The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford review – Peter Mullan gives weight to the twisty Scottish drama | film

pEater Mulan brings his formidable presence to this strange drama from first-time director Sean Robert Dunne: he’s angry and exhausted, disillusioned but good-hearted, someone whose feelings have been hurt a long time ago…but who wouldn’t dream of making a fuss about it.

It’s Mulan who gives weight and flavor to a film that can be a bit watery and not quite sure how sharp a bite it wants to deliver.

Kenneth (played by Mullan) is a sinister local historian and widower in the fictional Scottish town of Aberloch, obsessed with the memory of his mysterious ancestor Sir Douglas Weatherford, an unscrupulous 18th-century landowner and amateur surgeon who performed vivisection experiments on the lower classes. Sir Douglas’s writings on the importance of rational self-interest led to him being described by his descendants as the lost hero of the Scottish Enlightenment: a combination of David Hume, Adam Smith, Dr. Livingstone and Walter Scott.

Kenneth awkwardly wears a wig and knee breeches like Sir Douglas Weatherford to deliver excruciating lectures about his hero to uncomprehending tourists. But then a low-rent Game of Thrones-style TV show begins filming in the area. The tourist center where Kenneth eagerly works gets rid of all its boring Sir Douglas Weatherford exhibits, repurposes itself as a fan center and has Kenneth dress up as one of the show’s ridiculous characters. Kenneth is a powder keg of emotion ready to explode, and what makes matters worse is that the ghost of Sir Douglas lurks around, full of contempt for his ridiculous and pathetic offspring.

I could have done much with Sir Douglas himself, whose irritating speech at the beginning is very funny: but that keynote of biting satire which he seems to deliver is overtaken by bitter sadness as Kenneth takes center stage. It’s a very tender and sympathetic performance from Mulan.