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Irreconcilable differences Philip Goodhew's horrific feature debut by MATTHEW HAYS
The British Goodhew, a seasoned actor and stage director, decided to move into the realm of filmmaking when he grew tired of theatre. After coming across the strange story of a wholesome '50s family that had apparently been invaded by an evil lodger who did them unholy harm, Goodhew decided he had his first screenplay. After looking more closely at the court records, Goodhew found a different story emerging between the lines. He decided to retell the tale from a different angle. Marjorie Beasley was a frustrated housewife in her 50s, married to a WWI veteran. Apparently struck by ennui, she decided to take in a boarder. Harold Guppy, a young, confused man with a shady past, moved in and, after a bit of coaxing, she managed to get him into bed. Trouble is, in order to avoid her husband, she made love to him in her 14-year-old daughter's bed--while her daughter was in it. All the while they're making love beside her, the clandestine lovers told the young girl that nothing was going on--it was one colossal example of the British stiff upper lip: denial. The situation festered and erupted in a horrific crime which led to a sensational trial in the '50s. Goodhew manages to flesh out the story with a good deal of research beyond the headlines (he even attained access to many of Beasley's letters to Guppy, something he was never supposed to see). When Goodhew finished the script, he sent it to Julie Walters, knowing it was a bit of a pipe dream that she'd ever see it. She phoned him immediately after reading it, saying she'd love the lead role. "She never does that," Goodhew says. "She always deals through her agent. But she was so taken with the story she called right away." And the allure of murder as a story made funding for the feature fairly easy to come by. "We had surprisingly few problems," recalls Goodhew. "I was worried that people would say, 'Oh, it's a completely unbelievable piece of crap.' So basing it on this story was a bit of protection: "Well, it's true, actually." Intimate Relations opens this Friday, June 6. See film listings for showtimes |
"Their inability to discuss their inner lives is very British," director Philip Goodhew says of the characters in his first feature Intimate Relations. "It's a national trait to be paralyzed in that area. They're driven to a sort of madness because they can't take the reasonable option."