The Laureate (2021) A Frustrating, Misguided and Melodramatic Biopic of a Fascinating True Story (Review)

I recently purchased Jerzy Skolimowski’s The Shout on Blu-Ray, a rather intriguing surrealist horror film based upon a short story by poet Robert Graves, who is played in a fictionalised version in that film by Tim Curry. The Laureate is a far more direct portrayal of Graves’ life, being a biopic that focuses mainly on his polygamic relationship with his wife Nancy Nicholson and fellow writer Laura Riding. Aside from The Shout and the knowledge that Graves was known for his war poetry, I knew nothing about the film’s subject matter before going in.

I did have my fears when looking at the film’s promo material that it would end up being the type of period drama that I do not like at all, something similar to Downton Abbey came to mind. Fortunately The Laureate is nowhere near as Tory as that (although it does have an overly grey colour palette that I associate with such banal ITV fare), for one thing it portrays a lesbian relationship between Nicholson and Riding, yet Graves’ widely documented bisexuality is not mentioned at all.

The polygamic relationship between the three, known as the Trinity, establishes itself after Graves begins correspondence with Riding and encourages her to live at his residence so they can collaborate in their writing. Riding’s entrance into the household is quite peculiar, giving me parallels to The Shout in how Dianna Agron portrays her as conniving and mysterious, similar to how Alan Bates’ Crossley acts in the earlier film. Agron is the only performer in The Laureate who appears to understand that the film can be very unsubtle at points, starting with the overuse of brief WW1 flashbacks in order to portray Graves’ PTSD. It is clear from the dual monologue between Graves and Nicholson that begins the film that the couple’s relationship is somewhat fractured, and that Graves is emotionally distant. When Riding enters, it is as if her presence saves their relationship, at least initially.

A couple scenes also touch upon Riding’s almost motherly friendship with Graves and Nicholson’s daughter, Katherine, with one of them portraying Riding in an almost villainous light, which comes across as very out of place. The main issue with the film is that it is not confident in how to tell its story. From what I read after watching the film, the true story is wild enough as it is, yet the script still relies heavily on artistic licence. It is guaranteed that something would be changed for the benefit of dramatic tension, but here it ends up being convoluted. There are so many plot points relating to cohabitation and love triangles that the relationships between the main characters end up more resembling a love pretzel.

Another poet, Geoffrey Phibbs, is introduced into the narrative in the last third, at which point the melodrama becomes even more tiring and Tom Hughes’ Graves takes a backseat for part of the film. According to at least one biography of Graves, after Phibbs chose to leave the Holy Circle (which was formerly the Trinity), Graves tracked him down and threatened to kill him if he did not return. The film does not portray that at all and instead goes for portraying what is effectively a childish spat between the four characters. The film goes for the safe route, which unfortunately is the less interesting choice. Some of the dialogue is really unnatural too, with Laura Haddock as Nicholson delivering many lines that come across as overly expository.

Nothing in this film is more one-dimensional than the portrayal of Robert Graves himself. All that we are told about him from the film is that he still has trauma from WW1 and occasional hallucinations that usually involve his family standing in a field (including his parents, played by a criminally underused Julian Glover and Patricia Hodge), his writing is the only thing that distracts him from that trauma, and he is both emotionally and sexually distant. With that last point, I’d like to bring up Graves’ bisexuality again. Despite the polyamory, there is nothing documented saying that Nicholson and Riding were bisexual, yet they are portrayed that way in the film whilst with Graves it is not touched upon at all. It is somewhat insulting in how it implies that bisexuality is acceptable with women yet with men it is not. The relationship between Nicholson and Riding in the film comes across as a fetishisation of bisexual women. At this point it crosses the line from dramatic licence to rewriting history. Despite having a relatively minor role, I would still say that Tim Curry’s portrayal of Graves in The Shout is far more intriguing.

As you can probably tell, I was not impressed by The Laureate. Whilst it starts off a bit more unique than the period dramas it is similar to with Dianna Agron’s vibrant performance and the seduction scenes that veer dangerously close to Zalman King esque erotica, it is clear that writer and director William Nunez is far more interested in telling a drawn out and frustratingly mundane romance tale instead of the interesting lives that these people led. If you want to know more about Robert Graves’ life you are better off reading his Wikipedia article, and if you are already a fan of his work watch The Shout for a more abstract and fulfilling interpretation of his work.

Liam’s Archive: The Laureate (2021)