"A film that would certainly work better as a television drama..."

Based on the eponymous Edward St. Aubyn novel, Mother’s Milk is the first of the British writer’s books to be adapted to screen, although potentially not the last – as it comes out of a five-strong book series based around the same character of Patrick Melrose, in what proves to be an engaging British drama directed by Gerald Fox.

Jack Davenport takes on the role of Patrick – a middle aged man engulfed in a series of troubled relationships when away on holiday in Provence (France), during a drawn-out, blistering summer. Alongside his wife Mary (Annabel Mullion) and two young sons, the family are staying at Jack’s mother Eleanor’s (Margaret Tyzack) beautiful house, a setting that is at the heart of much family controversy and dispute – as the dying mother is leaving the building to a foundation run by hippy charlatan Seamus (Adrian Dunbar) as opposed to her own family.

Despite Jack’s arguments, it appears his mother will not budge on her decision, as the tension and emotions formed from the débâcle ignite a whole host of other problems, including those that exist in Jack’s very own marriage, as well as his unhealthy affliction towards alcohol. Meanwhile, his son Robert (Thomas Underhill) is struggling to come to terms with the birth of his baby brother.

It does take a while to get into Mother’s Milk, as the opening is pensive and slow-burning, while it also takes time adjusting to the somewhat unique style of film making, with a series of interesting editing techniques, where we fade in and out of each scene, which, for the record, doesn’t work at all. However, the film does have a consistent disquieting nature to it, where you are always anticipating something dreadful happening, making for a rather tense atmosphere.

Davenport encapsulates such anxiety as a character who is seemingly on the edge of a breakdown throughout, struggling with alcoholism and his deteriorating relationship with his wife. He turns in a fantastic performance as the selfish, egocentric Patrick, portraying the role with a bit of bite to it. The other stand-out performance comes from the late Tyzack as Eleanor. The actress – who passed away last summer – plays what is certainly a challenging role to have taken on with an incredible degree of humility and sincerity. An arresting final performance to round off what had been an illustrious career. 

However the primary issue that exists in Mother’s Milk is the decision to release this cinematically – as Fox has produced a film that would certainly work better as a television drama – easily translatable as a three-part series whereby we each episode as shown from the perspective of each individual character (Jack, Mary and Robert) in the same way to how the film is split into three chapters.

Why they didn’t decide to do that is beyond me, because despite the positives that exist, I struggle to imagine where the paying audience for this feature will come from, potentially undoing all of the hard work and strong performances from the cast, which may find themselves just going to waste. Stick this on the BBC on a Sunday night on the other hand…