You might want to take
note of Irish actress Seána Kerslake, who seemed to have come and gone with her
2012 performance in writer/director Kirsten Sheridan’s Dollhouse, as she is back
and nothing short of a standout in Irish filmmaker Darren Thornton’s film
adaptation of the Yasmine Akram stage play, “10 Dates for Mad Mary” — titled for the screen as A Date for Mad Mary.
Wolfe announced this past
week that the domestic DVD rollout for A Date for Mad Mary will take place
on Nov. 7.
To say that Mary (Seána Kerslake)
is angry is an understatement. She
literally returns to society after six months in the clink to be the maid of
honor at her friend Charlene’s wedding (Charleigh Bailey). Bad enough, the timing and all of that, but
in her absence things between her and Charlene have changed, and that heightens
the anger and frustration that Mary is wearing on her sleeve.
Oh, and one other little
nagging detail, Mary needs a date for the wedding, and Charlene won’t let her
off the hook!
After a series of disastrous
dates, which serve as both comic relief and to further bring out Mary’s
complete lack of people skills (she is her own worst enemy) — imagine a young
person, male or female, walking around blind, knowing; sensing that something
is wrong, but just can’t put a finger on it.
We get to a point where we feel for Mary (Seána Kerslake is just
outstanding in sketching out Mary’s persona), but there is also this sense that
things are going to go south in a hurry.
In addition to finding a
date for the wedding, Mary is charged with recruiting a videographer to record
the blessed event. And this brings us
to Jess (Tara Lee — The Odd Life of Timothy Green, Moon Dogs), who gets the
assignment, and a change of outlook for Mary.
Their friendship brings Mary to the realization that she is quite insane
… insane in the sense of doing the same things over and over again and
expecting a different result.
A Date for Mad Mary is a coming-of-age film that is not presented as
a coming-of-age film. It is only when it
begins to dawn on Mary that everyone is moving on in their lives, while she is
still fighting the same emotional battles of the past, that real change for her
can take place. There are some nice
twists and turns along the way … but life is like that, even for “Mad Mary.”
Bonus features include a
behind-the-scenes featurette and a closed captioning option (the Irish brogue
can be a bit daunting here and there for the American ear).
No comments:
Post a Comment