Wetherby

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Wetherby

R

1985

1h 43m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

67%

Tomatometer

12 Reviews

46%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

It all starts simply enough. Schoolteacher Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave) invites some friends over for a dinner party. The evening concludes. The next day, one of the guests, a mysterious young man (Tim McInnerny) whom she had assumed was invited by one of her friends, returns to her doorstep. She fixes tea; he kills himself in front of her. As the police investigate the dead man's life, Jean begins to obsess over an ill-fated love affair in her own past.

Jill Forbes

Sight & Sound

Where it succeeds is in the extraordinarily brilliant casting and the handling of the shifts from past to present. Where it is less fluent, perhaps, is in the statement of a case.

Feb 10, 2020

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Variety Staff

Variety

The skill of Hare's approach is that he initially allows us to assume, via normal cinema techniques, that what we saw of the dinner party was the whole story.

Mar 26, 2009

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Nicholas Royle

Time Out

Redgrave's performance is superb and she's ably supported by Holm, Dench, and Hamilton in particular.

Jan 26, 2006

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Stephen Schiff

Vanity Fair

The trouble with Wetherby is that, unlike Pinter's creepy exercises, it turns out to be that dreary thing, a wellmade play: a theatrical puzzler with a solution that, when it arrives, seems at once obvious and not particularly helpful.

Jul 10, 2019

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TV Guide

There are more questions asked than answered in this movie, but the mental gymnastics are well worth the effort.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 2, 2015

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Lori Hoffman

Atlantic City Weekly

Rated: 4/5

Jan 11, 2007

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Audience Member

Deeply love this film, the actors' performances and dramatist David Hare...a quiet masterpiece.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

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Audience Member

The non-linear structure takes some getting used to, but this is a really well-made drama with interesting characters and dialogue. Vanessa Redgrave did a sterling job as the school teacher Jean trying to come to terms with her past. I also really liked Joely Richardson playing young Jean in the 1950s.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/23/23

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Audience Member

Wow, was this boring...and confusing. It starts with a group of people, five of which being some true Hollywood legends, only younger, eating dinner and then the next morning the unfamous one, admits that he was neither a guest nor invited the night before and blows his head off. Nice gore effect bt the way. The rest of the film is sometimes the direct events leading up to the dinner, sometimes the events after dealing with the Police trying to find out why he killed himself, while there is also a good deal of flashbacks to when our hostess was a younger woman. I still have zero idea why he killed himself, or why showing her younger self basically being a slut had anything to do with it. Maybe it was explained, and I was too busy watching some paint dry? I did find it interesting that our lead is played by Vanessa Redgrave and her younger self is Joely Richardson; who would later end up being mother/daughter on Nip/Tuck, but that has nothing to do with this movie. Seeing younger versions of Redgrave, Holm, Dench and Wilkinson was nice, and dang Joley was crazy gorgeous as well(still is), but I just couldn't get into the story. Maybe someone can someday respond and explain what exactly happened?

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

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Audience Member

An interesting build up and retracing of the steps leading up to the tragedy. This film however suffers from dull hanging in periods of tepid dialogue and useless plot development. Partially saved by solid acting, it nonetheless is not particularly memorable.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

Incredibly, despite amazing cast, this is more fartsy than artsy. Well-suited to the stage but cinematically lifeless.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/08/23

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Audience Member

A strange and interesting British film. Another that affects the subconscious more than anything. A film about a mystery but is more a sombre moody character film.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/26/23

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David Hare

Director

Vanessa Redgrave

Jean Travers

Ian Holm

Stanley Pilborough

Judi Dench

Marcia Pilborough

Joely Richardson

Young Jean Travers

Tim McInnerny

John Morgan

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Synopsis

It all starts simply enough. Schoolteacher Jean Travers (Vanessa Redgrave) invites some friends over for a dinner party. The evening concludes. The next day, one of the guests, a mysterious young man (Tim McInnerny) whom she had assumed was invited by one of her friends, returns to her doorstep. She fixes tea; he kills himself in front of her. As the police investigate the dead man's life, Jean begins to obsess over an ill-fated love affair in her own past.

Director: David Hare
Screenwriter: David Hare
Production Co: Film 4, Greenpoint Films
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 30, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.1M
Runtime: 1h 43m

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