A Song for Jenny (2015)

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

An uncomfortable film because it should have been half an hour shorter and less like a wildly distorted version of "Outnumbered".Miss E.Watson had the impossible task of portraying the Rev.Julie Nicholson whose daughter was murdered by one of the London bombers(the one whose father thinks was innocent and presumably had his bomb planted on him). Fine performance though it is,Miss Watson is unable to prevent her character from being almost saintly due to the way the story is written,and her family has disturbing echoes of so many others that inhabit TV dramaland. Grumpy but loving grandparents,nice but ineffectual husband,bright, happy and clever kids. Only Mr J. Woodvine as Mrs Nicholson's father displayed any human characteristics. Not surprisingly perhaps,her daughter's death caused a crisis of faith in Mrs Nicholson but she still apparently parroted the rhetoric of the Church even in extremis. Conspicuously not referred to was Mrs Nicholson's abandonment of the Anglican Church - for which she could hardly be blamed. There are no easy answers for her - indeed she didn't seem to be looking for any answers of any description. Nobody had anything nasty to say about the bombers' religion - which was remarkably tolerant of them in the circumstances. Quite what Mrs Nicholson's God was up to at the time is something she hasn't yet come to terms with. All in all,"A song for Jenny" was a respectful "tribute" - if that's the word - to innocent victims of terrorism that,despite an intense and moving lead performance was strangely uninvolving and,as such,rather a disappointment.

I have just finished watching the second half of this drama – I watched the first forty minutes and was becoming overwhelmed by the continuous stream of emotion-filled almost-whispered sentences. However, my curiosity made me watch the second half, hoping for a development of the plot – which never came. It goes without saying that we all sympathise with victims of terror attacks wherever they occur, and I for one could not imagine the depth of the suffering of parents and loved ones – this sensation came through very effectively. This drama was very well cast, with some excellent acting, but let down by a weak plot. The fact that this tragedy somehow "just happened" is a typical media "half-of the story". There are reasons for most things in life, and this attack was no exception. By focusing only on the heart-breaking reaction of one family, the author of this drama has chosen to ignore the other side of the story – "why did it happen?" The programme would have been much more effective had it been longer and contained and compared a sub-plot of an equally-suffering family loss in the Middle East, North Africa or elsewhere in the world. It would be totally naïve to believe these attacks have no causes – surely a grieving relative would want to know why they are happening, but none of the characters seemed to care. Perhaps an entertaining piece of work for the Islamophobes of this world – with a clearly-identified Muslim perpetrator of the attack leaving viewers rightly angry with "Islamic terrorism", but hardly a balanced look at causes and effects of such attacks. I feel neither entertained nor informed. Come on, you intelligent authors and producers, stop pretending you can't see the dots - start joining them together and inform us the viewers in a more rounded way. Without stating what is obvious, even most politicians now recognise the roots of these terror attacks.It was, by and large, a waste of superb acting and casting, in what could have been a much better ten-year memorial to those so sadly killed or injured.

For Emily Watson, this would be the performance of a lifetime, if she had not already given audiences such performances time after time. Her overwhelming brilliance has come to be routine and expected in every project in which she participates. That being said, this is simply an astounding portrait of a woman devastated by the senseless murder of her daughter by terrorists. Watson does not simply bring the emotional turmoil, the soul wrenching pain of a Anglican Vicar tested beyond the limits of faith, to vivid life. Somehow she makes the viewer share that agony and make it their own. It is one of the most deeply moving performances ever filmed and while the film is incredibly painful to watch, it is also an important cinematic memorial to those who suffered and lost so much on 7/7. This is more than a great actor doing her usual astounding work. This is a performance of historic proportions, so powerful and majestic that it can never be forgotten. A beautiful accomplishment by everyone involved in this staggering production and nothing less than a superbly delivered tribute to the broken hearted survivors of that tragic day by the amazingly gifted Ms. Emily Watson. She is the heart, the soul, and the very essence of A Song For Jenny.

Director Brian Percival has done an absolutely wonderful job bringing Frank McGuinness' deeply moving screen adaptation of A Song For Jenny. It is beautifully done film recounting one mother's loss of her young daughter in the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London. It is a tragic story and at times painful to watch. Emily Watson is perfect in the role of the heart broken, angry parent and what she does in this film is overwhelming. Watson always does stellar work but this is something quite special. There are few if any other actresses who could so powerfully convey the intense emotion and terrible pain of such a horrible loss. Her eyes alone express so much and even in moments of silence, what she does in this role is almost miraculous.