: No Way Home .

But is it any good? Mostly. Deadpool & Wolverine is terrific entertainment, two hours of fan service wrapped up as a summer blockbuster. It's not perfect and might not stand up to repeat viewings, but you won't care in the moment.

(Don't worry, we'll keep this review as spoiler-free as we can and won't assume that you – like us – have seen every trailer and TV spot going.)

ryan reynolds, hugh jackman, deadpool and wolverine

Six years after the events of Deadpool 2 , Wade Wilson ( Ryan Reynolds ) has hung up his suit to work as a car salesperson with the resurrected Peter (Rob Delaney). He's pretending that he's fine with it; he's got his friends, including now-ex Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), and that's enough.

Enter TVA agent Mr Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen), who throws an existential spanner into Wade's dull civilian life. There's only one person who can help Wade with this new crisis: Wolverine. Assuming he can persuade him to help, that is.

We'll keep the specifics of the how and why these two characters team up quiet even though it's revealed fairly early on in Deadpool & Wolverine . You might be expecting further developments as the movie goes on, but they never really come and the only surprises are who this duo run into on their road trip.

If you're after a deeper, more complex plot, one with repercussions for the entire MCU , you might come away disappointed. Equally, with a vast MCU sandbox to play in, it's refreshing to see that the movie ends up more interested in paying tribute to the Fox Marvel universe, retaining the low-level stakes of the previous two Deadpool movies.

hugh jackman, ryan reynolds, deadpool and wolverine

What the expanded MCU has given Deadpool though is more targets to aim at. Deadpool & Wolverine is packed with hilarious gags at the expense of the MCU, from its attempts to make the multiverse a thing to its so-called flop era and more.

As in the previous two Deadpool movies, not every gag lands, but there will be one around the corner that does. How much they'll have repeat value remains to be seen, especially with its pop-culture references (a Will Smith slap one already feels old), and it's sharper when it comes to meta gags about filmmaking.

The same could be said for the movie's surprises. Even though it feels Marvel itself has been spoiling the big cameos, trust us when we say there are some here that you won't see coming. It's not an over-the-top hit parade of countless characters, but once the surprise is gone, the movie doesn't give them enough to do.

In the moment though, that hardly matters as, much like the three Spideys teaming up in No Way Home , it'll be a joy for Marvel fans. From deep-cut throwbacks to genuine A-listers, each cameo will be met with a cheer at packed screenings and it's impressive they kept some of them quiet.

hugh jackman, ryan reynolds, dogpool, deadpool and wolverine

Perhaps as much of a surprise is that the movie is genuinely as much of a Wolverine movie as it is a Deadpool movie. Hugh Jackman might be treading familiar ground – he can do Wolverine with repressed trauma in his sleep – but he remains so watchable, sharing strong chemistry with Ryan Reynolds, who remains a perfect fit for the role.

The no-holds-barred approach for both characters leads to some brutal set pieces, both between the two of them and against various enemies. One battle gets a bit too CGI-centric, but largely they're well-shot and choreographed. A stand-out sequence – both of the movie and the summer – is shot like a side-scroller video game in all its bloody glory.

Cassandra Nova's powers also add a gruesome edge to proceedings, even for a Deadpool movie. Emma Corrin might not get as much to do with the role as you'd wish, especially as they nail the charming and menacing tone, yet Cassandra still makes an impact with relatively little screentime.

Compared to recent MCU team-ups, Deadpool & Wolverine has a brisk two-hour runtime up to the credits and moves at a pace. So much so you might not even realise you're at the final act until you're in it.

It's an underwhelming finale that feels the most MCU-y with a MacGuffin and some nonsense about timelines. However, an excellent use of 'Like A Prayer' – one of several fun needle drops – redeems matters somewhat, and gives it an emotional edge if you care about both of these characters.

Whether the movie can stand the test of time remains to be seen, with not much going on under the surface. It's pure fan service, so knock off a star if you were after more, but Deadpool & Wolverine knows it's fan service – and it doesn't f**king care.

Deadpool & Wolverine is out now in cinemas.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.

