The star of Joanna Hogg's new film was snubbed by BAFTA - despite giving one of the year's best performances
Who is Anthony? It's this question that persists over the length of Joanna Hogg's semi-autobiographical memoir of a film The Souvenir, based on the writer-director's own time as a film student in 1980s London. Played by British actor Tom Burke, he first appears at a party as though out of nowhere, engaging Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) in casual conversation, asking questions and taking interest in her ambitions. Before we even have time to consider who this man is or what his motives might be, the two are dining together in an elaborate restaurant – dating, seemingly, though there is that sense of uneasiness that will never quite go away. In a flash, this strange, posh, enigmatic man has found a way into the centre of Julie's life. He, like Burke's masterful performance, will leave lots of scars.
The Souvenir, unquestionably one of 2019's best films (don't take my word for it; just ask Martin Scorsese) has been grossly overlooked by the majority of year's biggest award-giving organisations. In the wake of BAFTA's recent failure to acknowledge the film with even a single nomination, it's a shameful trend that looks set to continue over the coming weeks. Aside from Joanna Hogg's frankly embarrassing snub as both the film's writer and director, it seems absurd that Tom Burke – who gave one of the best performances in any film last year, and perhaps one of the best performances of the entire decade – has been ignored by voters in favour of – let's face it – more typical Hollywood fare.
Having played private detective Cormoran Strike in BBC television series Strike, Burke had already proven himself to be an enthralling actor with an old-fashioned charm long before he came to the film. Hogg herself has compared him to Orson Welles, whilst Scorsese likened his performance in The Souvenir to James Fox's turn in The Servant – high praise, indeed. And while Julie is, by way of her position as Hogg's surrogate, the film's lead character, it is Anthony that casts a long shadow over every frame of this meticulously-designed coming-of-age drama. Young and timid and unsure of her talent, Julie quickly comes to crave this elusive man's approval, and finds she is equally torn and enamoured by the toxicity of their on-off relationship. And so we, too, guided by the force of Burke's captivating and largely improvised performance, begin to feel the effects of Anthony's looming presence – whether he's on screen or not.
It isn't easy to play somebody who is unlikeable yet enchanting. Burke presents Anthony, a man we assume to be in his early-to-mid-thirties, as world-weary and cynical, older and wiser than his years. He finds much of Anthony's complicated character in his posture and vocal affectations. He often sits, hunched forwards, arm angled to the side, a cigarette perpetually pointing into the air. When he speaks his voice is flat and measured and resigned, as though everything said is so factually obvious he can barely be bothered to say it. Burke's careful delivery of each line finds an undercurrent of mystery or an ulterior motive – a trace of deceit or ambiguity. Despite this abundance of mannerisms, though, the actor never resorts to an Oscar bait-y bag of tics. Restrained and overbearing at once, he dwarfs Julie with words and finds a subtle place between anxious and nonchalant.
The Souvenir required an actor capable of finding Anthony's blend of arrogance and quiet despair. In Burke's capable hands, the character – based on one of Hogg's own lovers during her time as a student – takes the air of a human car crash we simply can't look away from. We desperately want to know more, but fear for the answers. Does he really work at the Foreign Office? What does Anthony see in Julie? Is there love here, or is he simply taking advantage of her good nature? The Souvenir never deals in absolutes. When the film culminates on a tragic note – “the worst,” as Tilda Swinton puts it in one of the film's many masterful line readings – it says so much about the depth of Burke's performance that we feel both sadness and relief.
It is without a doubt one of the year's most miraculous turns, so far from the overwrought agony of Joaquin Phoenix's performance as Arthur Fleck in Joker, and well worthy of a Best Actor nomination at Academy Award level. As the antithesis of the kinds of performances usually fated for awards glory, this is one that feels bold without ever being showy – a portrait of addiction that manages to steer clear of all the cliches. By the end we understand how this man's mystery and aloofness and confidence and intelligence have rendered him as the “souvenir” of the title. Julie cannot shake Anthony, even after he's gone. Burke's gift is that he makes it just as difficult for us to shake this man, too.
By: Tom Barnard
