That Good Night

Dylan Thomas's signature poem Do not go gentle into that good night fittingly provides the title for this modest character study, which is also John Hurt's final screen appearance. Hurt is indeed impeccable to the last as a cranky screenwriter facing his own battle with mortality in the sun-splashed surroundings of his Algarve villa. It should be a time for making peace with his estranged son (Max Brown) and resolving festering discontents in his marriage (Sofia Helin, star of Nordic noir The Bridge, plays the long-suffering spouse), but Hurt's character isn't a man to compromise. He's plotting his own ending in cahoots with Charles Dance's mysterious white-suited visitor, in an enigmatic thread somewhat at odds with the straightforward family drama unfolding elsewhere. This screen adaptation of a play - originally written for Donald Sinden - certainly creaks a bit, but Hurt is by far the best thing in it, typically drawing out the underlying humanity of a fairly resistible individual. Probably not the title for which the British great will be remembered but, obvious physical frailty notwithstanding, there's no dimming of his powers here.