The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford, from director Sean Robert Dunn, follows local man Kenneth (Peter Mullan), who is obsessed with his ancestor, Sir Douglas Weatherford. Kenneth works at a visitor center and even does some reenactments himself. However, when a popular fantasy show arrives to film with its star, Oscar Sorenson (Jakob Oftebro), and disrupts the visitor center routine, Kenneth is threatened. Now, he must fight to remind the community of Sir Douglas.
The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford grabbed me from the get-go as a story about a single man’s stubbornness in the face of this avenue of opportunity for his local community. Being from just outside Glasgow myself, a place that has become a hotspot for productions, this premise hits home with me. Should a community be content with the exposure these productions bring?
The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford takes its response to the extreme, with Kenneth literally ostracizing himself as the community’s weirdo. He continually tries to build up Sir Douglas Weatherford, who probably wasn’t the visionary that Kenneth makes him out to be.
It all leads to a great moment when Kenneth introduces himself to Oscar at a pub. Kenneth wants to make a film about Sir Douglas Weatherford; Sir Douglas was a mental health visionary, he says. There’s a sick humor to the moment, as Kenneth digs his own grave in the name of a guy who probably wasn’t that great. If he did do any groundbreaking treatments, it certainly wasn’t pleasant for those on the receiving end, as illustrated by a gory painting on the pub’s wall that only Kenneth seems to find amusing.
What catches audiences by surprise is the tragic element, as beneath the stubbornness lies someone with only one stable aspect of his life: telling the story of Sir Douglas. Early on, we find out that his wife passed away, yet he still asks for her when he gets home from work. At least with his job, he has some stability and a sense of belonging. Now, that has all been uprooted. Even if the community thinks he is a weirdo, underneath it all, he’s just trying to cling to the only thing that feels normal.
Mullen is a standout as Kenneth. To describe the character, I am going to use a bit of Scottish slang: ‘Scunnered,’ which we usually associate with being fed up. Mullen really embodies that sentiment. You get the sense that Kenneth is just aiming to take one day at a time. The film production’s arrival has just added more pressure and bumps in the road that he never wanted to confront.
Underneath The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford is a film about how, in loss, we can cling to safety nets. When that, too, is threatened, it can isolate us even more.
Review Courtesy of Matthew Allan
Feature Image Courtesy of Saskia Coulson