Tagline: When you aspire to something extraordinary, you can find the hero within.
On a Clear Day is an inspirational drama with humor, about forgiveness and fortitude, from an exciting new voice in filmmaking. Filmed on location in Glasgow, the Isle of Man, and Dover, the film centers on Frank Redmond (Peter Mullan). After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, this no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man suddenly finds himself laid off.
For the first time in his life, Frank is without a job or a sense of direction, and is too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates – rascally Danny (Billy Boyd), timid Norman (Ron Cook), and cynical Eddie (Sean McGinley) – are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone.
An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan (two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn) and all-but-estranged son Rob (Jamie Sives), Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence.
He will attempt the near-impossible – swimming the English Channel. As Frank plunges headlong into his new daily life, his astonished friends are swept along with him. Prodded by stalwart fish-and-chips shop owner Chan (Benedict Wong), the men support Frank, train him – and keep their goal secret from his wife and son.
Frank is unable to confide in those closest to him, but as the big day and moment of truth draw near, there is a sea change. Frank’s family confronts him, and he realizes that he must repair his strained family ties. As Frank and those closest to him discover – or re-discover – reserves of love and compassion, he realizes that he is also swimming from one part of his life to another.
About the Production: Taking the Plunge
Director Gaby Dellal recalls that she first heard about On a Clear Day when “my agent called me and said, ‘There’s this script about a man who swims the English Channel –’ I said, ‘Next! Pass!’ But he insisted. So I read the script and by the end, I was in tears. It was a beautiful story, one that I fell in love with.”
She soon met with screenwriter Alex Rose, and the two of them began an 18-month collaboration, moving the project forward with the full support of producers Sarah Curtis and Dorothy Berwin. As the latter reflects, “The filmmaking process is by nature collaborative. We worked and worked on the script until it was ready to send out for casting and financing.”
Rose adds, “You can’t write for film in isolation, and the development process was vitally important to take the script from its initial stages to its shooting stages. It’s easy to argue for a scene to stay the way it was first written just because it works. But Gaby pushed and prodded me and I’m indebted to her for it. She prompted me to find answers for things and, in finding those answers, to make the script stronger.”
Dellal elaborates, “On the surface, On a Clear Day is about a man who is ‘made redundant’ due to the scaling-down of his shipyard in Glasgow; his selfrespect and self-esteem are hit hard, and he has to build himself back up again – which he determines to do by, against the odds, swimming the English Channel.
“Yet it’s really about a man who lost a son 25 years ago, and who has shut down completely and incarcerated himself in his work. When that work is taken away from him, he must face up to those feelings he never dealt with decades earlier.”
Rose remarks, “The story slowly crept up on me and came together. I feel it started with my son. Because, when he was 4 years old, I’d drop him off at the school gate and he’d let me kiss him goodbye; now that he’s 7, he makes faces and squirms away. That hurt me – it was an element of loss, and it got me wondering how I’m going to feel when my son is 16 or 17 and I’m lucky if he says, ‘Right, see ya!’
From there, I got to thinking what it would be like to truly lose a child. I imagined a man who’s torn apart by a dual loss; one child has died and while another child is alive, he doesn’t speak to the surviving twin and can’t get along with him.”
“It’s quite an emotional story,” says Dellal. “I used to lean on Alex to make sure that nothing was too schmaltzy… “From my first reading of the script, Peter Mullan was the man I imagined straight away to play Frank.”
Curtis concurs, “We never considered anyone else for the part. Like everybody, I am an admirer of Peter’s work – especially in Ken Loach’s My Name is Joe – and I knew he would bring enormous truth and compassion to the role. But I also knew that Peter was off directing as well as acting these days, and couldn’t think how we would get him. Finally, Gaby wrote him a simple letter, enclosing the screenplay and saying ‘If you don’t respond to this script, I’m going to kill myself.’ He called within two days’ time and asked us to meet him in Glasgow.”
Mullan offers, “What I loved about it when I read Alex’s script, and what attracted me instantly, was the opportunity to look into an area of masculinity where everything is so internalized. The script was also a hair’s breadth from toppling over into sentimentality. I think Gaby did a very good job in terms of casting, because there was no one among us who would sentimentalize true human emotions and no one who would try to ingratiate themselves instead of trying to explore.”
