Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring John Simm, Shirley Henderson, Shaun Kirk, Robert Kirk, Katrina Kirk, Stephanie Kirk, Darren Tighe, Valerie Lilley Club, IFI, Dublin, 106 min
Michael Winterbottom has sometimes been accused of hurrying through projects. The British director can knock together three features in the time it takes most film-makers to replace the batteries in their megaphone. No such suggestion can be levelled at this stubbornly immobile prison drama.
Following the quiet travails of an English family as they wait for Dad to serve a five-year term, the picture was shot in something like real time. Each year for half a decade, Winterbottom gathered together his cast and filmed another prison visit, another unsatisfactory Christmas, another frustrating day release.
John Simm and Shirley Henderson, playing the convict and his largely tolerant wife, gain the odd crease and the occasional grey hair. But you couldn’t honestly say that either appears that worn down by the passing years. The experiment really makes sense when you cast an eye at their children. Shaun, Stephanie, Katrina and Robert Kirk, a real family of amateurs, alter personality and demeanour in a manner that is genuinely spooky. Character development has never before been quite so developed.
By its very nature, the experiment prohibits any tight, propulsive storytelling. A few delicate narrative arcs are, however, gradually unveiled. Henderson is spotted hanging around with another man. Simm gets told off for sneaking a lump of hash into prison. But these are mere diversions.The film’s main purpose is to accurately convey the state of limbo that overcomes those waiting for a loved one’s release.
Everyday also almost obsessively non-judgemental: Simm seems like a nice man; the prison employees are never anything other than polite. The stasis could have been offputting. But, utilising fluid shots of the English countryside set to one of Michael Nyman’s most dynamic scores, Winterbottom makes something surprisingly lyrical of the non-story. A slightly shorter version of the picture has already screened on Channel 4, but Everyday does profit from a wide screen and theatrical sound.
Winterbottom’s next picture, a tale of Soho sex barons, is screening at Sundance as you read. Normal service is hereby resumed.
