Synopsis: In the small town of Weatherby, schoolteacher Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave) lives alone but seems to have found a peace that eludes her married friends. Then one evening an uninvited guest ends up at one of her dinner parties; the next day he returns and without as much as giving a hint as to why, shoots himself dead in Jean's kitchen. He's John Morgan (Tim McInnerny), a student with almost no connection to Jean or any of her friends. The police know the death was a suicide but detective Mike Langdon (Stuart Wilson) seeks to unravel the mystery anyway, arranging for a college acquaintance of Morgan's, Karen Creasy (Suzanna Hamilton) to appear at Jean's doorstep. But, like everyone else in the film, Langdon is disturbed by the suicide because it taps into a lingering doubt in his own personal life.
Weatherby looks at a placid Yorkshire town and finds not a Peyton Place of scandal but a more credible center of unease and disappointment. The carefully modulated screenplay starts with people remarking on how Margaret Thatcher is ruining the country, mostly expressing their acute sense of powerlessness. Roger and Verity Braithwaite (Tom Wilkinson and Marjorie Yates) turn a simple discussion into an argument, while Stanley and Marcia Pilborough (Ian Holm and Judi Dench) avoid interaction by retreating into forced attitudes or strong drink. Only the single Jean Travers seems a pillar of inner strength, an illusion forced to the surface by a meaningless violent incident.
The strength of the show is that the behaviors of its characters are so interesting, we don't mind that the loose ends of the mystery do not neatly resolve themselves. Learning more about these people is reward enough. The proceedings also never become maudlin or depressing. Through flashbacks, we learn about Jean's youthful romance with a young soldier (where she's played with equal clarity by Joely Richardson) and also about hidden details of Jean's one encounter with John Morgan before his suicide.
Weatherby makes no distinction in age or social class for its portrait of modern alienation. The honest policeman Langdon doesn't fit in with the rowdy office games of his station mates. Librarian Marcia Pilborough seeks solace in feigned cheerfulness and seems to enjoy being a bureaucratic obstruction to patrons unfamiliar with library rules. Her lawyer-husband Stanley is acutely aware of the emptiness in his life. All of these people seem able to connect with Jean, who is revealed to be just as emotionally wounded.
The surprise is that the 'younger generation' has reached the same dead-end much more quickly. One of Jean's students is disenchanted with school and education and leaves for London in hope of a better life after Jean is unable to provide reassurance. John Morgan's soul-sickness is a much more serious problem. The disturbed man seeks honesty and truth from women but mostly stalks and harasses them, as if he were owed reciprocation to his overtures. The previous subject of his attention, Karen Creasy, is equally unstable: Overreacting to Morgan's emotional demands, she becomes hostile when anyone gets too close.
Director Hare reveals much more detail with his carefully paced script. We're always attentive and each scene rewards us with a new puzzle piece. The film makes a big distinction between the freshness (ignorance?) of young love and the later onset of emotional desperation. Weatherby is about human isolation and maladjustment, yet its characters are hopeful.
The timeframe of the film is somewhat confusing. Jean is only 50-something, which would make her between four and eight years old during WW2. The young lovers talk about seeing The Third Man, a movie from four years after the war. Yet the young man is going off to be stationed in Malaya. Either the critics have something confused, or David Hare is deliberately mixing up dates in the same way Stanley and Marcia Pilborough say people can't even remember who Nixon was, ten years after his resignation.
Home Vision's DVD of Weatherby is a fine enhanced transfer with rich color. The mono track bursts to life with Nick Bricat and Tony Britten's lush score. A couple of lines are difficult to understand but the audio is clear overall. There are no extras except for some text bios; Brian McFarlane provides a good liner note essay.
For more information about Wetherby, visit Home Vision Entertainment. To order Wetherby, go to TCM Shopping.
by Glenn Erickson
