We first met (via Zoom) Victoria Boydell in January 2021 and she had just spent 10 months editing this film in Lockdown on Avid in her home, next to the washing machine. And with a sixty inch screen at the end of her bed to view the assemblies. Whilst John Madden was in the luxury of his home in Norfolk in a large barn on a leather sofa - he said this is the way forward! Meanwhile Vic's kids were subjected to the edit process at full volume all the while. Despite these circumstances, she did a great job - it's altogether a masterful piece of work, with a great momentum throughout, suspenseful, even if you know the outcome. (And let's face it, the original version, The Man Who Wasn't There, isn't probably a particularly well known film.)
Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen are on low wattage, what their characters need, Kelly MacDonald is feisty, Penelope Wilton usefully supportive. It's a great cast, including Johnny Flynn (Fleming, The Dig, Emma., Vanity Fair), Mark Gatiss, Hattie Morahan, Simon Russell Beale (Churchill), Alex Jennings, Ellie Haddington, Paul Ritter (his swan song), James Fleet, Mark Bonnar (hilarious as drunken Scottish driver), Ruby Bentall.
It's also very well written by Michelle Ashford (with, we know, the director's involvement), photographed by Sebastian Blenkov (catching the London dark blackout as well as Powell & Pressburger did in Contraband) and scored by Tom Newman (who is, we're told, a lovely guy as well as being a brilliant and multi-talented composer).
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