By Chris Tookey
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SONG FOR MARION (PG)
Verdict: Unsophisticated but likeable
Rating: 
Terence Stamp gives one of his less wooden performances as an elderly curmudgeon who resents the way his cancer-stricken wife Marion (Vanessa Redgrave) seems to prefer singing with a choir of OAPs under the baton of a bubbly music teacher (Gemma Arterton) than spending her last months with him.
Clearly, he’s never watched Gareth Malone on the telly, or he’d know what he’s up against.
Simultaneously, Stamp is having a troubled relationship with his divorced son (Christopher Eccleston), who feels his less than effusive father has always found him a disappointment. Will they be reunited by the death of Marion?
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Sugary: Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp in Song for Marion
Even from that cursory description, you’ll be able to predict how this far from sophisticated British feelgood movie works out.
Writer-director Paul Andrew Williams plucks at our heartstrings with the sensitivity of Mike Tyson singing a love song. Many are going to react by dismissing the whole film as schmaltz â€" and condescending to old people.
However, it does express a few things that are sorely missing in most movies: a sense of community, a joy in music, a realisation that marriage is a commitment for life, and that even grown-up children have emotional needs only their parents can supply.
It’s not a great film nor by any stretch of the imagination a subtle one. But if you loved Calendar Girls or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and you have a high tolerance for sucrose, give it a try.
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