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>>> Period pic Sunset Song soars

SUNSET SONG (Terence Davies). 135 minutes. Opens Friday (May 13). See Listing. Rating: NNNN


Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s novel about a young Scots woman’s maturation and adulthood in the early years of the 20th century becomes a series of emotional grace notes in the hands of writer/director Terence Davies (The Long Day Closes, The Deep Blue Sea). 

Agyness Deyn makes a striking lead as Chris Guthrie, who struggles to escape the shadow of her ferociously religious father (Peter Mullan, doing his Peter Mullan thing) and define herself as her own woman, even as she’s drawn toward a young man (Kevin Guthrie) from the village. 

Davies glides the story elegantly through time, finding beauty in Chris’s world as well as despair and letting her struggle for independence stand as the proto-feminist choice it is. A shift in tone and perspective very nearly undermines the final movement, but Deyn’s performance holds it together.    

Don’t miss our feature, 5 reasons you should care about Sunset Song.

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