Hollywood actresses could learn a lesson from 77-year old Charlotte Rampling. Her latest role in Juniper could not have been played by an actress who’d been nipped, tucked and lifted in a quest for youth. Instead, every line on her face, every wrinkle in her skin, helps her play one indelible character after another.
In Juniper, Rampling plays Ruth, an alcoholic, long retired war correspondent who, just to add an extra complication to the story, is wheelchair-bound due to a broken leg. She has come to live with her pretty much estranged son, and her troubled grandson Sam (George Ferrier), who has returned from boarding school to learn that it is he who will be the caregiver to his cantankerous grandmother who drinks gin by the pitcher.
There are a thousand stories with a similar framework: hard headed personalities from different generations are forced together, only to gradually find qualified forms of acceptance, if not downright affection for each other.
In that way, Juniper is no different from say, Chico and the Man (Ha! Why did that pop into my head?) The difference is, of course, the understated performances, the pretty New Zealand locations and the way first time director Matthew J. Saville has put his own personal spice in the mix (the film is said to be partially autobiographical.)
Juniper will play well in art houses starting Friday, February 24th, will also feel like a natural in-home watch when it comes to Apple TV April 4th
Another movie with exact same title (a year later) is on Showtime, but has the above photo so is an error. It is about a teen girl mourning the death of her sister.