KARLOVY VARY – One of the toughest things in life is to realize you are losing a connection to a close friend, especially a best friend. That’s the central theme in Darren Thornton’s “A Date for Mad Mary” which strangely premiered without enough pre-screening fanfare at the 51st Karlovy Vary Film Festival. But something tells us the buzz on this impressive first film will slowly start to make its way across the indie world.
Based on an original theatrical monologue (not a play mind you), Thornton and his brother and co-screenwriter Colin Thornton have crafted an Irish drama that begins with the “mad” girl in question, Mary (relative newcomer Seána Kerslake), being released from a six-month prison sentence. Even if you went into ‘Mad Mary’ without knowing the title you would quickly guess this twentysomething isn’t exactly a bundle of joy. Living at home with a mother dying to get back on the dance floor (Denise McCormack) and a grandmother (Barbara Brennan) whose first words upon her return are disparaging remarks about Polish immigrants moving into the neighborhood, Mary’s working class environment isn’t brimming with opportunity. What has kept Mary going, however, is her lifelong friendship with Charlene (Charleigh Bailey) who is about to be married, a wedding where our heroine is still expected to be the Maid of Honor.
Mary may be angry over her current circumstances, but she talks glowingly of Charlene, a childhood friend and her former party partner in crime. She soon becomes distressed, however, when her BFF ignores her calls to hit the town for a pint like they would in the good ol’ days. Moreover, it isn’t difficult for anyone other than Mary to recognize what a faux friendly show Charlene is putting on when they eventually meet up. In fact, outside of a random run in at a local restaurant, Charlene is clearly attempting to set up boundaries where their social interactions are almost exclusively centered on the upcoming nuptials. Mary first realizes her incarceration has changed their relationship when Charlene casually informs her she’s rescinded her plus one (how could she get a date while in prison?). Mary’s ego gets the best of her and she stupidly insists she already has one. Thus begins a mad scramble for our heroine to find a fake companion that will properly impress Charlene.
If ‘Mad Mary’ were a conventional indie, let alone a studio flick, a majority of the plot would be centered on Mary’s search for the ideal date. And, if you’ve seen any Working Title or quirky U.K. indie over the past 20 years you could probably write the rest of the screenplay without watching another minute of the movie (you can already see the trailer focused on just this aspect of the plot). Thankfully, the Thorntons are much more interested in making Mary a three-dimensional character than going after predictable laughs, even if a good bit of her search is quite funny. The true focus of the picture is whether Mary can come to grips with the changes going on around her, but based on her post-jail behavior that’s no easy task. We see how belligerent she becomes when she hits the local dance club (the bouncers know her by name for all the wrong reasons) and her social skills with even the kindest of people are often cringeworthy.
There is a familiarity to her predicament. Most of us have had some sort of Mary in our lives, but why is this particular Mary so angry? Is it because her father left her at a young age? Is it the fact she finds herself stuck working at a low paying sandwich shop? The movie hints at some answers including a thankfully casual exploration of her sexuality, but as long as Mary begins to see the consequences of her actions then the why may not be as important as the now.
Kerslake earned some notoriety for her performance in the 2012 indie “Dollhouse,” but this is her true coming out party. Mary could easily been portrayed as a cliché of angry working class youth, but Kerslake let’s just enough of her pain seep through to make you root for her even when she probably doesn’t deserve the audience’s sympathy. In a perfect world it’s the sort of star-making performance that should garner attention on both sides of the Atlantic.
As for the rest of he cast, Charlene could have been portrayed as something of a villain, but Bailey and the filmmakers do a fine job of making sure she has just as well rounded as Mary. Tara Lee is the film’s surprise secret weapon delivering a magnetic turn as Jess, Mary’s unexpected love interest. Siobhan Shanahan provides some comic relief as Charlene’s other bitchy bridesmaid Leona, but you wish the Thortons had given her slightly more to work with.
Director Darren Thornton stumbles now and again (a confrontation during a live performance is staged rather awkwardly for example), but he displays impressive skill in guiding grounded performances from his entire ensemble. Thornton is given a boost from cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland’s lensing which balances an indie and studio aesthetic as well as an electronic score by Stephen Rennicks (“Room”) that adds an emotional punch right when the picture needs it.
What’s most impressive about ‘Mad Mary,’ however, is its inspired depiction of the end of a friendship. It’s almost never mutual, almost always painful and, for one of the parties, always hard to come to peace with. And, there is almost always a Mary who simply doesn’t want to say goodbye. [B+]
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