The Seagull (2018)

Another version of Chekhov's The Seagull was made this year and while it isn't a great film, it gives some good actors a chance to shine. Directed by Michael Mayer and adapted by Stephen Karam, the film is largely inert, and displays no compelling reason to have made it.

The cast has Annette Bening as Arkadina, who is terrific, as is Saoirse Ronan as Nina, also very good. I want to give a special shout-out to Brian Dennehy as Sorin. That character is usually played as comic, and Dennehy gets the laughs where he should, but I don't know if I've seen a Sorin who is so sad. He says that he had two ambitions: to become a writer, and to get married, and he did neither. Instead he was a civil servant for years and years. I've heard those words many time, but only until Dennehy spoke them did I feel the full impact of failed hopes.

Konstantine is played blandly by Billy Howle, and I had problems with Corey Stoll as Trigorin, especially after seeing the part played so strongly by James Mason. Stoll seems disinterested in being there, and despite the director's pointing the camera at him while he regards Nina, I didn't feel his attraction for her. When he describes the short story idea about a man destroying a young girl's life because he has nothing better than to do, it seems flat. I also found Jon Tenney very boring as Dr. Dorn, who is usually a very interesting character.

The play is also cut and re-arranged. The beginning of Act IV starts the film, and the rest is flashback, which is okay, I guess. Most of the good stuff is there, but some of the Russian-ness seems to have been removed. When Trigorin compares himself to other Russian writers is cut, perhaps because the makers didn't think the audience would know who they are. Trigorin is presented as a famous writer, but what's missing is that he is also supposed to be a hack, which isn't here.

I did like one thing very much. Usually, at the end of the play, Nina declares, "I am a seagull," comparing herself to the bird that Konstantine shoots during the play. In this translation, it is "I am the seagull," which more directly associates her with that particular seagull, and not seagulls in general. I think it makes more sense.

I recommend The Seagull for Chekhov fanciers but a general audience may be sedated by it.