In Celebration Reviews

A sombre adaptation of an intense play, IN CELEBRATION was originally staged by Anderson, who came back to direct the picture using the original cast. It all takes place in 24 hours in the lives of a North England family. Coal miner Owen and his wife, Chapman, are celebrating their fortieth anniversary, and their three sons--Bates, Bolam, and Cox--have come home for the gala. The boys have all been educated above their station in life, with Bates being an attorney, Cox a teacher, and Bolam a successful automobile executive. Bates has decided to chuck law and become an artist. Cox has been writing a book for many years and has just given up the idea. Bolam has embraced the material world and showers his poor parents with gifts. With Bates as the guide, they go back over several incidents in their lives and make various revelations. They talk of the death of their brother, the first-born son, at the age of seven; of their mother's attempted suicide; and of the possibility of homosexuality in Bates's life. Powerful and emotional, IN CELEBRATION is the peeling away of facades under Bates's unrelenting scalpel, as one skeleton after another is taken out of the closet, examined, and put back. Somewhat stagey and confined, and surely too long at 131 minutes.