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  PRICK UP YOUR EARS UK, 1986 Director: Stephen Frears Stars: Gary Oldman, Alfred Molina, Vanessa Redgrave One of the best gay biopics is this unflinching film that’s ostensibly about playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman), but which is really about his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, played in mesmerising style by the under rated Alfred Molina.
This was Oldman’s breakthrough performance, and it’s a good one, full of sexy smirks and arrogance. Oldman’s Orton is charming and very cute, two things I don’t think the real Orton was at all - my impression is that he was a talented but seedy git who I would have hated on sight. But this discrepancy doesn’t really matter - Oldman creates the perfect foil for the frustrated Halliwell, the character who begins the film and ends it, and whose story is far more compelling. Orton learns all he needs from Halliwell by sitting in the same room, or lying around in bed. No visible effort goes into the writing of his plays - the film flashes straight to triumphant opening nights and awards ceremonies. Everytime he throws on a jacket or a hat, he looks like a knockout, and is ready to leave ages before the cumbersome Halliwell has finished arranging his fussy clothes, wig and light make-up. Even his death is hand delivered to him, via a hammer in the back of his head while he sleeps. Halliwell, on the other hand, is a mediocre dork saddled with insufficient talents and a body that’s been made to tease and thwart him (he goes bald, has erection problems, has looked old and out of fashion since his teens) he’s a sceptre of misery, buyer beware. Molina is great as Halliwell. Chrome-domed and with an antiquated stage-actors booming projection even when at home, he rules the movie as he ruled Orton - so unique and so unstable, he’s dangerous and awesome even when he’s being meek and mild. Molina is a busy actor who gets good notices for all his work (Frida, Magnolia, Chocolat) but he doesn’t have the fame he should. He’s a great British actor along the lines of Richard Burton or Oliver Reed, and perhaps an alcoholic spell or a few more decades of work will deliver him to the circle of legends where he belongs. There, he’ll encounter the great Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Peggy, Orton’s agent, in the film’s third gold-medal performance. In scenes that should be shown to screenwriting students the world over, Redgrave’s Peggy - a fairly minor character who’s life we learn little about - sparkles with personality and curiosity without falling into eccentricity or caricature. Peggy’s the flashback narrator for much of the story, and a caring friend to both Orton and Halliwell, and Redgrave (and Frears and screenwriter Alan Bennett) invest her with so much personality she’s able to hold her own beside that prismic couple and all but create the desire for a movie about her self. Prick Up Your Ears is a masterful film that’s moving, smart and surprising. Related Reading: Review by Mark Adnum
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Clip: Prick Up Your Ears
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