Do you sometimes know that you should absolutely watch a movie - that you will like it for sure, but you just can not get together? As I had with Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. From the moment I heard about this production, I knew that I wanted to watch it. But it must have been two years since the premiere that I would finally recognize that this is the evening when I turn Netflix on. And good. For a long time any production has moved in me this somewhat neglected melodramatic strings, as this modest moral movie.

At the beginning I have to say on my defense that I do not remember if this film has ever had a wide distribution and was in cinemas. At the same time, I would probably ignore it if it was not for the fact that it appeared in this narrow group of productions which gathered several BAFT nominations, which in turn did not translate into Oscar nominees. It's hard to be surprised. This film is much more English than Hollywood, although it has an Oscar-winning actress in its center. At the same time what should be noted at the beginning - although the main character of the film is Gloria Grahame, this film is absolutely not a biographical production. One can even say that the film is not very interested in who the characters were before. If you are curious about the long and interesting life you have to look somewhere else. The film fits rather in the tradition of telling about small episodes from the life of stars, more to tell about people than about particular career.

The story is simple - based on the memories of Peter Turner, who as a twenty-year-old trying to start his actor's career, got involved in an affair with the Hollywood actress Gloria Grahame, two decades older, whose star - a few decades earlier - had faded somewhat. That's how two distant worlds met - an actress who played with Bogart and received an Oscar (by the way her speech is one of the shortest in history, she said "thank you very much") and a Liverpool boy who still lived in a small house with his parents. The film begins from the end - when a few years after the end of the affair, Gloria fainted at a hotel in Liverpool, instead of going to the hospital, she told to move to Turner's parents place. She lived there for the last weeks of her life, in the final stage of cancer. Although, according to the title of the novel - she did not die in Liverpool. Production reminds us how the heroes met, how their relationship became more serious, but also how at some point quite abruptly end.

Stories of this type - about a romance that transcends social but also age boundaries, they usually have a sensational element and gossip. A young man with an older woman usually raises a whole spectrum of emotions, mainly negative ones. For this there is always the suspicion that a young man meeting a more affluent and threatening woman wants to gain something. All the more vivid is the perspective of the film, which does not show lovers in a sensational context at all. Starting from their first meeting, where they carelessly dance together to the music from Saturday Night Fever, we feel a real and completely natural bond between them. There is something pleasant to watch on the screen people who match each other. And here we have such an affair, in which, first and foremost, tenderness and understanding are put in the foreground. It is impossible to hide that this warm atmosphere of the film is also due to the cast. It's always up to a point, the lottery as the actors match up on the set. However, how naturally, Jamie Bell and Annette Bening, despite sharing their three decades on the screen, are just two people in love. And those who do not think about age differences with a sense of restraint. And it is even difficult to state clearly what this implies - but in a movie at a certain moment, the age of the heroes is no longer visible.

By not laying a dramatic knot on the difference in age, the film leads us into completely different areas. First of all, it shows how exotic for their heroes is their world and everyday life. Peter tells Gloria that smoking a cigarette looks like Lauren Bacall - to which she states that Humprey Bogart once told her that. A wonderful scenario showing how far these two worlds are. On the other hand, Peter's family home, with a caring mother, worried children, and happily accepting a star at his table, is also something new for Gloria, something that was clearly missing in her life. Besides, the film is quite bitter in accounting for a film career - regardless of Oscars and numerous roles, Gloria is another woman who Hollywood spit out, kidnapped, shook her self-confidence and never let her go beyond the boundaries of certain roles. In one of the scenes, Gloria's mother compares her to Marylin Monroe - indicating that they are both pretty blondes with whom Hollywood did what she wanted. In this aspect, the bed in a small house in Liverpool is a much safer haven than any big apartment in America. Melodrama is a result of this alienness of two worlds, which each meeting causes a stir but also because lovers have a limited time. Gloria was ill, and she would be ill, mainly because she was dealing with enormous reluctance to doctors and medicine. What's more, there's a feeling in this movie that it's all too late and maybe if time worked differently, if the lovers met at a different time in their lives, they could be happy, and Gloria could play her dream role of Julia.

There is something refreshing in the film that tells a small, real story, with sympathy for its heroes. Of course, Gloria to a certain extent resembles all those movie stars that still live in the illusion of their old fame, but it is not the level of the heroine of the Sunset Boulevard (although they are comparing themselves somewhat, since here and there we have a faint movie star and a young man). In turn, Peter does not want anything from Gloria, he just wants to be with her. Another thing, the movie has one small scene, which probably shows the approach of screenwriters to those threads that usually explore such films. The heroes are talking from the heart while standing on the beach. Peter confesses to Gloria that in the past he had both girls and boys, to which Gloria replies that she had them as well too. And that's it. No drama, no introduction of a dark past, or some dark character. Two people with some past, for whom past doesn't matter much but how they feel together in this moment. Again, it is something relaxing in this simplicity. Just as it is difficult to stop the emotion at the very end when Gloria's disease at the same time brings her closer to the Peter's family, on the other - it becomes an insurmountable obstacle.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool is not an outstanding film. The one that must necessarily be sprinkled with awards. But at the same time - I do not know about you, but I love productions that tell small stories that come alive and arouse emotions mainly thanks to the excellent cast. As I wrote - chemistry between actors in the main role is amazing. Annette Bening has already acted actress in the different stage of their career in the past at various times (Do you remember the good movie Being Julia by Istvan Szabo?) and she perfectly know how to show on the screen the figure of those women who got used to worship and can not live without people who constantly confirm their value - it's the kind of women who once were told that only loved ones have value and now they want love from everyone because they have nothing without it. Jamie Bell, on the other hand, surprised me a bit, long ago I come to terms with the fact that he is an uneven actor who sometimes plays well and sometimes you have to forget about his game well. Here, however, he reminded me that he is still a young actor and has plenty of perfect roles ahead of him, because he does not lack talent. Here he gave his hero some kindness, caring and warmth that goes beyond the age limits. Plus, it's wonderful to see how he dances on the screen again, even if it's just one scene. Well, it's worth adding that Julie Walters managed to persuade her to play Peter's mother (which is interesting, the director of the film, unaware cast of Billy Elliot asked Jamie Bella if he ever met Julie Walters, which supposedly made everyone laugh). This is cast bingo, and at the same time a nice meeting of actors after years. At the same time, the characters of parents are phenomenal in this film. Instead of playing the motif of "outraged or scandalized parents" we get people who fully accept the son's relationship but are still worried about him. A lot of Peter's scenes with the parents of such noticeable family warmth and understanding (combined with care).

I never concealed that I was always vulnerable to melodramas as being vulnerable (though not public and collective). At the same time I always prefer those melodramas in which the dramas are real or taken from life than those specially carved out of numerous perturbations that the creators of scenarios put heroes on the road to happiness. Perhaps because these real melodramas have much more unexpected elements than those that screenwriters could come up with? Or maybe because the awareness that we are watching real people stimulates our tear ducts a little more? Or maybe because no one would ever write a story about a big Hollywood star dying in the attic of a small flat in Liverpool. After all, as you know, movie stars do not die in Liverpool.

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