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Movie Review '55 Steps'

Swank and Bonham Carter shine in compassionate drama '55 Steps'.

By Sean PatrickPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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55 Steps is unquestionably a tearjerker—it just happens to be a high calibur tearjerker. This is a superb film that features a pair of lead performances that just work. Helena Bonham Carter and Hilary Swank are given all the room in the world to emote and overact and instead both actresses find near perfect tones for their performances that bridge a perfect gap between the broad strokes of drama and the authenticity of a based-on-a-true story movie.

In 55 Steps, Carter portrays Eleanor Riese, a mental patient who after being treated terribly in a California mental hospital decided to call for a lawyer. Hilary Swank is her advocate, a former nurse turned patient's rights activist and lawyer named Colette Hughes. Eleanor could not have made a better choice. In short order, Colette has filed briefs, gotten a fellow mental patient out of a heinous cell where she was restrained against her will, and worked to get Eleanor released back to her little northern California apartment.

I was expecting 55 Steps to turn into a legal drama. The story is based on the true story of Eleanor Riese whose case gave patients the right to refuse treatments they deemed unnecessary or harmful. Because of the bravery of Eleanor Riese, patients were no longer simply doped up and left to die at the convenience of an uncaring system. It’s a landmark case and one that she sadly didn’t get to see through to the end.

This isn’t, however, a legal drama, despite the addition of Jeffrey Tambor as a Mort Cohen who argued Eleanor’s case in front of the California Supreme Court. The movie focuses on the remarkable relationship between Eleanor and Colette and their unconventional friendship. Swank plays Colette with a depth and compassion that is both genuinely human and admirably above the call. Not a lot of us would be as kind as Colette is but then again, not many of us have met someone like Eleanor.

Helena Bonham Carter cuts away all of the BS and uplift and creates a genuine character, flawed and lacking in self awareness but deeply loving and committed to others. It’s a truly lovely performance that never feels like a burlesque of mental illness, a trap many lesser actors have fallen into when playing the mentally handicapped. Characters like Eleanor can be a minefield for lesser actors but Bonham Carter invests so much life and heart into this performance that she becomes genuinely lovable in a way I imagine the real Eleanor must have been.

55 Steps was directed by veteran Bille August who doesn’t bring any unnecessary flash to the direction. August has been directing since the 1970s to little distinction but he’s a solid, professional hand behind the camera and he knows what he has here. In these two incredible actresses he has a brilliant two-hander movie that doesn’t need much more than a director who knows how not to get in their way.

I adore 55 Steps in ways I never imagined I would. The sweetness of Eleanor is captured brilliantly by Bonham Carter who also doesn’t shy away from the qualities that quite reasonably made her not easy to be around. Swank captures the remarkable empathy that drove Colette Hughes. Her empathy and compassion resonates deeply with me. I worry that I may not have the capacity for such depth of compassion, in such an up close and personal fashion.

Don’t misunderstand. I have a depth of feeling for those who deserve it but I don’t think I could be Colette who, when she goes to work for Eleanor, becomes enmeshed in her life. That is beyond me in ways I can’t properly articulate. My sister works with people like Eleanor and if she sees this movie, I imagine she might cry for a few days. She has Collette’s level of compassion and I can’t tell you how much it fills my heart to know that Colette and my sister are out there doing what people like me aren’t capable of.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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