POETIC BEAUTY // A FILM REVIEW OF "SET FIRE TO THE STARS"
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas was a well-known and very popular poet during his lifetime, but always had trouble making ends meet. He was forced to go on tours, record voiceovers, and do lectures for money. It also didn't help that he spent much of this money on booze. He was a beautiful writer and often a drunk party guest, often going out of his way to be shocking. Literary critic and American poet John Brinnin was fascinated by Thomas and invited him on a three month tour of the states, and the new film SET FIRE TO THE STARS does capsulate that time period with a lovely, poetic grace.
Elijah Wood plays Brinnin, the man who would bring the famed poet stateside and bring him around to tour, hoping to boost his own career in the process. Celyn Jones is Thomas, and plays him with a romantic soul but a bullying sensibility and a need for alcohol and women. "How much trouble can one poet be?" asks Brinnin. As it turns out, a lot of trouble. Thomas goes out of his way to be a drunken mess, always preferring to have a good time regardless of who is harmed in the process. He's mean and often cruel to Brinnin, yet underneath he seems frightened of himself without the layering of booze surrounding his soul. Manhattan agrees with Thomas, perhaps a bit too well, so Brinnin takes him to upstate Connecticut so he can prepare in peace for a very important stop at Yale.
While there, Thomas spots a couple, "The Lottery" author Shirley Jackson (Shirley Henderson) and her husband, Stanley (Kevin Eldon). He invites them to dinner (without asking Brinnin of course) and the evening turns into a strange, dreamy trip of drinking and longing. There's also the issue of a letter that Thomas is unable, or unwilling, to open. It's from his wife Caitlin (Kelly Reilly) and Brinnin pushes for him to open it, but he cannot. From scene to scene, the story is told in gorgeous black and white, sometimes literal, sometimes poetically, shuffling through the three month tour of New York that Dylan Thomas made with Brinnin. And it's a trip worth taking.
Jones is wonderful and magnetic as Thomas. He bears a striking physical resemblance to him and not only showcases his genius but also his darkness and cruelty. Director Andy Goddard (who co-wrote the script with Jones) skillfully plays up the dreamlike quality of the journey to make it standout, amongst a sea of "bio pics." We don't see the beginning of his life, nor the end, but only a fraction of time as America was falling in love with his words, back in a time where drunkenness was often thought of as a necessary partner with genius. Elijah Wood is solid as the American poet trying to hold onto his coattails to his own glory. And the sequence in Connecticut with Shirley Henderson and Kevin Eldon is magical. It's not standard straightforward storytelling, and that's exactly why I liked it so. SET FIRE TO THE STARS will give you a taste of the beauty and pain that surrounded one of our greatest poets, and will make you thirsty for more. Thankfully, with a local trip to your favorite bookstore, you will find what you're looking for.
MATEO'S GRADE: B+
Written by Andy Goddard and Celyn Jones Directed by Andy Goddard Starring Elijah Wood, Celyn Jones, Kelly Reilly, Steven Mackintosh, Shirley Henderson, Kevin Eldon.
MATEO MORENO recently won a bet on who could hold their breath the longest underwater. He won the bet, having beat local loudmouth Jimmy "Thunderbird" Thomas with a record breaking "fourteen minutes." True, part of that time was him unconscious and the other part was him being revived, but he still counts it, and is now $20 richer. Take THAT Thunderbird! He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.