.css-15yqwdi:before{top:0;width:100%;height:0.25rem;content:'';position:absolute;background-image:linear-gradient(to right,#51B3E0,#51B3E0 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 2.5rem,#E5ADAE 5rem,#E5E54F 5rem,#E5E54F 7.5rem,black 7.5rem,black);} Deadpool

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‘Srikanth’ movie review: inspiring biopic of visually impaired man’s journey to success

The film is based on the life of entrepreneur Srikanth Bolla, who grew up in rural India and thrived against all odds

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People often view disabilities as a limitation or bad luck. However, the hero of the film, Srikanth , directed by Tushar Hiranandani and based on a true story, proves that boundaries are meant to be broken.

Released in May, the movie is based on the life of a man named Srikanth Bolla, played by Rajkummar Rao, who was visually impaired from birth. His family was uneducated and relied on farming in a small village in India. As Bolla grew up, he cherished playing cricket and chess, but was often beaten up by classmates. Being visually impaired taught him that during such moments, he never had the option to run. Instead, he learned to fight.

As an intellectually gifted student, he aspired to pursue science. However, even with his strong grades, Bolla was not allowed to choose to study science because the education system forbade visually impaired students from selecting such a complex pathway. Nevertheless, he was determined to challenge the stereotype and won a case against the Indian Board of Education, proving that physical limitations shouldn’t stop you from excelling.

Although he was the first visually impaired science student in India, Bolla was still refused admission into India’s top engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT). With his teacher’s recommendation, Bolla then applied to international universities and received five offers.

“If IIT doesn’t need me, I don’t need IIT,” he confidently states in the film. He later graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a degree in management science.

Upon returning to India, Bolla founded Bollant Industries, with his business partner, Ravi Mantha. The company creates sustainable packaging solutions from natural and recycled materials. Through this venture, he employed many others with disabilities who struggled to find jobs.

At one point, Bolla begins to take his disability for granted and selfishly uses it for business advantages. However, after suffering from this, an epiphany eventually brings him back on track.

At the film’s end, he was awarded the Business Excellence Award in the “differently abled” category. Yet, he denies the award, noting that in order to accept it, he wanted people to view him the same as everyone else rather than “special”.

The film also shows a moment when Bolla was recognised by the former president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam. In 2006, he met a group of students and asked them what they wanted to become. Bolla, who was 15 years old at the time, replied: “I want to become the first visually challenged president of India.” Kalam, in a speech, described how he was moved by Bolla’s confidence.

‘I don’t want to be ordinary’: teen actor gave his all in ‘Zero to Hero’

Hiranandani’s depiction of the story also beautifully demonstrated the significance of having support. Bolla wouldn’t have been able to make these achievements without his teacher’s guidance, his business partner’s faith, his wife’s respect and Kalam’s inspiration.

Rajkummar Rao’s portrayal of Srikanth Bolla in the film is remarkable as he captures his spirit and emotions in a nuanced performance. Although the dramatic effect was slightly exaggerated, it clearly depicted Bolla’s story.

Throughout the biopic, Bolla emphasises his belief in the stark difference between a “sight” and a “vision”, often stating: “Disability is when you have sight, but do not have vision.”

Who would have thought that the infant whose parents were once advised to end his life would grow up to break unjust rules, graduate from MIT and inspire countless people to hold onto their visions? Bolla’s journey is a powerful reminder that true vision comes from the heart, and anything is possible if you have a purpose and ambition.

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Etimes.in | last updated on - aug 3, 2024, 21:14 ist share fbshare twshare pinshare comments ( 0 ), 01 /10 all about friendship day.

The term "friend" means a lot more than just a word; it represents a deep and special feeling. True friends are incredibly important in our lives, and having them is a real blessing. A real friend is always there for us, like a second family, supporting us through good times and bad. They are someone we can fully trust and rely on. Even though one day isn't enough to show how much we appreciate them, it's a great chance to celebrate and thank our friends.

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Make Friendship Day memorable by spending time with friends. Host a party, have a casual get-together, or enjoy a cozy hangout at home with food and movies. Choose activities that you both enjoy to make the day special.

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Show your appreciation with meaningful gifts like colourful bracelets, or personalized videos, and homemade chocolates or beautiful fresh flowers.

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Wildfire Roars Through a Canadian Town Popular with Tourists

As much as half of Jasper, Alberta, which lies inside one of the country’s most-visited national parks, has been destroyed, officials said.

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By Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai

Ian Austen reported from Ottawa, and Vjosa Isai from Toronto.

As much as half of a town at the heart of a jewel of Canada’s national park system has been destroyed by a pair of wildfires that roared in from two sides, an official said on Thursday.

