User Reviews

A Sally Hawkins performance is always so enthralling. Her latest role, in Craig Roberts's dark comedy, sees her play Jane a woman living with paranoid schizophrenia. There's a stark sense of isolation here - scenes take place in rooms that are half-empty, but filled with long, hungry shadows.

It has light, funny moments. When Jane falls for Mike (David Thewlis), someone also chewed up and spat out by the mental health system, they become frolicking lovers in a French New Wave classic. However, the movie is never unfaithful to the psychological reality of its central character.

Eternal Beauty shows, we might not be able to conquer our demons, but we can try to live with them. This is a nuanced, evolved take on mental illness than most films are capable of.

This is a good film. I was sort of misled by the trailer. I thought it was a comedy. It isn't. It definitely has some funny moments but it is a lot more than that. Having close experience with mental illness, I found this to be an excellent portrayal of schizophrenia. It was chilling and heart breaking but heartwarming at the same time.

Ive got mixed feelings for this movie. Acting is superb.

Plot is about seriously ill person. Its very hard movie to watch, after 1/3 of movie I wanted to switch of, because it felt so dark. I watched it till end just because wanted to understand whats in persons mind with this illness and how it affects family and siblings. There was something missing in movie.

But it was emotionally intense, I cried, then smiled. It's deeply touching.

But i don't watch this movie again. It's too " heavy " and something missing to be great movie.

While I didn't really rate this title very highly at only 7.0 out of 10, I am bothering to review it here simply because of two things. First Sally Hawkins performance as Jane and second, because I can only be all in favour of anything that helps to raise awareness of mental health problems.

I live now in Thailand where there is absolutely zero understanding of, or interest in, mental health issues. Even in Western societies today, there is STILL such a degree of misunderstanding of mental health problems that it is still common for people to think that mental illness is a fall-back excuse for sufferers' "bad" or inappropriate behavior. The cry of "just pull yourself together" is all too common even these days and even among people who should know better, with education about the matter being so readily available to anyone who cares enough to look for it.

"Eternal Beauty" should be a lesson to anyone who has even a bare notion about what mental illness is. Sally Hawkins' portrayal of a young woman suffering from schizophrenia is an object lesson in how that condition affects the sufferer and those around him or her.

This is not an easy movie to watch but that is really the point. It's not an easy condition to live with, either as the sufferer or as family. Sally gives yet another wonderful performance here, just as she did in "Made In Dagenham" and as the wonderful "Maudie". She has quite a distinguished career already at only 44 years of age. She has, I'm sure, an even more distinguished career ahead of her.

Watch "Eternal Beauty". It's a challenging movie but very worth the effort.

JMV

Jane (Sally Hawkins) is struggling with her mental illness. Her family had put her in an institution after her breakdown from being left at the altar. She is presently back living with her family who are all dealing with her in their own ways. She begins a romance with Mike (David Thewlis) who has mental illness of his own.

The different tones clash somewhat. It's quirky and disturbing with a general melancholy over the whole affair. The quirky attempts at humor don't really work due to the sadness of it all. The kid getting knocked out is shocking. Through everything, there is the greatness of Sally Hawkins. She is the shining star above all else.

Greetings again from the darkness. There is an odd line early on in which the psychologist says, "Don't fight depression. Make friends with it." What makes this an odd line is that Jane is a paranoid schizophrenic, and depression doesn't seem to be a driving force in her life. Craig Roberts wrote and directed the film (his second feature as director). You might know Mr. Roberts as an actor. He played the lead in SUBMARINE (2010). His approach as a filmmaker is one that keeps the audience off-balance; in fact, we can simply state this one is weird.

Sally Hawkins (THE SHAPE OF WATER, 2017) plays Jane. She lives on her own thanks to medication. Her family is present, though not especially supportive. A flashback takes us to Jane's wedding day where a younger Jane is played by Morfyyd Clark (THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD, 2020). Jane is spurned on her wedding day by her husband-to-be, and it pushes her over the edge emotionally and mentally.

An early scene gives us a peek at current day Jane. She brings wrapped Christmas presents to her parents' house, and promptly hands over the receipts to each family member. She purchased her own gifts, acts surprised and grateful as she opens them, and expects her parents and sisters to repay her for the gifts. It's quite a scene.

We follow Jane through her days as she seems to drift in and out of awareness and reality. She periodically hears her phone ring, and by answering she hears the voice of her former fiancé. The red phones match the phone she was on during her last conversation with him on her wedding day. It's her most painful and visceral memory, and one that Jane can't seem to overcome.

