Festival Focus - Venerable
Venerable is a hard film to describe without taking away from someones first time viewing experience. But ultimately it starts with a mystery of disappearing puzzle pieces and ends with something ever more meaningful. James Sibley presents an intriguing plot which separates itself from your average mystery by being heavily focused on developing the two elderly characters, Jayne and Arthur.
They feel instantly familiar, their playful bickering, kind touches and even their choice in past time, puzzles and crosswords, are reminiscent of many of our grandparents. The careful consideration put into crafting these two characters, their conversations and their interactions, allows Sibley to form a certain realism, which adds to the moving nature of the film.
Ingrid Evans and Andrew Norman also play a large role in the films success. They have a natural chemistry which lends to the idea that they have been married for decades. Evans’ mutters of frustration and expressions of confusion paints a realistic image of a woman being presented with a mystery that she can’t quite understand. Whilst Normans’s playful demeanour and exaggerated gestures allows him to produce an endearing and charming character that only adds to the poignancy of the final scene.
