Holding On

[lilly]

Two words:

Insufficient illumination!![/i] [/color]

[victoriao]

I'm currently watching Holding On, but I haven't yet made it to that scene. Meanwhile it's a pretty intense watch, though - I finished episode 3 last night feeling slightly bruised and traumatised

[victoriao]

Since I'm in a posting kinda mood, and since I've had a folder of screencaps sitting on my pc since January, now seems a good time to return to this thread and share a few...

In case it's unfamiliar, Holding On is a drama about an apparently unconnected collection of people living in Nineties London, and traces how their lives become intertwined. As my earlier post suggested, it's a pretty harrowing watch - it conjures up a bleak cityscape of tower blocks, chilly yuppie apartments and anonymous suburban semis, where the citizens seethe with suppressed frustration and where a sudden eruption of random violence is never far away. Mr Morrissey plays a tax inspector and family man - serious, dedicated to his job, and stuck in a bit of a rut.



You can tell he's serious because of the steel-rimmed glasses (which curiously disappear partway through, presumably to signal his character's changed priorities though it's never really explained)....

Anyhow, once he loses the specs there are some rather spectacular doey-eyed close-ups to be had








To say too much about Mr M's character development would give away the plot, but the story arc will ring bells with anyone who's seen Framed, The Knock, or even State of Play, and gives Mr M ample opportunity to display his unique talent for anguish and inner conflict. In fact, with the possible exception of Bradley Headstone this character suffers unprecedented levels of distress - verily, the dial of manpain is turned up to eleven in this one:
















Holding On has an excellent cast and is an absorbing watch, though it's hampered by some intensely irritating incidental music which keeps returning (and always the same) at moments of high emotion, as if the filmmakers don’t trust the actors to move the audience with their skills alone. Curiously, this is also a drama which has no light relief whatever (unless you count Mr M saying to his young lover in a quavery comedy voice 'You’ve made an old man very happy' – which made me laugh, anyway). If there is any humour it's of the very blackest sort and comes courtesy of Phil Daniels, playing a bulimic food critic; it's a brilliant performance but he's also, for 90% of the time, utterly repellent. I remember Lilly saying that Mr Daniels was one of her formative crushes, but I'd challenge her or anyone else to find him attractive in this

Finally, there is of course *that* scene, from which I can't, alas, post caps, both because of Photobucket's nudity ban and the extremely poor illumination to which Lilly has already referred. However, I would be failing in my fangirly responsibilities if I didn't at least post these instead:

[Ravish Me Ripley]

I've not seen Holding On. Though i bought the DVD nearly a fortnight ago, i have not got round to watching it yet. I've just seen these pics *THUD* and guess what i shall begin watching post haste? ;D