Relationships between the parents and the sisters are quite something to behold. Penelope Wilton (THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, 2011) is the mother prone to cruelty and confusion, whereas the father (Robert Pugh, MASTER AND COMMANDER) nearly fades into the wallpaper, though seems more empathetic. Jane's sisters Nicola and Alice are played by Billie Piper ("Penny Dreadful") and Alice Lowe (GET DUKED!, 2020). Nicola envies Jane's ability to collect free money (disability), while Alice is estranged from their mother, and claims her "normal" life is boring.

When Mike (David Thewlis from Charlie Kaufman's latest, I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS) enters the picture, it's like a jolt of electricity from touching the wrong wire. Mike is somehow stranger than Jane, yet they manage to connect. As an example of the film's odd dialogue, when Jane asks Mike how things are going, he responds, "Things were looking up for a few weeks, a couple years back." That's the type of exchange we deal with throughout, and it takes an inordinate amount of energy to process what we see and hear.

One shot from cinematographer Kit Fraser is a particular standout. It comes from inside a microwave, replete with rotisserie base and Jane's face peering through the glass. There are numerous moments we've not previously seen or heard in movies ... like the doctor clarifying if the patient is "fine or good". Ms. Hawkins delivers another strange, but affecting performance ... something she has mastered over the years. She always makes the character hers, and makes us care about her. An added bonus is hearing Ricky Nelson sing "I Will Follow You" ... slightly more soothing than David Thewlis' frantic electric guitar performance. It seems certain that filmmaker Roberts agrees that normal is boring, and he ensures his film and characters are not.

The abstractions of mental illness presented in a truly original way with jaw dropping performances by all the cast but an out of this world portrayal of the tortured Jane by Sally Hawkins.

Based upon the trailer and the streaming service's short description, I dove into this flick expecting another charming and playfully dry independent production that contained much British Isles eccentricity, as I am very fond of such works. What this film soon emerged as is a knuckleball; the baseball pitch that (if thrown right) initially looks like it will be easy to catch but then starts darting, drifting and diving all around, making the pitch very challenging to track and catch. This is a heavy film, but that's a very good thing. Psychosis appears to be effectively captured - uncertainty about what is a delusion and what is reality as well as a strong non-linearity. This makes the film, like a knuckleball, challenging to track. This flick is a challenge that only a certain portion of the populace will want to undertake, but for those who do, it will provide much to ponder regarding psychoses and will linger in your stream of consciousness.

I am pleased that I encountered this work. Hopefully you will be, too.

Two really good performances in this, Penelope Wilton and Sally Hawkins, imaginative direction (and cinematography) which really took you on the journey of someone who hears voices at times, but yet.. once again , let down by poor dialogue, feeble characters and a tepid script.

In fact it felt like it turned into a modern BBC sitcom, and I can't be more damning than that. Another wasted opportunity to portray the taboo subject of living with a mental illness in the 70s and 80s.

My Review- Eternal Beauty on Prime My Rating- 8/10 I finally got to catch up with Sally Hawkins latest film "Eternal Beauty" and I wasn't disappointed. Sally Hawkins never disappoints me her sensitivity and empathy with broken human souls is extraordinary.

The character Sally Hawkins plays is Jane who, after being left at the altar, has a breakdown spiralling into a chaotic episode of schizophrenia lasting twenty years .

We see the characters in Jane's life (both real and imagined) through Jane's perspective when she's on her medication and when she's not. This provides some very humorous moments and some very confronting moments. At times the phrase came to my mind "Normal is just a cycle on a washing machine " because at times Jane seems much more sane than her very dysfunctional family.

Jane's distant disturbed mother Vivian played superbly by Penelope Wilton in a role so far removed from her Downton Abbey role of Isobel Merton is centre stage as the family relationships collide.

One of the most humorous Christmas family gathering scenes I've seen in years is when Jane triumphs over her two ugly Sisters (inner not outer ugliness Nicole (Billie Piper) and Lucy ( Rita Bernard-Shaw) and the other when said sisters ask Jane to help them act mental to fraudulently claim disability benefits.

Things change for Jane when she begins a darkly comic romance with Mike (David Thewlis), a failed musician and fellow lost soul.

'Eternal Beauty' was not the film's original title. At first it was going to be In Her Oils. This is first seen as the title of a picture hanging in the psychiatrist's office. The picture appears several more times, in different locations - Alice's dining room, the doctor's waiting room, etc. The phrase is also spoken by different characters over the course of the film. The phrase ' to be in one's oils' means to be in one's element and is derived from the Welsh expression, 'Yn ei hwyliau', which literally translates (according to Google Translate) as 'in her mood'.

Eternal Beauty beautifully written and directed by Craig Robert's could be very confronting for some people who have members of their family or friends with mental illness.

I'm so glad films like this are made because hopefully audiences can identify and gain empathy with people experiencing acute mental illness and see the Happy , Glad, Mad and Sad side of life through their eyes.

