The movie adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s classic novel Sunset Song has won over critics at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The movie, which was partly filmed in Arbuthnott,stars Peter Mullan and model-turned-actress Agyness Deyn.
Set in north-east Scotland, the 1932 classic charts the life of farmer’s daughter Chris Guthrie, played by Deyn.
Despite the often challenging subject matter, the critical response to the film has been largely positive although many critics appear befuddled by the accents of its stars.
The Hollywood Reporter‘s Deborah Young said: “Despite a long and travailed production history, the film that screened in Toronto is visually stunning and emotionally engrossing,”
However, she warned some audiences may struggle ” to comprehend the brogue”.
Screen Daily praised director Terence Davies for creating a”tour de force of drama, composition and colour”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, critic David D’Arcy said the film is unlikely to enjoy mainstream success and instead “seems destined for the festival circuit, art houses and museums. We can also expect an afterlife in Scottish schools, where Sunset Song is already a required text.”
The Playlist’s Nicola Grozdanovic said Sunset Song is a”remarkable experience”.
However, Variety’s Peter Debruge was not as impressed.
Although he said the film is visually stunning, he added: “Whereas Lewis Grassic Gibbons’ 1932 novel is celebrated for its realistic evocation of rural Scottish life, Davies’ adaptation has it melted down and recast as precisely the sort of bonny romantic fluff the book was intended to correct a sort of ‘Jane Eyre’ on the Mearns, reduced to a pretty-postcard diversion for Masterpiece Theater types.”
Sunset Song will be released in the UK on December 4.