![North Star](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/NorthStar_hero-H-2023.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1)
Kristin Scott Thomas‘ first film as director has the prettiest production design in ages, done by the great Andrew McAlpine, who long ago did Jane Campion’s The Piano. Scott Thomas also plays Diana, about to be married for the third time, which brings her daughters — the starry trio of Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller and Emily Beecham — home for the wedding. And that home! It’s a beautiful, comfy, English country cottage, with brightly colored walls or botanical wallpaper in every room, flowering vines hanging from the roof and a sprawling green yard. It’s no back-handed compliment to say the design is one of the first things you notice, because that look is essential to how inviting and lived-in this lovely film is.
Related Stories
It’s too bad the screenplay, which Scott Thomas wrote with journalist John Micklethwaite, is not what it could have been. With too many familiar tropes, North Star feels like a lesser variation on one of Richard Curtis’ amiable, sleek comic-dramas, without the sharp-witted dialogue. But there is still a lot to like in this warm story about a family of grown-ups coming to terms with their relationships and the past.
North Star
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Emily Beecham, Kristin Scott Thomas, Freida Pinto
Director: Kristin Scott Thomas
Writer: Kristin Scott Thomas, John Micklethwait
1 hour 35 minutes
In introductory scenes, we find that Johansson plays Katherine, a tightly-wound captain in the British Royal Navy (yes, with an English accent). She is ignoring texts from her partner, Jack, who urgently needs to talk. Beecham is nervous, insecure Georgina, a nurse who suspects her husband is cheating. And Miller is the confident middle sister, Victoria, a famous actress now living in America, trailing a long string of old lovers. Victoria’s intro offers pithy exposition using a clunky device as she tells her family story on a talk show. Her mother’s first husband, a military pilot and Katherine and Victoria’s father, was killed in the Falklands War. She married his best friend, another pilot and Georgina’s father, who was killed in Bosnia, leaving Diana to raise three small daughters.
There is an autobiographical echo here that helps explain how Scott Thomas brings such intimacy to her performance. Her own mother’s first husband, a pilot, died and she married another pilot, who died five years later. The film’s dedication reads “In memory of my fathers.”
Actors who turn to directing are primed to be great with other actors, and Scott Thomas certainly is. Johannson, Miller and Beecham convince us that they are sisters, different though the characters are. All three play their roles with naturalness and a strong sense of affection that is unspoken but clearly exists in the family.
And it is quite a bossy family. Without asking, Victoria hires an investigator to follow Georgina’s husband. Diana tells Katherine to marry Jack, who has wanted that for some time, and who is left at home taking care of their young son while Katherine is on a ship for months.
The distinctiveness of the family, though, is undermined by predictable scenes, including a wedding dinner outdoors and Diana’s grandsons getting into mischief. Scott Thomas’ assured direction, the vibrant cinematography by Yves Belanger and the graceful editing by Joan Sobel make the film easy to sink into, although rarely surprising.
It tries for surprises, but not very effectively. A rich man chasing Victoria, whom she calls Le Grand Fromage, lands a helicopter on the lawn, crashing the wedding, but not adding much to the film. Jack’s character is unexpected and the urgent need to talk to Katherine does not lead to the breakup we feel is looming. But the real reason is a ridiculous plot turn.
Eventually big emotional scenes play out. The sisters argue and let loose years of guilt, resentment and secrets. Scott Thomas, who has glided though with her usual poise, gets a big juicy scene near the end, and it is one of the film’s best-written. Diana tells her daughters to grow up and stop idolizing the fathers who, in their minds, are frozen in their perfect youth. Late in the film its themes of time, memory and grappling with the past really take hold.
Scott Thomas’ breakthrough was in Curtis’ Four Weddings and a Funeral, which may simply be a fact and not a reason for the similar deft mix of drama, comedy and warmth toward the characters. In any case, Curtis is a good model to have. North Star might not be extraordinary, but it’s no small thing to create a film that makes you want to step into its world and spend time there.
Full credits
Production companies: Indian Paintbrush, Finola Dwyer Productions, Ridlington Road Pictures
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Emily Beecham, Kristin Scott Thomas, Freida Pinto
Director: Kristin Scott Thomas
Writers: Kristin Scott Thomas, John Micklethwait
Producers: Finola Dwyer, Steven Rales
Executive Producer: Caroline Levy
Director of Photography: Yves Belanger
Production Designer: Andrew McAlpine
Costume Designer: Sinead Kideo
Editor: Joan Sobel
Music: Rolfe Kent
Casting: Lucy Bevan
Sales: CAA
1 hour 35 minutes
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day