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PERFECT Monday 23/04-30/04/01, ITV reviewed by Daniel Stour |
August
2001
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Perfect is a two part drama about a compulsive bigamist, starring Michelle Collins. It is the second collaboration between Collins and Susan Oudot, writer of Real Women, and will be seen as a major landmark in the career of this intriguing and underrated actor. The circling themes of Collins' characters - pregnancy/motherhood, absent/failed/false husbands - are here dazzlingly dilated; a succession of men and a long-lost daughter collide with endless cigarettes, domestic outbursts and bridal accessories. The result is a masterpiece of Bovarysme - Julie, hooked on a romantic myth, craves the novelty of the nuptials while evading the grim realities of marriage. Men are groomed and consumed, black widow style, in order to feed her violent appetite and keep her ahead of the past. The production is technically adept: the restless camerawork suits the material without overpowering it, and the showdown between Julie and her mother cleverly uses the location of a public toilet to create a harsh atmosphere of sterility and echoing anger. However, the real success is in the detail of Collins' characterisation. An unstoppable momentum is built up by the accumulation of tiny, obsessive gestures. For instance: Julie leaves one husband with a kiss on the doorstep, turns and walks down the road to meet another; as she goes her expression changes from cheerful to worried and then quiet crumbling distress, while she still tries to maintain the smile; a continuous shot, a beautiful, tragic vignette. Elsewhere, she cracks an excited grin at a groom's mother from behind the veil as she walks down the aisle; or throws a killer look across a restaurant table, catching another male victim in her web. After a confetti-strewn first half, the second part of the story moves towards a painful resolution as the background is revealed. The secret behind Julie's disavowal of social and sexual boundaries is the abuse she suffered in her childhood. She was raped by her stepfather and gave birth to a daughter, now a teenager who has now tracked her down. Meanwhile, her bigamy is uncovered and, in a fabulously camp dénouement, her multiple husbands line up against her in court. Then the aftermath; away from the trial, into the back of a cab. A roll of the eyes and Julie weighs up the driver. Picking up speed once more. A great, unsentimental ending. The story aspires to a cinematic tradition: the influence of Secrets and Lies grates at times - speeches about birth mothers are repeated almost verbatim - but I would suggest Julie herself has a less obvious and more unsettling sibling. It may seem a strange parallel, but in fact she evokes Johnny in another Mike Leigh film, Naked - a guilty escape, an appearance at a friend's, a pathological journey through the city with no rest or safety, travelling through people's lives, using them and moving on, lost somewhere between sympathy and cruelty. The relentless performance makes this single-minded blueprint work. The limitations show in the secondary characters, flimsy types who offer no more resistance than their bit parts require. Nevertheless, Collins's vampish screen presence makes Perfect special. It is a one-off performance where the actor is allowed to transcend the medium, like, for instance, that of Sarah Lancashire in Seeing Red. But above all, Michelle Collins is a distant star, exuding a mystery and sensuality more reminiscent of Garbo or Dietrich than today's TV celebrities. This is her best performance so far: blonde on the inside, a pure hit of heart-stopping glamour. Perfect. |
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