I love you more than I hate you.
More than six decades after Sidney Lumet’s adaptation, Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play — a classic of American theatre — returns to the screen. This time, it is brought to film by Jonathan Kent, one of Britain’s most acclaimed theatre directors, making his feature film debut.
The story follows a day in life in August of the Tyrone family. James and Mary and their sons Jamie and Edmund struggle with substance abuse, illness, and jealousy; the family becomes trapped in a cycle of self-destruction.
Jonathan Kent and Jessica Lange already know this play inside out: in 2016 he directed her as Mary Tyrone on Broadway, a performance that earned her a Tony Award. As I was doing my research about Kent, I stumbled upon his beautiful description of O’Neill’s play. Jonathan Kent has called it “the greatest American tragedy” — a story not only about the devastating consequences of addiction, but also about love, compassion, codependency, and the desperate desire to escape. As he has put it, the four characters are as dependent on one another as they are to their respective drugs. It is a beautiful description, and it shows how deeply Kent understands the play. Which makes me wonder: is this adaptation just a way for him to underline his admiration for O’Neill’s play?
As someone who lives and breathes art, I understand the urge to pay tribute to a work you love. But is that necessary? Long Day’s Journey into Night is a world-famous play, and any new adaptation has to ask itself: what does it bring to the table? The answer in this case — not much. The classic theatricality of the story is squashed into a film form, and these two do not work together well. It’s as if Jonathan Kent is afraid to step out of his comfort zone, directing on stage, and because of that, the film never decides what it wants to be. It’s too stagey to use the freedom of camera and editing, and when a film feels too much like theatre, it ends up being neither great theatre nor real cinema.
But what Jonathan Kent does best is, for sure, direct his actors. Jessica Lange reprises one of her most complex acting roles as Mary Tyrone and once again reminds the audience why she is one of the greats. A manipulative morphine addict, yet so empathetic. Ed Harris, as James Tyrone, demonstrates his confidence and vulnerability with the masterfulness only Ed Harris can. Ben Foster and Colin Morgan, as Jamie and Edmund, capture the brothers’ love and resentment with subtle nuance.
In the end, what we get is O’Neill’s tragedy shrunk to fit a screen, with all its weight and no sense of why it had to be there. Jonathan Kent clearly loves the play, but doesn’t trust the magic of cinema. Sometimes admiration is not enough, and filming it exactly as it looks on stage does nothing.
5/10