It is really good to have a film about the life of a person with schizophrenia, as it helps people to understand more about the disease. The film is well made, but the plot is slightly confusing.

Funny, touching, a spectacular performance, the best drama I've seen this year. The two main actors are phenomenal.

Stylized film of a womans battle with madness. Well acted and worthy. Lots of time shifts but give you a great feeling of what it is like to have schizophrenia.

Eternal Beauty can be a nomination that aims to redress the balance and contribute towards a greater understanding and thoughtfulness towards schizophrenia. It tries to depict the duality of the condition through the use of reflection and blue tones associated with her mood. By choosing to be so close to the subject, one can understand how the film delves deep into the kaleidoscope world. I must also note that it's a beautiful score providing the rocket fuel for a story that unzips our understanding of "normal".

I dont feel the moovie has a message for me or anything i can gain from watching it I was unbealiavable bored and i didnt feel anything for any of the characters .they all play Well but the entire family is just to crazy and all are weird and it makes the entire film unbeliavable.

The change of actor for the main character is also way to unbelievable .... They don't look anything alike .

To be honest I think I wasted my time Normally I do apreciate weird movies that touches my heart... this didn't.

Acting was very good at times, Hawkins especially. However, tried my best to pretend that this young director didn't simply copy David Lynch and I noted Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66, in many parts of the film. The music, the sets, the lighting and even the cinematography. Just because you're young and inspired it shouldn't give you carte blanche on the use of other directors ideas. In saying that most won't notice and Tarantino made a very successful career of it.

Sally Hawkins is in my opinion, one of the very best actors we have today. Her portrayal of this paranoid schizophrenic woman is just heart breaking, yet done with such tenderness. Funny in parts and eye opening in others. Powerful performance.

Great acting, believable portrayal of dysfunctional family with varying degrees of mental health issues, rescuers & villains. Thought the cinematography was well so done, colors were faded & cloudy when she was medicated, sights & sounds were harsher when she was more symptomatic. One reviewer gave praise that the strong cast " keeps the comedy buoyant throughout." Comedy?! Buoyant?! 2 words that do not come near my mind when describing this movie. Tragedy, betrayal & pitting family members against each other, not funny or buoyant, everyone is depressed, psychotic &/ or has a personality disorder & is terrible, manipulative, cruel to her. Also the story line wove this thread of purpose throughout, that she was failing because she didn't know her purpose, obviously not the case & was more complicated, but her mother said on her deathbed do you know your purpose? ( have you figured it out yet?) end scene, 20 minutes of the movie left & it's never mentioned again... sloppy script writing.

Another glib story attempting to be artistic and avant-garde. Frankly one has to wonder why wonderful actors like Sally Hawkins pigeonhole themselves into these types of roles; quirky does get boring after a half dozen performances. Add this to her now-becoming a long list of those choices.

The rest of the cast just seem to sleepwalk through the movie; an unfortunate testament to the lack of narrative direction or meaningful enough character arcs.

I curse the sadistic bstrds who conned me into watching what I rigorously avoid seeing by casting Sally Hawkins. My first thought was about the appropriateness of a mentally unbalanced protagonist these days. But it's SallyfckngHawkins and she gives an exquisite performance of palpable human turmoil that causes emotional empathy - they might as well have filmed a wounded baby bird struggling to stumble its way across a busy sidewalk toward unseen cats - excruciating. Everyone is very good, even the vile ones...the plot, script and direction are noticeably stylized and always interesting.

This is an amazing movie. We are tired to watch how "life is beautiful" in movies. Finally a movie that shows aspects of life that no one talks ... Amazing movie. Thank you for this movie. I wish there be more movies like this.

A film for the very few. A covertly hilarious parody of normality and ordinary people: elliptical lives and the parallel dialogues of everyday banalities people take for conversation. This is not so much about mental illness as the common illusion of normality: we might all benefit from electro-shock therapy to jolt us out of our delusion of self-importance. At every turn, Buñuel's ostrich seems about to do a walk-on appearance. Thewlis is reliably insightful in his role (Jane, O Jane, you're my cocaine), along with the rest of the brilliant cast who relish in their roles, whereas Hawkins is as insufferable here as she was in Happy-Go-Lucky and Shape of Water. Jane should have been played by an unknown, someone without any screen legacy. The family scenes are spot-on, representing that deranged and unfathomable society which is the British, who are actually often more surreal than portrayed here, though never as delusional as their counterparts across the Pond. This is actually a story of love (and loneliness) that hovers between Ionesco and Pinter. The call-in radio broadcasts provide a sinister running commentary reminiscent of Cocteau's inimitable Orphée: those voices we all hear but deny. Courageous directing by Roberts, consistently creative camerawork and framing, despite the saccharine ending. Bravo. (By the way, hydrangeas are always pointless, and even more so when fake.)