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YOUNG ADAM

2003
UK/France
Film Council (UK), HanWay Films (Au), Recorded Picture Company (RPC) (UK), Scottish Screen (UK), Sveno Media (Fr)
Director: David Mackenzie
Story: Based on a novel by Alexander Trocchi
Screenplay: David Mackenzie
Music: David Byrne
Cinematography: Giles Nuttgens
Editor: Colin Monie
Art director: Stuart Rose
Cast : Ewan McGregor (Joe Taylor), Tilda Swinton (Ella Gault), Peter Mullan (Les Gault), Emily Mortimer (Cathie Dimly), Jack McElhone (Jim Gault), Therese Bradley (Gwen), Ewan Stewart (Daniel Gordon), Stuart McQuarrie (Bill), Pauline Turner (Connie), Alan Cooke (Bob M'bussi), Rory McCann (Sam), Ian Hanmore (freight supervisor), Andrew Neil (barman), Arnold Brown (bowler hat man), Meg Fraser (stall woman), Stuart Bowman (black steet pub man), Wullie Brennan (black steet pub man), Rony Bridges (black steet pub man), John Kazek (black steet pub man), Duncan McHardy (black steet pub man), Stewart Porter (black steet pub man), Malcolm Shields (black steet pub man), Tam Dean Burn (black steet barman), Michael Carter (prosecutor), Struan Rodger (judge), Mathew Zajac (forensics expert), Mhairi Steenbock (Cathie's flatmate), John Comerford (jury foreman), Anne Marie Timoney (Mrs. Gordon), John Yule (clerk of the court), Sandy Neilson (defence counsel), Des Hamilton (witness), Eddie Dahlstrom (blind man)

Here’s a genuine curiosity: a British film that draws its influences from the existentialist cinema that emerged in Europe during the late 1950’s. It was marketed as something of a murder mystery, which was rather unfair as it’s only a thriller in the same way as was Godard’s Au Bout de Souffle. The central theme is the alienation and self-obsession of the central character, whose selfish ways destroy virtually everybody around him. Of course, a true existentialist would claim this as a liberation rather than destruction, but today we can possibly take a more balanced viewpoint.

Set in the 1950s (reflecting the cinematic concerns), the story revolves around Joe Taylor (Ewen McGregor), a young drifter whose rootlessness is symbolised by the backpack he carries everywhere with him. This fecklessness is not confined to his living circumstances; he is equally unable to commit to any kind of relationship except on the most superficial of levels.

Whilst working on a barge owned by Les and Ella Gault (Peter Mullen and Tilda Swinton), he fishes the corpse of a young woman from the canal. The police suspect that her lover is the murderer, and he is put on trial. In fact, she had been Joe’s former girlfriend, and had died after accidentally falling from a quay during an argument with him. Whilst wrestling (rather half-heartedly) with his conscience, he commences an affair with Ella, Ella’s sister and virtually anybody else who happens to be handy.

Young Adam is a slow moving, sombre film. It is to be greatly applauded for having the self-confidence to be quiet: so much British cinema is verbally orientated, but here the excellent soundtrack and Giles Nuttgens’ effective cinematography are really allowed to carry the show. The period setting is also effective, with the life of the bargemen shown to be unforgiving, but at the same time curiously liberating (albeit doomed).

Despite appearing in some terrible Hollywood films, McGregor remains an extremely talented actor with the knack for choosing interesting domestic projects. He’s in just about every scene here, and manages to carry of a difficult role: Joe is hardly a sympathetic character, with his penchant for affairs with married women reflecting his general lack of consideration for others.

It also has to be said that McGregor has a fabulous face for cinema; there’s something of a young Belmondo or Alan Bates about him (much helped by the fact that he smokes throughout, making this a true paean to the cinematic glories of the cigarette). Let’s just hope he keeps on working on productions like this as well as populist piffle like the Star Wars films. The ladies may like to note that he does full frontal nudity here, as well as a number of quite graphic (and entirely unerotic) sex scenes (the one involving custard and tomato ketchup – amongst other condiments – is particularly amusing).

Anybody expecting a fully self-contained, TV-style mystery is likely to be rather frustrated. A number of questions are left firmly unanswered: what exactly is Joe’s background? What happens to him after the conclusion of the trial? And who the hell is the titular ‘Young Adam’? Similarly, much of the running time is taken up with shots of the central characters puttering up and down the canals in the rickety barge whilst looking enigmatic (which makes a change from the endless driving around in cars - looking equally inscrutable - that characterised the cinematique existential, sixties style).

The DVD is fabulous quality, and comes with a decent assortment of extras. There’s a short documentary, The Making of Young Adam, which isn’t so much a ‘making of…’ documentary as a series of short interviews with the director and actors. They all seem considerably eloquent – most particularly Tilda Swinton – and it sounds as though it must have been a pleasant shoot, but there isn’t really that much interesting info about the background to the film. McGregor, who seems like a thoroughly decent chap, also supplies an audio commentary, and best of all there’s an isolated version of ex-Talking Head David Byrne’s magnificent score.

One thing that would have been useful is a bit more information about Alexander Trocchi, the author upon whose novel this was based. Born in Glasgow in 1925, he was an interesting character with a colourful life: after hanging out in Paris with the likes of Cocteau and Becket, he moved to – and was jailed for drug use in – New York . An inveterate junkie, he wasn’t the nicest of characters and prostituted his wife to pay for his habit before working as a scow captain. He moved back to the UK in the 1960s, working as a translator and bookseller. A firm feature of the counterculture, he made regular television appearances in drug-related debates (he was still a hopeless addict until his death) and counted the likes of Leonard Cohen and RD Laing amongst his associates. He also appeared as an ‘actor’ in the late Anthony (Horror Hospital) Balch and William Burroughs’ experimental Towers Open Fire (63).

Matt B