Struggling writer Robert Graves (Tom Hughes), his wife Nancy (Laura Haddock) and daughter Catherine (Indica Watson) move to a remote Oxfordshire home where they hope he can find some inspiration (and money!). It's whilst there that they read a poem from American author Laura Riding (Dianna Agron) and decide that they ought invite her over to stay for a while. Over she comes and what now ensues is an illustration of their much publicised menage-à-trois that also draws in the somewhat hapless Geoffrey Phibbs (Fra Fee) before heading for a denouement that is going to shake things up considerably! This film looks good, but none of the performances catch fire. Hughes is adequate and actually rather looks the part but neither Haddock nor Agron really raise their game enough to imbue this with any of the passion that this story must have generated at the time. It has a sterility to it which makes it rather self-indulgent at times, and I felt the whole thing a really rather lacklustre and wordy interpretation of the lives of three people that shook society, morals and the literary world. It will look fine on the television, so I wouldn't bother going to a cinema to watch it.
Plot summary
Set against the glamorous backdrop of Britain's roaring '20s, The Laureate tells the story of young British War Poet Robert Graves, who is married with four children when he meets and becomes romantically involved with Laura Riding, a writer from America. Defying the conventions of polite society, Riding moves in with Graves and his wife living as a menage a tois. Then with the arrival of strappingly handsome Irish poet Geoffrey Phibbs, the arrangement becomes a menage a quatre. But soon tensions and rivalries become so fraught that Graves is a suspect for attempted murder.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
January 21, 2022 at 07:49 AM
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The Laureate
... clearly-truly a film deserves a second viewing to appreciate
... this film a lot like Dianna Agron's career... includes some very good work but to the outside entertainment audience little is known-of-about-it (her most widely acclaimed success going on a decade old and in which she appeared in only 60% of the series-episodes)
... commonly-beautiful, her images portray nearly a different looking woman in each one... knowing who she is, yet looking at some pictures of her and wondering who she is... now 38yo it will be very interesting to see how her future moves forward from this point
... here in Laureate she does some exceptional character-acting, standing out, matching the other leads scene-for-scene... once again the film not getting recognition deserved, only achieving slightly more than a 5-rating, when clearly it is really much-better than-that.