Sixteen Years of Alcohol
This is a story about hope. Sometimes, for some people, things don’t turn out as they might have hoped. This is the non-linear story of Frankie Mack. Mack is a violent young man poisoned by drink and his past, followed everywhere by people who inhabit shadows and loved by people whose affection he can never return. The film details three distinct periods in the life of Mr Mack, the tipping.....
This is a story about hope. Sometimes, for some people, things don’t turn out as they might have hoped. This is the non-linear story of Frankie Mack. Mack is a violent young man poisoned by drink and his past, followed everywhere by people who inhabit shadows and loved by people whose affection he can never return. The film details three distinct periods in the life of Mr Mack, the tipping points that form the sum of the person. Kevin McKidd is spellbinding, alluring and at the same time disgusting in his portrayal of the empty vessel Mr Mack, a man trapped in a whisky glass metaphorically from the age of ten. Laura Fraser presents ‘Helen’, the woman who loved and lost Mack, as a feisty modern woman desperate to ignite a spark of reciprocal passion within Frankie’s heart. Susan Lynch is intoxicating as ‘Mary’, the woman who just might break down the walls of her Mack’s defences. This is the film which will rattle your cage emotionally and make you never trust a handshake again. This is a film about one man and a travelling circus of demons which just so happen to be his companions.
The appearance of Frankie as a man, flanked by his gang of an assortment of gentlemen, pays due homage to ‘Clockwork Orange’ and indeed the dancing in the tunnel scene in strange white costumes only adds intensity to the pastiche. The pub that dominates Mack’s childhood and provides a watering hole for the demons which rage in Mack’s psyche holds its own as a character in the film. The non-linear structure of the narrative and the wild, passionate cinematography expose the truth behind the story of the movie. Hidden in the bottom of a bin amongst the dark streets of this Scottish city setting for the movie sits a poem. ’16 Years of Alcohol’ is a poem turned into a film. Unfortunately, the only thing one gets when one mixes a poem with a film is a play. Much of the dialogue and interaction between the characters in this film conjures the image of a stage filled with actors. Only in the theatre- and one can thank Mr Pinter for this- do they have such a preoccupation with the sound of silence. People move chairs and take long, drawn-out moments to compose themselves before sitting down and continuing with the rest of their dialogue. Plot and pace are replaced with pathos. As brilliant and bone-chilling a portrait of one man’s descent into nothing as ’16 years of alcohol’ is, it’s presented in the wrong medium.
The picture quality of the DVD is superb but I did find myself constantly fiddling with the volume to catch much of what was said in a softly spoken, suggestive manner in the film. The extras provide a wonderful insight into the gestation of the film and it is interesting to see actors and crew talk about how the more violent scenes in the film were achieved and how the actors found the place in their heads where they would contemplate causing such grief to another person. The weaknesses of a poem forced into a film are glossed over as the director Richard Jobson clearly wants to use the ‘Behind the Scenes’ featurette to discuss the punk era, skinheads, violence and the fact that the Europeans appreciate the poetic soul of films more than the British audiences do. There’s also a storyboard, trailers and a short piece about the poem that started it all. ’16 Years of Alcohol’ is a beautiful, touching portrait of what replaces hope when hope is lost. That said, one couldn’t help but walk away with the impression that one should be waiting such work as this at the National and not on a television screen.
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