The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford Review

The village of Arberloch in Scotland has one claim to fame, and the word ‘fame’ may be pushing it a little – it was the birthplace of Sir Douglas Weatherford, an obscure 18th century inventor and philosopher. Kenneth (Peter Mullan), a very distant relative of Weatherford’s, is the most diligent keeper of his ancestor’s flame, and perennial employee of the month at the small museum dedicated to telling his life’s story.

Then a popular fantasy TV show (think Game of Thrones) chooses the picturesque village as its next filming location, and legions of fans descend. The Weatherford museum becomes a gift shop, to extricate money from them. Kenneth, already grieving the loss of his wife the previous year, loses the only thing keeping him together. He decides to fight back.

That The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford is narrated by the titular eighteenth century nobleman gives you some idea as to the film’s wry sense of humour. “Though a man of little distinction, he is my final chance to save my legacy” is the knight’s opinion on Kenneth; whether that legacy is worth saving is a question the movie is rather dubious about. Arberloch is littered with comically unexciting monuments to his near-forgotten life, primarily a selection of rocks he used to sit and ponder on, all marked with little plaques. Kenneth is aghast when a fan of the show sticks his gum upon one of them.

Yet The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford is not about Sir Douglas Weatherford, but the grieving, out-of-touch sexagenarian who has no one to share his passion for the past with, until a disaffected teen (Lewis MacDougall) who works in the local camera shop agrees to help him make a documentary. This satisfies Kenneth at first, but then the TV production keeps trampling over their guerilla one, and the show’s star (Jakob Oftebro) delivers an insult he can’t forgive. Frustration builds, and Kenneth – who at best has a loose grip on reality – seems genuinely capable of anything. The movie derives plentiful tension from this lack of certainty about what he’ll do next.

The reason we’re so concerned, however, is entirely for Kenneth; though he’s the receiver of plenty of scorn from all sides, we feel for him. While Sir Douglas Weatherford is really not worthy of his ardent support, there’s nonetheless something noble about Kenneth’s dedication to keeping his memory alive in a world that’s eager to always be moving on. Obviously that’s also bound up in his still-fresh grief for his wife, of whom he rarely speaks, but is nonetheless a palpable presence in the living room where he spends his lonely evenings. The ever-reliable Mullan brings a gruff tenderness to his portrayal of a man lost in the past, bewildered by the events that have befallen him.

Writer-director Sean Dunn has a deft handle on The Fall of Sir Douglas Weatherford’s comic-melancholic tone throughout, making his film about how hard it is to be the only one who remembers a very memorable one indeed.

★★★★