Radiator

(Tom Browne/2014/UK)

Radiator is an affecting drama about a grown man, Daniel, struggling to care for his elderly parents. What evolves is a story of an eccentric father, Leonard, played by Richard Johnson, whose charm and arrogance is tempered by an aggressive and authoritarian streak. This angry streak has grown to dominate his personality in his debilitated latter stage of life; making him hard to love and care for. But Daniel’s mother, Maria, is not without her own tangents of personality and Gemma Jones’ performance here is fantastic. So we see a child become the parent as the parents have descended into a second childhood. Radiator maintains its pathos through dark humour which keeps it from straying into any kind of schmaltz or sentimentality. It shows the very real struggle of people losing control, of their bodies, minds and lives due to nothing more than age. Well wrought and gently performed it would be difficult to come away from it without some emotional impact and thoughts on an inevitable phase of life that most of us will face in one shape or other. There is a post scripted poignancy in the fact it was Richard Johnson’s last film, he died some months after its release. Also it is largely autobiographical based on the experiences of director Tom Browne.

(3.5/5)