Film Review: Sometimes Always Never Scrabbles Father-Son Bonds
Sometimes, Always, Never is one those films you will either love or hate, in part, because it is distinct in style. Some will see it, on July 10 out on VOD, and think what is this quiet, colorful lunacy? Meanwhile, others will observe its slight absurdity as a nuanced look on how harsh parents can be on their kids: to the point of driving them away. This is a real, family drama that happens across several families, everyday, and in this directorial debut, by Carl Hunter, it happens across Scrabble.
Bill Nighy is s perfect as the difficult Alan; a genius that can be cold, aloof, and cranky, but, at the same time, aware, eager to love and be loved, and open to the need of redemption. This becomes apparent through his addiction/ noted genius in the game of Scrabble. The man can figure words on that board, even if it is virtual, but he can’t seem to figure out why his son ran away after a massive fight over the board game and whether Zo was a valid word. Was it about the word or him? The loss perplexes the stiff Alan to have a vulnerability he can’t seem to share with Peter ( Sam Riley): his other son who has always felt “othered” by the shadow of his missing brother, Michael, even when he was still around.
Sometimes Always Never Trailer #1 (2019) | Movieclips Indie
Alan found Michael an intellectual equal, but part of being a father is becoming an emotional equal with your child. This is evident through the dynamics between Peter, Alan, and Jack (Louis Healy). There is apart of me that really wished the film fully embraced its idea of three generations of men raised to “not feel.” For me, it is in this notion that the film blossoms as a very eccentric and endearing look at how everyone feels, including men, but you can really convince yourself you don’t. Alan and Peter’s “convincing” becomes ruptured when they try to find Michael, and, in turn, see how distant they are from each other.
Riley is fantastic as Peter, especially because he embodies every parent that is terrified that they have become exactly like their own parents. We all SWEAR we will be more loving and connected with our kids compared to the “old man,” but Healy’s Jack is a more vulnerable, open kid; whose own heart reveals to his dad how much he has closed his own. I love that detail, and Frank Cottrell Boyce’s writing it filled with them. His script is about the lingering disconnections we have with the people we are supposed to describe as “close family,” and how something as mundane as Scrabble can help us distract from that lack of closeness. You may think Scrabble? Really? But if you see how my parents love Candy Crush, you will understand games can divide people.
Hunter uses 1960’s aesthetics that gives the film its undercurrent of light-heartedness; after all, you can’t take a father-son spat to seriously when they are blatantly driving through a green screen backdrop. Yet, Hunter does mind allowing the silence of a moment to define the unsaid “I’m sorry” and “I love you” between parents and their kids. No matter how old you grow, when you see your dad, or mom, you feel 10 again. The only problem lies in whether you like the characters and, actually, want them to be together. I know this may seem like an obvious issue for any film, but Sometimes Always Never lives and breathes off of its desire to be quirky and offbeat, which might cut off some from investing their own emotions into the film beyond seeing whether this family invests in itself.
