Review of Track 29 (1988) by Mirabella 1 — 26 Feb 2010
TRACK 29 (1988).
Directed by Nicholas Roeg. Exec.Producer George Harrison.
Written by Dennis Potter.
This nightmarish adaptation of Potter's play, Schmoedipus, tells the seemingly simple story of a man in search of his mother who gave up her child (a result of rape as a teenager) some 20-odd years ago.
She has been left permanently scarred, trapped in a child-like limbo, drinking away her pain & pining for the child she never got to hold or love.
She feels safe but desperately unhappy, in her loveless marriage to a paternalistic physician, who has infantile obsessions of his own, & spends his time locked away playing with his train-set, telling her off, working, or being disciplined by his mistress (played with considerable aplomb by Sandra Bernhardt).
Enter Gary Oldman, the prodigal son, who has "come all the way across the pond in search of my mama.".
And suddenly, small-town USA is no longer the place of home-baked cookies & white-picket fences, but a dark, hallucinatory nightmare of repressed sexual desire, violence, revenge & madness.
Welcome to the mind of the late, great Dennis Potter.
This is by far one of his best works, reminiscent in many ways of Brimstone & Treacle, only honed into a more mature, polished & refined tale.
It is downright disturbing & leaves one with many more questions than answers, so often the trademark of Potter's hallucinatory works.
You will never hear the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" in the same way again.
*****5 out of 5 stars*****.
This review of Track 29 (1988) was written by Mirabella 1 on 26 Feb 2010.
Track 29 has generally received mixed reviews.
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