Ewan McGregor is clearly proud of his first directorial effort, American Pastoral, based on Philip Roth鈥檚 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Talking about his film during the press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival last month he seemed pleased but exhausted by the experience.
Asked whether he was keen to jump into the director鈥檚 chair again, McGregor protested the time away from his family and the dedication it takes to bring a film project to fruition: 鈥淵ou spend 16, 17 months of your life鈥� carrying this precious thing.鈥� Though he didn鈥檛 rule out directing again he wasn鈥檛 actively seeking it: 鈥淚 hope the next story will find me鈥�
McGregor plays the title role of Seymour 鈥渢he Swede鈥� Lavov, star high school athlete and a Jew who marries Dawn (Jennifer Connelly), former Miss New Jersey, the epitome of WASP-ishness. Swede takes over his father鈥檚 company in the city while cultivating a picture-perfect life in the country, complete with a little white house and dairy cows.
The pastoral idyll is shattered by the arrival of daughter Merry, who is not perfect. She stutters inexplicably. A small thing, in of itself, but a bad omen of things to come. The Swede adores his daughter, but Merry feels in direct competition with her beautiful mother when it comes to securing Daddy鈥檚 affections: 鈥渒iss me like you kiss mother.鈥� (Well played by young Hannah Nordberg.)
Prosperous post-war America clashes violently with 鈥�60s rebellion as Merry (now Dakota Fanning) enters her teens. She spends an increasing amount of time with friends in the city, and occasionally doesn鈥檛 come home at all. Dawn tries to rein her in but Swede relents over and over again. Though he shouldn鈥檛 be, he鈥檚 surprised to learn that her room is filled with anti-war protest leaflets and propaganda.
How could this happen? They鈥檙e a progressive family, aren鈥檛 they? The glove factory Swede took over from his father employs mostly 鈥渘egroes,鈥� some of whom Swede considers friends as well as employees. (Orange is the New Black鈥檚 Uzo Aduba steals at least one scene.) But the Vietnam war and self-immolation of a monk on live TV scream louder than Swede can: the damage to Merry鈥檚 fragile psyche is done.
So when the local post office is bombed, killing a neighbour, Merry goes missing and is the presumed culprit.聽Years pass with no word and then a sighting, and contact from a liaison, Rita (Valerie Curry). Rita uses the Swede鈥檚 conflicted relationship with his daughter to seduce him, stringing him along with the promise of information and the chance to see his little girl again.
McGregor can鈥檛 quite pull off the cockishness and larger-than-life zeal of a young Swede: he seems already beaten somewhat when we meet him, meaning that his fall into ignominy is less jarring than it should be.聽Dawn is just as fragile as her daughter, taking an interesting path to recovery after a nervous breakdown, and Connelly gives a nuanced performance.
It鈥檚 Fanning who has the most difficult task: she becomes the main character in the film despite being tacitly unlikable, frustratingly oblique about her motivations and abandonment of such a seemingly perfect family. 聽
Fans of Roth鈥檚 1997 novel will lament the loss of the richness in the text, necessitated by the film鈥檚 two-hour running time. Absent are the themes of interfaith marriage and class aspirations, only briefly touched on in a scene where Swede鈥檚 father (Peter Riegert) objects, but is then won over by a convincing Dawn. 聽
The film is bookended by narration by David Strathairn as Nathan Zuckerman, a writer attending his high school reunion and hearing the remarkable tale of what became of his hometown hero the Swede for the first time. The character of Nathan is key, as it illustrates the wider lament for the crumbling American dream, and a whole generation鈥檚 confusion about how it could鈥檝e all gone so wrong.
American Pastoral opens Friday at Fifth Avenue.聽
