Movie Review: Third Star

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Third Star Written by Vaughan Sivell, Directed by Hattie Dalton

In Selected Cinemas Now

Description: James (Benedict Cumberbatch) wants to make the most of this life – what’s left of it.

He invites his three closest friends to join him on a camping trip to his favourite place in the world. The undertaking, however, is fraught with practical difficulties, surreal encounters and emotionally ravaging revelations. For his best friend Miles (JJ Field), the trip means wrestling with the gloomy reality that the ones he loves tend to die. For Davy (Tom Burke) it’s about being there and holding the effort together – while for Bill (Adam Robertson) it’s about running away from the mistakes he’s made and the comfortable trap that is his life. Each step of the journey is one step further from the past and to a brave new world about courage, dignity and the beauty that lies in the friendship between these four young men.

This review is based on a theatrical viewing I paid for myself

Lady-T’s Review:

I’m not sure quite what I was expecting from this movie. The general consensus online seemed to be that tissues were mandatory and “heavy-but-worthy” was the name of the game. Which is, I have to say, a rotten disservice to this beautiful, genuinely funny, touchingly honest movie.

For those half a dozen people out there who saw and didn’t hate Darren Aronofsky’s fantastic but maudlin epic The Fountain, you might be forgiven for going in suspecting a faint similarity of theme, but if there is one it’s really more of a passing glance. Cancer may be stealing a central character from each, and the theological questions about life and death are somewhat inevitable, but while The Fountain had an edge of the fantastical and a viscerally torturous railing against fate, Third Star takes a much less affected, less mysticised approach to the whole idea.

The four boys (and they really are still boys, regardless of age) are quite tangibly variations of people you’ve probably met. They talk rubbish and get pissed off with each other in the way that, actually, yes, real people do sometimes. It could be easy to be offended by the things they say; by the occasional casual misogyny or persistent disregard for anything but themselves, but there is something recognisable about that too. Anyone with brothers, or who’s been stuck in a male-dominated workplace, or even just sat next to a group of guys on a train can probably admit “You know, that IS the kind of bollocks they talk about when left on their own…”

In that regard it’s really sort of joy to see boys recognisably being boys, in all their awkward real-life imperfection, because the film is so much more about those relationships than the lingering spectre of mortality that’s driving them. The disease is a catalyst, not the focus, which is why I say that making it the talking point of any review is actually such a disservice. It’s not really about those big old eternal questions of life and death and mortality, it’s about people, and even if you work out where it’s all ultimately leading it’s the method and the reasons that are the harrowing kick to the stomach, far more so than the somewhat inevitable conclusion itself.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the performances, of course. Tom Burke (I Want Candy), Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock, War Horse), JJ Field (Captain America, Northanger Abbey) and Adam Robertson (Wire In The Blood) share the responsibility of the lead. As characters they’re individually very different from each other, but meshed together you can pretty much feel the long friendship and lifetime of association. The chemistry between them all is again very real, very boyish, but never feels like it’s exclusive or unavailable to the audience. Vaughan Sivell’s script feels like it was written with great affection, both for the characters and the stage of life they’re floundering in; that sense of protracted youth that spreads into the late-20s with a certain sense of lassitude before sneaking up to remind you that you still haven’t done any of the things you thought you should have by now. I know for me that resonates quite strongly and in some respects feels more like the point of the film than James’ impending death.

In a sense then, Third Star is part comedy buddy movie, part character-exploration-road-trip, and yet it’s really neither of those things. In the same way that real life does not work like the movies have led us to believe, Cumberbatch’s James suffers in a tremendously un-glamorous, matter-of-fact way. His veneer of forced cheer over repressed fury is touchingly believable, but it succeeds without drowning out the various flaws, needs and motivations of Bill, Davy and Miles. They’re all equally messed up, just in very different fashions and it’s to the credit of everyone involved that the film remains so even-handed when there are such strong individual performances throughout. It feels very collaborative when in other situations I imagine it could have very easily turned into a battle for screen-time.

There’s symbolism aplenty if you want to look for it as well, Eros Vlahos’ rotten little angel boy and Hugh Bonneville’s frankly astonishing beachcomber slot in nicely to keep things moving without beating you too hard over the head with their archetypes, and Hattie Dalton’s direction grounds it all in beautifully evocative and reflective scenery. I imagine it must be a constant temptation to turn everything into a promotional video for the Pembrokeshire coast but it’s all rather neatly reigned in and quite tightly edited. At a fraction over an hour and a half your attention is never going to wander very far. It doesn’t really need to, the boys do plenty of wandering for you.

Third Star has been on very limited release in the UK and USA (Find Locations) but it comes out on R2 DVD in September and if you can find a way of watching it you should do so. It’s independent film like it really should be; accessible, entertaining and thought-provoking.

As a side-note, the screening I attended was followed by a Q&A with the writer/producer Vaughan Sivell and if you get the chance to go to one of these then really do make the effort. He’s an enormously entertaining and informative speaker and, I feel compelled to add, just seemed like an all-around very nice man. You won’t regret the extra time tacked on at the end.

(Photo credit: Jamie Stoker)

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  • Rachel

    Sounds fantastic!  Thanks for the review.