By Emilio Frenk
Director: Mick Jackson
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Spall, Andrew Scott, Jack Lowden and Caren Pistorious.
Rating: Good
British director Mick Jackson, who became very popular in the 90’s with movies like “The Bodyguard” starring Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston and “L.A. Story” with Steve Martin is back with “Denial” and he does it with interesting results.
Based in real events, the movie tells the story of acclaimed writer and historian Deborah Lipstadt (Rachel Weisz), a jewish woman who gives lectures in an american university in Atlanta,Georgia is confronted by David Irving (Timothy Spall) a historian who claims that the holocaust didn´t exist and embarasses her in public.
Eventually Lipstadt and her publishing company Penguin Books get sued by Irving by libel in a british court.
Lipstadt seeks the representation of lawyers Anthony Julius (Andrew Scott) and Richard Rampton (Tom Wilkinson) who will help her proove the real existence of the holocaust.
One of the things that worked really well in “Denial” was the direction of Mick Jackson and the script that was very well written by David Hare, who’s most notable work is “The Hours” and “The Reader” and he does a brilliant work on adapting Lipstadt book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier”.
The perfomances by Weisz and Wilkinson are in high caliber and Spall gives a remarkable one. He gave two years ago an amazing performance portraying JMW Turner in Mike Leigh’s “Mr. Turner” and again lands a fantastic performance as Irving and plays him with such realism that you feel resentment towards him.
I was really surprised of the film since I thought this was going to be another movie from the holocaust that tells the same story and in this case was totally different and that’s another reason why the movie works.
The only problem thatit could have been better was the third act of the film and the ending could have been another but at the same time I understood what Mick Jackson was going for. This is the first time in a movie that is inspired in real life events that there is no explanation on what hapenned to the characters of the movie after the trial was over and I do believe this was an interesting approach.
I have to mention the movie has a slow pace but it has a reason and it needs to be that way since it tells how the origins of the trial until the end of it.
Without a doubt I put “Denial” as one of the biggest surprises of this year and I give it a huge recommendation for the performances, direction and writing.