“Peter goes exactly against sentiment every time,” confirms Dellal. “If it indicates, in a script, that a man might cry, he won’t do it. Instead, he’ll surprise you. He’ll only give you what’s good and true; you can’t push him in any other direction.”
The actor adds, “To me, On a Clear Day is not a ‘heartwarming tale’; it goes deeper than that. It’s not simple triumph-in-the-face-of-adversity stuff; hopefully, it’s something more poignant. It’s about something I deeply believe in, which is the meeting of human souls and the evolutionary need, if you like, to support one another in some shape or form. It’s also as far as you can get from the whole neo-conservative concept that you must look after Number One, because that, to me, is anti-civilization and anti-human, really.
“In terms of its narrative, the film is quite old-fashioned. To me, it recalls early 1960s English films like Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and Billy Liar. Those are films that had a big impact on me. In On a Clear Day, Frank chooses to do the most singularly difficult thing he can possibly think of – to find out whether he’s actually worth something.“
Friends and Family
With Peter Mullan on board and the script locked, the filmmakers were able to recruit an ideal cast. Sean McGinley, cast as Frank’s oldest friend Eddie, comments, “Often when you get scripts, they’re not fully formed and you sense that there might have been a good idea somewhere but it’s been weathered away by committees. This, on the other hand, was a fully formed piece of writing. It’s always the writing that gets you interested in the first place and if it has any depth to it, it’s also that which sustains you through rehearsing and performing it. The more you dig into good writing, the more you get back from it.”
Billy Boyd, who plays Frank’s youngest mate Danny, adds, “You have no idea how many bad scripts an actor gets to read! It’s such a treat when you get a good one. When I was reading this one, I was laughing out loud.”
“The strength of the writing is quite rare,” notes Jodhi May, who plays Frank’s daughter-in-law Angela. “There’s the powerful element of the estrangement between a father and his son and the emotional scar between them that hasn’t healed, interspersed with these more lighthearted ensemble moments and the themes of hope and trying to do the impossible. During the course of the film, you see a group of men going through these late-life rites of passage and sharing them in a very close and intimate way. That’s very unusual, and quite uplifting.
To hold her own opposite Peter Mullan, the filmmakers needed an actress of comparable caliber, and two-time Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn topped their short list. After all, the duo had to be believable as a longtime married couple. Gaby Dellal explains, “Joan and Frank have been together for about 35 years. When Alex Rose first introduces her character in the script, he notes that Joan and Frank are very silent together, writing ‘Theirs isn’t a bad relationship, just an old one.’ That moved me and I think that’s exactly what Peter and Brenda portrayed and what I hope we’ve shown successfully – a strong relationship between two independent people who, as the film progresses, get even more independent.”
Blethyn says, “Gaby had a very clear insight into the world of these characters, and she wanted the story to be told as truthfully as possible, without tricks played. She had already lived with the project for a long time; I sensed that she’d played these characters for herself many times. I met with Gaby, I thought, just to chat about the project – but by the end of our talk, it was, ‘Okay, I’m doing it, then.’
“For me, On a Clear Day is the story of a family’s struggle to stay together as a unit. There’s a rift between Frank and Rob, and they keep trying to reach one another at a place of reconciliation – but it’s a stalemate every time. Deep down they know there’s as much affection as there ever was, but there’s a block they can’t seem to get past.”
“I think the film is about communication, or lack of communication,” states Jamie Sives, cast as Rob. “That’s true for Chan and Danny as well as for Frank and Rob. There’s this sense that everyone’s life would be better if they only communicated, if they only said how they were feeling or what they were thinking. Rob feels like he’s never really been included in his father’s life. He believes that Frank has been left with the son he liked less and he resents Frank for this. This has been building up since he was 7 years old, but Brenda’s character says they’re like magnets that won’t stick together, flip them over and they stick like glue.”
“I’d seen Jamie in Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself,” remembers Dellal. “I felt that he had a uniqueness which would be ideally suited to Rob. He portrays vulnerability well. There’s a great disparity between Frank and Rob – a highly traditional father and the home-loving, househusband son – but it’s not about Frank believing that Rob is not ‘manly’ enough.”
