Danielle De Colombie
Gary Oldman plays real life British 60's sensation Joe Orton, the author of "Entertaining Mr. Sloane". His performance, for me, goes at the very core of a gallery of real life characters who run the gamut from A to Z and then some. From Sid Vicious to Ludwig Van Beethoven, from Lee Harvey Oswald to Joe Orton and in 2017 Winston Churchill - not to mention fictional literary characters like Count Dracula. With Joe Orton, Gary Oldman reaches some kind of mountain top. He finds innocence in this emotional and sexual misfit and he projects Orton's genius with a profound flawed humanity. His tragic lover is played by another extraordinary actor, Alfred Molina - I've just seen him in "Feud" playing Robert Aldrich with such virtuosity that I have developed a personal relationship with Aldrich as if I knew him personally. Oldman and Molina create something we've never seen before and Stephen Frears know exactly how to capture it. As if this wasn't enough, Vanessa Redgrave play's Orton's agent. Even if you've never heard of Joe Orton, do yourself a favor, venture into this dark and human universe.
Jackson Booth-Millard
I had heard the title of this British film a few times, I remembered the leading actor in it, and it was 30 years old in 2017, so I was hoping for something worthwhile, directed by Stephen Frears (My Beautiful Laundrette, The Queen, Philomena, Florence Foster Jenkins). Based on the true story, it tells the story of the life and death of gay playwright Joe Orton (BAFTA nominated Gary Oldman), and his lover Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina). The story is told in flashback, as Orton's friend Peggy Ramsay (BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Vanessa Redgrave), the theatrical agent who discovered his talent for both writing, she tells his story to John Lahr (Wallace Shawn), who is writing Orton's biography. Orton met Halliwell as a teenager at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, Halliwell was older and more reserved, the two begin a relationship, but it is not all just about sex. At the time, sexually activity homosexuality was illegal, Orton loves the dangers of bath-houses and liaisons in public restrooms, but Halliwell is not as charming attractive as Orton, he does not fare as well. As their relationship progresses, Orton grows increasingly confident in his talent for writing, but Halliwell's writing stagnates, and they become like a traditional married couple, with Orton being the "husband", and Halliwell being the long suffering and increasingly ignored. In the 60s, Orton achieves fame with his plays, with "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" and "Loot" becoming huge hits, and he is commissioned to write a screenplay for The Beatles, Halliwell is becoming increasingly jealous of his success. In the end, in 1967, a despondent Halliwell kills 34-year-old Orton, bludgeoning him with nine hammer blows to the head, he leaves a message in Orton's diary, and commits suicide with an overdose of 22 tablets washed down with grapefruit juice. Also starring Julie Walters as Elsie Orton, Lindsay Duncan as Anthea Lahr, James Grant as William Orton, Frances Barber as Leonie Orton, Sean Pertwee as Orton's Friend, Richard Wilson as Psychiatrist, Steven Mackintosh as Simon Ward, Roger Lloyd Pack as Actor and David Bradley as Undertaker. Oldman gives a marvellous performance as the flamboyant and promiscuous cheeky chappy, and Molina packs a surprise punch as Orton's troubled mentor. Obviously many people will know it all ends in tragedy and murder, but the majority of the film before has a fantastic script, with hilarious one-liners (the "have a w**k" sequence being a highlight), only the little bits of Orton's career are focused, it is more interesting with the perspectives of being homosexual in the 1960s, all in all it a most worthwhile biographical drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay for Alan Bennett. Gary Oldman was number 40 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was number 11 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, and he was number 36 on The World's Greatest Actor. Very good!
bkoganbing
Before writing this I saw an interview with Kenneth Williams best known as being part of the Carry On troupe. He gave some interesting insights into Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. As a gay man himself Williams experienced and felt the same things in the days before sodomy laws were repealed in the United Kingdom, considerably before they were in the USA. The pressures of living as a couple increased exponentially especially a May/August couple as Orton and Halliwell were.Joe Orton whose work I'd like to see and is curiously unavailable is played by Gary Oldman and we see him as a young writer befriended and mentored by Kenneth Halliwell who is older and played by Alfred Molina. Williams says that in his opinion there is no doubt the influence that Halliwell had on Orton's work. But they were two very different types of personality and probably were fated to come apart. Especially when Halliwell who mentored Orton was not finding any success with his own writing. In the end it destroyed them.Great Britain had some strict sodomy laws as Oscar Wilde was living testimony to. Gay artists however got different treatments depending on who their patrons were. Oscar Wilde and the Orton/Halliwell duo in their respective generations were treated one way. But Noel Coward moved at the highest levels of British society and he had a Teflon like immunity from what befell the other three.The film is told in flashback with Vanessa Redgrave as Orton's agent telling his biographer Wallace Shawn what the two were about individually and separately. Both Oldman and Molina were brilliant.I can't help thinking that if they could have been traditionally married back then, they could also have been traditionally divorced when the love faded. That certainly would have been better all around.But then we would not have had this fascinating tragedy.
