It’s apropos that a biopic about Irish writer Samuel Beckett would start out a bit absurd. During his 1969 Nobel Prize ceremony, he glumly gets up to accept his award, only to grab it without saying his speech, much to the audience’s shock. He climbs up a stage ladder, knocking over a giant light, and descends into the cave-like recesses of his mind — only to talk to himself. Under the guise of who deserves the prize money, we journey back into his past to examine his mistakes.
Playing the adult Beckett is Gabriel Byrne, best known for the 1994 adaption of Little Women and Hereditary. In early scenes, he serves as a guide, walking us through his fraught relationship with his mother and even more complicated relationship with mentor and fellow writer James Joyce (Aidan Gillian), who pushed his own mentally ill daughter onto Beckett in exchange for his guidance.
After each vignette, we go back to his cave-like consciousness where Gabriel Byrne discusses the previous events with himself. This conceit gets tedious after the first couple go rounds, but Byrne is endearing enough to keep you watching. Through all his betrayals and his tumultuous treatment of women including wife Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil (Sandrine Bonnaire) and mistress, Barbara Bray (Maxine Peake), we get the full picture of Beckett’s life. Playing the younger version is Fionn O’Shea, who not only holds his own against Byrne’s characterization but looks just like him.
This is not director James Marsh’s first biopic. He is best known for The Theory of Everything, earning Eddie Redmayne his Oscar. His next film after that was 2018’s The Mercy starring Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz, also biographical. While the conceit around this narrative is more surreal than the Stephen Hawking-centered film, Marsh’s direction is the smoothest and most assured it’s ever been. While the conceits embedded in Neil Forsyth’s script grow repetitive after a while, that doesn’t deter Marsh’s direction, leaning into a black-and-white, arthouse feel.
It’s best to know a little bit about Beckett before going into Dance First. Reading his Wikipedia page or even a paragraph or two of his writings will give you the starting point needed to enjoy this film. People going in cold might get lost in Beckett’s personal history or not understand the tone. Overall, Dance First is an interesting idea that narratively could have been executed better. Marsh’s direction and the performances, however, make it a worthwhile watch.
Dance First is now playing on digital.
