National Theatre Live: Prima Facie (2022)
Can plays enter the world of cinema?
Presentation:
To preface, I don’t like plays, I don’t like musicals, and I don’t particularly like ballet…call me Chalamet? But this was recommended as one of the best plays of our time with extraordinary high ratings so I gave it a shot. The actress from The Duel is a force to be reckoned with as she is the only actor in this live theatre production. There’s only one set and the production is pretty minimal, so everything rests on her shoulders. The beginning bored me and I nearly quit 20 minutes in because I didn’t connect with any of the British humor designed to make us sympathize with its only lead. She self-narrates the entire story, verbally explaining each and every detail. Normally, dialogue motivated camera direction is the lowest form of cinematography, but in this format, it surprisingly worked. It allows our imagination to picture the scene and other characters, especially because of how descriptive Jodie Comer is. It’s truly impressive how she memorized 90 minutes of dialogue and deserves all the kudos. Once the drama unravels, Comer delivers a genuinely emotional performance that is hard to not sympathize with. It’s a good performance, the type of elite British acting, which is often unfairly stigmatized. There’s also a fantastic final visual moment at the end, which was a perfect chef’s kiss, regardless of whether you will agree with it or not.
Conclusion:
Believe all women? With how emotionally engaging this is, it will likely convince many. It presents itself as a logical legal drama. but as the script itself states, the masculine logic of law does not adequately accommodate the nature of rape cases. This suggests that the law needs to be updated with feminine logic, essentially one of compassion and blind sympathy. My main issue is how ideological this screenplay becomes in explicitly lecturing an entire system, when this is an allegorical perspective. As a viewer, it’s completely fine to appreciate the emotional merits of this tragedy allegory, but once you start critiquing with no solution you enter the realm of debate. I don’t think this film should have pushed its reach as something more than a compelling and perspective-opening emotional drama. I could see myself watching more plays, if they are of the same quality as this one.
Recommendations
Can plays enter the world of cinema?