“We don’t know particularly which structures have been damaged and which ones have been destroyed, but that is going to be a significant rebuild,” Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, told a news conference. She struggled to avoid tears describing the beauty of Jasper National Park and the damage to the community that shares its name.

Pierre Martel, the director of fire management for Parks Canada, the national parks agency, told a briefing on Thursday afternoon that the “aggressive and fast-moving fire” was still burning in the park.

As the fires expanded on Monday evening, about 20,000 tourists and the 5,000 residents of Jasper were evacuated, mostly west to British Columbia.

On Wednesday night, wildfire fighters had to leave the town because of toxic smoke from the buildings that had caught fire. Parks Canada, which is in charge of fighting the fire, also moved its command post.

Fire fighters from other communities have since arrived to help fight the blaze, which follows a recent heat wave.

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Eternal Beauty movie review & film summary (2020)
Movie Review: Eternal Beauty (2019)
Eternal Beauty (2019)
'Eternal Beauty' review: heartfelt indie is more than just good looks
Movie Review: 'Eternal Beauty'
Eternal Beauty

COMMENTS

Eternal Beauty movie review & film summary (2020)
Eternal Beauty. Nell Minow October 02, 2020. Tweet. Now streaming on: Powered by JustWatch. Writer/director Craig Roberts is still in his 20s, but his genuine talent for cinematic storytelling is evident throughout "Eternal Beauty." Already awarded a Best Actor Cymru (Welsh) BAFTA (for "Submarine"), he knows how to bring together a brilliant cast.
Eternal Beauty
Oct 7, 2020 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies "Eternal Beauty" is an odd and audacious package built on the back of yet another terrific Sally Hawkins performance. Even when the ...
'Eternal Beauty' Review: Sally Hawkins, in Another Transformation
Eternal Beauty Rated R for themes and language. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Running time: 1 hour 35 minutes. Rent or buy on iTunes, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Eternal Beauty
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 20, 2022. Eternal Beauty gets the balance right, portraying (Jane's) viewpoint as a surreal and scary world of whispers and fridges with dismembered limbs ...
'Eternal Beauty' Review
Movies; Movie Reviews 'Eternal Beauty': Film Review | London 2019. Sally Hawkins ('The Shape of Water') stars as a woman with paranoid schizophrenia and a dysfunctional family to boot in ...
'Eternal Beauty' review: heartfelt indie is more than just good looks
Confident and mature in its design; with a real eye for texture and colour, the film feels like it was made by someone with something to say. Sally Hawkins puts in one of the best performances of ...
Eternal Beauty (2019)
Eternal Beauty: Directed by Craig Roberts. With Sally Hawkins, Morfydd Clark, Robert Pugh, Natalie O'Neill. After Jane falls into a state of despair over her schizophrenia, she encounters new sources of love and life with surprising results.
Eternal Beauty Review
But Eternal Beauty 's ace in the hole remains Hawkins. Smartly interpreting Roberts' sensitive writing (it's also funnier than it sounds), she is superb, nuanced but never showy, delivering ...
Eternal Beauty review: A more nuanced take on mental illness than most
Eternal Beauty is a more nuanced take on mental illness When Jane (Sally Hawkins) falls for Mike (David Thewlis), they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic Bulldog Film Distribution
Eternal Beauty
Eternal Beauty - Metacritic. 2020. R. GEM Entertainment. 1 h 35 m. Summary When Jane (Sally Hawkins) is dumped at the altar she has a breakdown and spirals into a chaotic world, where love (both real and imagined) and family relationships collide with both touching and humorous consequences. Comedy.
'Eternal Beauty' Review: Sally Hawkins in Quirky Mental ...
Editor: Stephen Haren. Music: Michael Price. With: Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Alice Lowe, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton, Morfydd Clark, Robert Pugh, Paul Hilton, Spencer Deere. Craig Roberts ...
Eternal Beauty
Eternal Beauty is a 2019 British dark comedy film written and directed by Craig Roberts. It stars Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Billie Piper, Penelope Wilton, Alice Lowe and Robert Aramayo . It had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on 8 October 2019. It was released in the United Kingdom on 2 October 2020, by Bulldog Film ...
Eternal Beauty Movie Review
