esrosedotblog

TRUE STORY

Today's movie was pretty tough to take.

Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be executed (by hanging) in Great Britain and Dance With A Stranger (1985) tells her story.

Miranda Richardson, Rupert Everett, and Ian Holm are seen early in their careers and give really great performances as (respectively) Ellis and the cad who she loved and the man who supported and took care of her. It is not a secret which one she murdered since all England was obsessed with the case for years. But I won't tell you.

The film directed my Mike Newell is rivetting. This despite the fact that, once again, we had trouble getting through the accents; a demonstration that you do not have to understand all the dialogue to get the picture. I did sort of cry at the end after all. Something worked.

Newell did Donny Brasco with the Depper (also a true story) and that movie had the same gritty realism while keeping the thriller thing going. I do not think that this is easy to do at all. Brasco was also based on a true story.

This is a 4 out of a Netflix5 and I wish they had English subtitles (which many heavily accented British films do).