Almost Strangers

"Almost Strangers" is a very riveting BBC mini-series about a very dysfunctional and wealthy family (aren't they all?) gathering (for some weird reason) for a "family reunion". Of course as is typical with those kinds of affairs, a lot of so called "dirty laundry" falls out of the closet--both literally and figuratively . Most of which really isn't as bad as it is imagined to be. As per normal there is always a "do good" family member that attempts "to put things right". In this case it is a son of the so-called "black sheep" of the family as is so well played by Michael Gambon who gives a great performance indeed of a very strange person with his share of "demons". His son played by Matthew Macfadyen is the "do good" family member that attempts to reconcile members that feel they (and a dead sibling) have been done wrong by a previously adored aunt that is now scorned by them. Needless to say he fails miserably. However, this attempt at making the aforesaid parties like each other again is the main focus of the story with the audience getting a peak at the family's history along with its "dirty little secrets".This miniseries is very well acted and directed. If you love, as I do, a good "soapy" story about a rich family with secrets, you can't get any better than this presentation.

This is an exceptional work of art. The nearest equivalent for me is Sebald's The Rings of Saturn. In other words "Not for Everybody".Almost strangers is about a family gathering and the secrets of the past that become revealed and shed light on childhood mysteries. It all becomes clear in the last five minutes. The rest is a steady sequence of events, insights and muddles and clarifications that get us to the final reveal. But it is that journey that is everything. Piece by piece....along the way.Poliakoff's subject matter is our sense of self, based on our memories. Which are unreliable. He threads a fine line between sentiment and a sort of hyper reality made up of particularly intense memories, often from our childhood. Memories unmediated by experience and reflection. Most direct and impressionable. And this is the basic experience from which we construct who we think we are. The lens through which we perceive others, our self in society. Fundamentally. Not conventionally. (Similarly: Sebald plods along in his narrative interposing the writing with seemingly meaningless photos.) A puzzle.Poliakoff's art is in constructing stories where the initial sense of what's going on is gradually overwhelmed and, eventually, displaced by discoveries made along the way. In this movie as in several others of his the picture we have at the end is quite different from the picture we began with. - If you like: A detective story where we are our own detectives.Brilliantly done!But not for everybody.

Loved the actors but the story was congratulatory about people's chosen prideful and sinful lives and, in some cases, there really was not much redemption. I'm glad about the one story of forgiveness in there, but I really rented this to watch Matthew McFadyen and didn't like seeing him play a bit of a lesser person than he has in, say, Little Dorrit or Pride and Prejudice. We always want our actors to be "good fellows," don't we?

Director/writer Stephen Poliakoff's movies focus on particular aspects of British life. In "Gideon's Daughter", Poliakoff captures the emptiness of celebrity culture, when it had reached unheard of heights after Princess Diana's death. In "Almost Strangers", the topic is family relationships, and the obsession with genealogy--digging to discover famous relations.The setting for this 3 part BBC series is a family reunion, a gathering of relatives, many of whom have not seen each other for decades. As they congregate for receptions, lunches, dinners and lectures, we see a typical mix of elderly and young people from a variety of economic and social backgrounds, though they all are connected by blood. One of them is the self-appointed family historian, who has amassed photographs of their past and shares them with family members.What makes this series so textured and fascinating is how Poliakoff uses images in the photographs to tell the backstories of these people. The stories themselves are often unexpected and shocking. What you see in reality hides the truths of the past, but you can decipher the pain, suffering, love and joy at key points in their lives in their old photographs. As the series begins, it is almost boring seeing all these people, but as it progresses and their stories unfold, you can hardly believe how interesting their various lives have been. It is a terrific lesson not to meet people and make assumptions based on appearances.In a commentary Poliakoff discusses his own difficult relationship with his father, and the series reflects that difficulty in various family relationships. It is a brilliant incisive look into the private lives of a family: the good, the bad, and the humiliating. It is one of those experiences that afterwards you feel as though you actually knew everybody and that the experience was real. Highly recommended.

Michael Gambon was excellent and the rest were just as good

un peu trop tortueux pour arriver à une conclusion des plus maigres mais ambiance anglaise garantie et acteurs excellents

a creative spin about family relations over time. Film featured a variety of characters that made the scenes more colourful.