The Arbor——————————-6/10
A Documentary Directed by Clio Barnard, Starring Manjinder Virk, Christine Bottomley and Natalie Gavin
Fandango Synopsis- A mix of documentary and fictional elements tells the story of doomed playwright Andrea Dunbar, who wrote about the difficult life she endured growing up in England’s Bradford housing projects. Archival footage featuring Dunbar is presented, along with interviews with family members, including her daughter, Lorraine, who led a similarly troubled life. Excerpts from Dunbar’s most famous play, “The Arbor,” are performed on the streets of her hometown and at Buttershaw Estates, where she lived.
Positives- The best thing about THE ARBOR is the characters. These are real people and the film doesn’t try to make you feel a certain way about them, but instead presents them as they are. There aren’t any perfect or evil people here, just humans existing, making choices, sometimes terrible ones and living with the consequences of those choices and what life has dealt them.
THE ARBOR also gives you an unbiased matter of fact view into a side of England that isn’t often enough shown in films. These people grow up and live in a very poor and rough neighborhood, but it’s normal to them.
The best scenes in the film are when specifics scenes from the Andrea Dunbar play are acted out in public. It’s done in a way unlike I’d really seen before. The scenes take place outdoors right in the middle of the neighborhood, with people looking on. Being unfamiliar with Dunbar’s work, I wished there had been a lot more of these. Natalie Gavin playing “The Girl” in these scenes was very good.
Negatives-The big debate coming away from THE ARBOR will be about its experimental style as a documentary. It has actors lip-syncing to the original recordings of the people in Dunbar’s life. I found that the lip-syncing worked AT TIMES, but for the most part was a big mistake. I often found it awkward and silly, serving to significantly lessen the emotional impact of these people’s stories. It was so unnatural that at times I found it laughable even though they are talking about some dark and heavy things. ( For example an actor lip-syncing words from an ex-boyfriend of Dunbar’s stands over a car he is fixing, says two lines of dialogue and then looks away and goes back to fixing ) It’s a very real life they are digging into, so it’s disappointing these scenes felt so staged. If you put the real people, with their aged faces on screen to tell their harrowing stories, the impact could have been huge.
I think being unfamiliar with Dunbar’s material hurt the film for me. You hear about some horrible, ugly things that people had to live through and have done, but without the connection to the material there was a lack of context. I don’t feel I got to know these people well, so it made me wonder why any of it really matters to me. I had no connection to the lip-syncing actors and didn’t know the real people, so I had little in which to connect. Making THE ARBOR as a regular dramatic feature or a more intimate Documentary with the real people could possibly have made this a special film.
Verdict- I think THE ARBOR is a decent film, but I cannot help looking at it as a missed opportunity. There are tough, heartbreaking stories to be told around the life on Andrea Dunbar, but the experimental lip-syncing style of this Doc undermined the material. I still think there are things to like about the film. The non-judgemental, matter-of-fact view of the neighborhood and the people in Dunbar’s life was refreshing and the scenes from her play acted out in the neighborhood were a high point. So, I think there is rich material, but weak execution, which makes THE ARBOR an interesting, but ultimately frustrating and mediocre film. It could be worth a watch, but there are plenty of better films to seek out.
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