Parents need to know that Eternal Beauty is a brilliant, yet intense, British drama about mental illness with some distressing scenes and strong language but also some comedic moments.Sally Hawkins plays Jane, a woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The movie offers a no-holds-barred insight into how mental illness was treated -- both medically and culturally -- in the 1970s and 1980s.
Eternal Beauty review: A perfect showcase for Shape of Water star Sally
Eternal Beauty makes perfect use of Sally Hawkins' tremulous energy. Guillermo del Toro once said that when he casts a movie, he casts eyes. The main eyes in his Best Picture winner The Shape of ...
Eternal Beauty review
What a shock to the system Eternal Beauty is then, filled with more imagination than almost anything else out this year.. Sally Hawkins stars as Jane, a woman struggling to keep a grasp of her mental health.Her issues are compounded by her sociopathic mother (Penelope Wilton), narcissistic sister (Billie Piper), and a fiancée that dumped her at the altar.
ETERNAL BEAUTY: Sally Hawkins Does It Again
ETERNAL BEAUTY: Sally Hawkins Does It Again. October 8, 2020. Lee Jutton. "What if there's no such thing as happiness, only moments of not being depressed?". So asks the schizophrenic protagonist of Eternal Beauty, the sophomore feature from Welsh actor-turned-director Craig Roberts. A darkly funny portrait of the agony and ecstasy of ...
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Movie Review: Eternal Beauty (2019)
Critical Movie Critic Rating: 4. Movie Review: Relic (2020) Movie Review: Camp Twilight (2020) Tagged: hospital, mental illness, relationships, self-discovery, sisters. Movie review of Eternal Beauty (2019) by The Critical Movie Critics | A woman despairing over her schizophrenia, encounters new sources of love and life.
REVIEW: "Eternal Beauty" (2020)
Simply making a movie about mental illness brings with it a number of thorny obstacles to maneuver. Turning it into an eccentric black comedy about depression and schizophrenia adds even more mines to the proverbial minefield. ... 11 thoughts on " REVIEW: "Eternal Beauty" (2020) " fragglerocking says: October 7, 2020 at 2:26 pm Hmm 80 ...
Eternal Beauty review: a stylish mental health drama with skin deep
Craig Roberts's Eternal Beauty is a technically more accomplished but ultimately less satisfying follow up to his directorial debut Just Jim (2015). A child actor before his star turn as the Swansea teen in Submarine (2010) won him widespread acclaim, Roberts doesn't feature in the new film as he did in Just Jim. But the material again comes from a personal place, with Roberts basing his ...
Eternal Beauty Review: A Charming But Meaningless Exploration of Mental
Eternal Beauty Review: Exploring the world of mental illness in film is really a tricky balancing act and many have succeeded in telling their tales, such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ...
Eternal Beauty review: a difficult watch, a very good movie
Sally Hawkins, Morfydd Clark and David Thewlis star in Eternal Beauty, from director Craig Roberts - and here's our review of the film. Written and directed by actor turned director Craig Roberts, Eternal Beauty opens with the soothing wisdom of a hypnosis tape - "don't fight depression, make friends with it." This proves to be the central message at the heart of the film.
Everything You Need to Know About Eternal Beauty Movie (2020)
Across the Web. Eternal Beauty in US theaters October 2, 2020 starring Sally Hawkins, David Thewlis, Alice Lowe, Billie Piper. After being left at the altar, Jane (Sally Hawkins) turns to pills, a relationship with a musician (Thewlis) as she struggles with mental il.
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This isn't the first time Hammer has put a gender-swapped spin on the acclaimed Robert Louis Stevenson story - see 1971's "Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde," in which a serum transformed a male Henry Jekyll into a libidinous female alter ego. But "Chicken" director Joe Stephenson and screenwriter Dan Kelly-Mulhern have re-adapted the story into a low-fi chamber play whose campy delights take far too ...
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The movie is not boring or dry, though, as "Without a Net," directed by Dawn Porter, chronicles a critical period in the organization's history: the remounting of a show after the pandemic ...
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Reviewed online, San Sebastian, Sept. 29, 2020. (In London Film Festival.) MPAA rating: R. Running time: 94 MIN.

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Eternal Beauty makes perfect use of Sally Hawkins’ tremulous energy

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ETERNAL BEAUTY: Sally Hawkins Does It Again

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Eternal Beauty review – Sally Hawkins shines in audacious, offbeat triumph