Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Based on a memoir by Peter Turner, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool details the final days of one-time movie star Gloria Grahame – with a specific emphasis on her unusual relationship with a struggling actor (Jamie Bell’s Peter). Filmmaker Paul McGuigan is clearly mining very familiar territory here and indeed, large swaths of Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool come off as hackneyed and meandering, and yet the proliferation of positive elements ultimately does make it difficult to dismiss the movie entirely – with the solid performances and handful of compelling sequences going a long way towards keeping things interesting. McGuigan’s lively directorial choices often lift the movie out of its seemingly self-imposed doldrums, to be sure, as the filmmaker infuses a number of interludes with a spellbinding feel that transcends Matt Greenhalgh’s by-the-numbers screenplay (eg a flashback revealing Gloria and Jamie’s breakup from the former’s perspective). On the whole, however, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the May-December Romance table – which ultimately does, in the end, confirm its place as a passable yet predominantly forgettable piece of work.

**1/2 out of ****