At a local Bermondsey pub a bunch of old friends arrive for a journey they are not looking forward to. Ray Johnson is in his 60's and divorced, while Lenny Tate is a fruit and vegetable stall holder. They are joined by Vic Tucker, an undertaker who has run the family business for years. They are there to scatter the ashes of their old friend Jack Dodds, a successful local butcher, whose last wish was that his ashes were to be scattered off the coast into the sea at Margate. Vince Dodds, a second-hand car dealer in his fifties arrives and greets them, Vince's task being to scatter Jack's ashes, his widow Amy refusing to have anything to do with it. She is going to visit her disabled daughter June, whose fiftieth birthday it is. She goes even though June has never recognised her and is unlikely to ever do so. As they drive to Margate, planning to stop at a predetermined pub for lunch, Vince tells the others of how his father used to take the family for days at the resort. Stopping at the pub in Rochester in Kent, Vince leaves the others as they eat and goes to a field, the very field where his sister June was conceived and where Vince found out the truth about himself, that Jack was not his biological father, he instead being adopted after Amy rescued him from the ruins of a bombed-out house during the war. Vince scatters some of Jack's ashes in the field, feeling it right, causing Lenny to make some sharp comments, but Lenny doesn't understand the whole story. Driving towards Margate to complete the task, the three remember earlier years. Ray recalls how he had an affair with Jack's wife Amy, the trysts happening in Ray's camper van, often on the days when she was meant to be visiting June. It emerges that Vic, who entered the family undertaking business after meeting the other three during the war, is the happiest, the others all having unfulfilled ambitions. Ray wanted to be a jockey, Lenny hankered to be a boxer, while Jack had always wanted to become a doctor. Visiting Canterbury Cathedral to say a prayer for Jack, Ray finds out about a bet he had put on for Jack in his last days, £1000 on a hot tip at 33 to 1, allowing him to pay all Jack's debts and let Amy live without monetary worries for the rest of her life. As the four reach Margate Pier and throw Jack's ashes into the sea, Amy has also made her own mind up about her life....
Review:
Based on the Booker Prize winning novel by Graham Swift, Fred Schepisi's film version of the complex, intertwining tale is beautifully judged in balancing both humour and pathos. The unravelling narratives of the three main characters showing their dealings with both the late Jack and how their bright, optimistic futures have dimmed into drudgery, livened only by occasional highlights, is perfectly paced. Only Vic, seemingly the most dour of the three, has achieved happiness by entering the family undertaking business. The leads, Caine, Hoskins, Courtney, Winstone and Helen Mirren as the put-upon Amy, whose ambitions have also been dimmed over the years, play their parts superbly, and the piece manages to be sentimental and effecting without becoming mawkish, preferring to face up to the realities of long-term friendships. Superbly judged and wonderfully acted and directed.
