HOPE GAP

Writer and Director
William Nicholson
(FIRELIGHT)

Starring
Bill Nighy, Annette Bening and Josh O’Connor

Two-time Oscar-nominated writer for SHADOWLANDS and GLADIATOR, William Nicholson brings his Tony award-nominated play The Retreat from Moscow to the silver screen in this British drama, which is based on a part of his own life.

The character that William Nicholson unofficially represents in HOPE GAP is Jamie (played by Netflix series The Crown and EMMA actor Josh O’Connor). A city man living alone and quite some distance away from the seaside town his parents, teacher Edward (Bill Nighy) and writer Grace (Annette Bening) reside, Jamie travels to visit them on the eve of their 29th wedding anniversary. But something is very wrong. Edward is most certainly very unhappy and appears to have checked out of the marriage. Grace on the other hand seems to be conscious of her husband’s distance to her, but continually attempts to provoke any kind of reaction she can from the apathetic Edward to get him to speak up. When Edward informs Jamie of his intentions to leave Grace, each of their lives and relationships with one another face fresh complexities and challenges.

Hope Gap (2019)

HOPE GAP is a small film that I feel is well described as being a challenging relationships drama that will be rewarding viewing for certain audiences. Judging by the synopsis, you could be led to thinking that HOPE GAP is a character study film. It is not. Though there’s no doubt that William Nicholson’s screenplay invites viewers introspection’s for each of the three lead characters, the emphasis throughout really is on their relationships, perceptions and on how they each deal with those changes and emotions. It was my broadening and deepening genuine interest in these evolving facets that bonded me to this film. Many sentiments are shared and lines of dialogue stated by the characters of this film that resonated closely with me. Some just broke my heart.

But it wasn’t always this way. A significant part of that challenging aspect I mentioned earlier belongs with the character of Grace. Her speech often consists of repeating words spoken to her by others as questions, and she is quite a destructive and self-pitying character with a tendency to over-dramatise her situations. It can be extremely irritating to bear at times. However, if you can identify enough of the vulnerabilities that four-time Oscar nominated actress Annette Bening lends to Grace, then your eventual understanding of her will most definitely extend your tolerance and enable some empathy. If you’re ‘getting the feels’ for what I’m describing here, then I’d suggest that HOPE GAP will surely be worth the watch.