The Long Day Closes

Name: The Long Day Closes
Genre: Biography, Drama, Family
Released: May 28, 1993
Duration: 85 min
Rating: 85
Cast: Leigh McCormack, Marjorie Yates

1993

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	Your Score
6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: May 28, 1993 | PG

Starring: Leigh McCormack, Marjorie Yates

Summary: Growing up in the wreckage of post-war Liverpool should be a grim experience for sensitive eleven-year-old Bud. He lives in rain-drenched, lice-ridden impoverishment with his mother and hordes of siblings. The secondary school he's just started attending is a breeding ground for bigots and bullies and Bud's the punch-bag. Yet Davies' filmGrowing up in the wreckage of post-war Liverpool should be a grim experience for sensitive eleven-year-old Bud. He lives in rain-drenched, lice-ridden impoverishment with his mother and hordes of siblings. The secondary school he's just started attending is a breeding ground for bigots and bullies and Bud's the punch-bag. Yet Davies' film is an ode to childhood bliss. It evokes the confused thrill of sexual awakening, the addictive buzz of a favourite pop tune, the warmth of a doting mother's embrace, the happiness of a family sing-song. And, most effectively, the wide-eyed wonder inspired by cinema itself as Bud bunks off church to worship Hollywood's idols at his local picture house. [Channel Four Films]… Expand

Director: Terence Davies

Genre(s): Biography, Drama, Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 85 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Jay Carr

Sensuous and rarefied, elevating its particulars into epiphanies, The Long Day Closes is as joyful as introversion gets. [9 July 1993, p.25]

100

A.A. Dowd

What’s uniquely remarkable about The Long Day Closes, Terence Davies’ 1992 return to his own childhood, is how gloriously disorganized its story feels. Read full review

100

Rick Groen

The Long Day Closes is a twice-remarkable film. Once, because director Terence Davies opens his personal bottle of memories and makes them interesting to us. Twice, because, in doing so, he triggers our own memories. [11 June 1993]

100

Edward Guthmann

All things considered, The Long Day Closes is a remarkable film -- tender and intelligent, long on mood and short on ''action,'' a cinematic poem that stands head and shoulders above the summer harvest of bonehead action thrillers. [23 July 1993, p.C9]

Jeff Menell

The Long Day Closes is impressive in many ways. It may be a strange filmgoing experience, but its haunting imagery and sounds make it powerfully memorable. [24 May 1993]

Stephen Holden

A deeply personal film, and at times a touching one, it is a collection of fragments and memories artfully pieced into a quirky, captivating book of dreams. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

What The Long Day Closes lacks is a narrative thread, however slim, to match the perfectly realized setting and wonderful visuals Davies has crafted. The whole thing feels like a chapter of a much larger work, one that, if finished, would doubtless prove more intriguing than what we get here. [7 Aug 1993, p.G5]

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User Reviews

Trailesque

Oct 27, 2022

This is an odd situation for me, in that I found the filmmaking techniques more interesting than the subject - but what interesting techniques. The Long Day Closes could have only been a film, and that is saying a lot. It could not have been a book, or a play, or a painting . . . This isThis is an odd situation for me, in that I found the filmmaking techniques more interesting than the subject - but what interesting techniques. The Long Day Closes could have only been a film, and that is saying a lot. It could not have been a book, or a play, or a painting . . . This is mostly a cinematic poem, full of images and music that are both dreary and rich. It follows the lonely life of a serious boy (around 12-14 years old) in urban England during the 1950s, and his interactions with family, acquaintances, school, church, etc. There are things going on in terms of characters and events, but mostly this is about atmosphere. This reminded me of Tarkovsky's "Mirror."… Expand

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