Sives adds, “Gaby used to be an actress so she used a sort of actor’s shorthand to tell me what she wanted. At the first read-through, there was a lot of hilarity among Frank and his mates and I felt that my character was a bit too gloomy and morose. It was important to find a balance and the right pitch for Rob.”
In this, Mullan believes that his fellow actor succeeded, confiding, “Jamie made some brave choices. An integral part of Frank’s journey is not just coming to terms with the son that he lost but with the son that he retains. It works both ways; it‘s also Rob coming to terms with the father he’s got. At times, Jamie played Rob as nothing more than a spoiled brat and that takes guts. I hope that the rest of us were doing the same – we had a good ensemble and I believe we were unafraid to show the characters in all their different shades, not just the most flattering ones.”
The ensemble of Frank’s mates is a motley crew, inspired by Rose’s early morning swims at a local gym and the diverse types in the pool at that hour. Billy Boyd finds this to be the right approach, saying, “There are so many different characters and that’s just the way it is in real life when you work in a factory or a shipyard or an office. It’s not like playing on a football team where everyone’s around the same age and has the same basic physical capabilities.”
“Before we started filming, we talked about who the characters are and where they came from,” adds Sean McGinley. “My character, Eddie, is a highly skilled tradesman who absorbs a humiliating demotion to stay at work. As it is for all of the lads in the group, his work is as important as his family. There’s also a very strong bond among them; all of the older lads look out for Danny because he lost his father – even though he irritates the hell out of them.”
Boyd laughs, “Danny doesn’t really think before he talks, so he’s unintentionally funny a lot of the time. But I believe he’s quite brave. When we meet him, he’s a young man with no money, no girlfriend, no prospects. So he asks himself how he can win back some respect, and decides that he’ll swim the Channel. He loves the guys and he looks up to Frank. Danny may be foolhardy, but he tries to enjoy himself.”
Ron Cook, who plays Norman, calls his character “afraid of life in its entirety. He used to work at the shipyards, but took early retirement. He’s old school, very fastidious and particular; he always wears a tie. He’s a bit of a mother hen, because the others are his family.”
Benedict Wong plays Chan, who becomes part of the circle of friends during the course of the film. The actor explains, “Frank and Chan realize that they share a connection, a sort of empathy. Chan is a rather solitary figure who gradually finds his voice as he becomes part of the group.”
“Benedict is a chameleon,” marvels Dellal. “I remembered him in Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things as playing a slender doctor, but when I met with him for this part, he was a funny big guy. Here, he’s playing much older than his actual years; he has a very wise manner about him which lends itself to the character of Chan.”
Mullan adds, “All these guys invested themselves in their parts so that they weren’t just playing stereotypes, they were very much a group of individuals who come together as a collective. We explore their communal spirit, and the difficulties of trying to help somebody; they stick by Frank – and he’s not the easiest guy to get on with – and they get something out of it for themselves. Their journeys are just as important as his.”
While the shipyard, the locker room, and ultimately, the Channel, are predominantly male environments, the female characters – as incarnated by Brenda Blethyn and Jodhi May – are not overlooked.
Blethyn concedes, “Although it’s a male-dominated story, you mustn’t forget that the director and the two producers are women – and it’s my character who gets to drive a bus!”
“There’s a parallel between Angela and her mother-in-law in the way that the two marriages sort of mirror one another,” adds May. “You have two men held together by strong women and for me, that’s very true to life.”
On a Clear Day (2006)
Directed by: Gaby Dellal
Starring: Peter Mullan, Brenda Blethyn, Billy Boyd, Ron Cook, Shaun Dingwall, Jodhi May, Anne Marie Timoney, Shaun Dingwall, Andrew MacLennan, Irene Ann Burt, Michelle Rodley
Screenplay by: Alex Rose
Production Design by: Mark Leese
Cinematography by: David Johnson
Film Editing by: Robin Sales, John Wilson
Costume Design by: Kate Hawley
Art Direction by: Caroline Grebbell
Music by: Stephen Warbeck
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language.
Distributed by: Focus Features
Release Date: April 7, 2006
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