Unfinished Song, written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton, The Cottage), is a British film that’s sure to fly under the radar this summer, which is a shame since it’s an entertaining little story about love, regret and aging. The always-stellar Vanessa Redgrave stars as Marion Harris, a British pensioner (retiree) who’s fighting cancer. Her favorite respite is the time spent at the local community center with her friends in the senior choir, something her grumpy, but doting, husband Arthur (Terence Stamp) can’t quite grasp.
The choral group is led by the plucky director Elizabeth, played with a pleasing earnestness by Gemma Arterton. She picks unconventional pop song choices for the choir, such as “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley and “Let’s Talk about Sex” by Salt-N-Pepa. She even names them the OAP’Z (Old Age Pensioners). The “z,” she says, is to make the name “more street.”
While the choir is there largely for comic relief, playing up the senior shenanigans and joint-pain jokes for laughs, the film really focuses on the family dynamic between Arthur, Marion and their son, James, played by Christopher Eccleston. Marion serves as a buffer between father and son, who bristle in each other’s company. (Arthur has always been closed-off emotionally with everyone but Marion.) This focus allows Unfinished Song to explore different territory than the 2007 documentary Young@Heart, which covered the triumphs and troubles of a pop-singing senior choir.
When Marion’s health takes a turn for the worse, Arthur becomes more reclusive and cantankerous. He pushes his own son away, but odd-duck Elizabeth, who seems to have no friends her own age, refuses to let Arthur go gently into that good night. She helps him find his way through her (and Marion’s) love of music.
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