# 7: Capturing Mary (2007)

Maggie Smith

as Mary Gilbert

in

Capturing Mary (2007) (TV)

Screentime: 43 minutes and 29 seconds (44.8% of the film)

An orthodox choice I admit to pick so early, but Capturing Mary is the story of a young man named Joe letting in an older woman by the name of Mary into an empty and unoccupied house where she begins to tell her story and experiences many years earlier in the same residence. Here, the film juxtaposes between the present elderly and alcohol dependent Mary and the beautiful and up and coming journalist Mary in the 1950s. At a party, with guests such as Alfred Hitchcock in attendance, the young Mary meets a mysterious man named Grenville White that would change her life forever. Initially rather warm to Mary, he begins to act rather creepy and opens up to her and reveals horrible and shocking details about the lives of various famous people, and afterwards of all things offers a key to his house which she refuses and leaves and doesn’t speak to him again.

For reasons not exactly clear, despite only seeing him again at a few parties in the next 10 years, this encounter somehow affects the rest of Mary’s life up to the present causing psychological harm to her. His presence in her mind doesn't allow her to write new material in the ‘60s without leading back to that night, all her work with potential clients are cut short when Grenville goes behind her back and ruins her reputation and she starts drinking. The whole first half of the film was rather irritating and confusing, how could this man be so influential? Was I missing something? I mean 50 years on there is Mary still panicking at the ghost of him while she is at the park... The elements of the film didn’t click, I understand to a degree what the film was trying to get across about the different class systems of the 1950s, the longing influences people leave and how certain decisions can make an eternity of change but I honestly wasn’t a fan of the material. The performances, in particular, Maggie Smith (of course) and her younger self, Ruth Wilson were worth mentioning. For that I give the film, a generous:

 FILM:

Maggie Smith was her wonderful self and in thefilm she projects a Vanessa Redgrave in Atonement quality/vibe in her monologues and narration to the flashbacks, her fragility as she walks around an empty room or the way she glances and tears up as memories races through her head were brilliantly subtle. The final 20 minutes is her moment to shine, and although I mentioned before some aspects of the film is rather weak, Smith’s acting simply elevates the material. You want to give the woman a long hug for all the mental damage she has endured, and Smith portrays this in a heartbreaking and delicate manner.

MAGGIE-METER:

"This isn't a ghost story, no... this is worse than a ghost story. For me anyway"