#michael lander

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CILLIAN MURPHY as John / Emma Skillpa in Peacock (2010) | dir. Michael Lander

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Peacock (2010) Directed by Michael Lander

Cillian Murphy is one of the greatest actors ever.

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Film du Jour: Peacock - 2010 - Michael Lander

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Peacock - Michael Lander

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365 Day Movie Challenge (2016) - #367: Peacock (2010) - dir. Michael Lander

Denied a theatrical release back in 2010, Peacock is a straight-to-DVD drama about a man living with a fractured identity in the small town of Peacock, Nebraska in the 1950s. The film is a great vehicle for lead actor Cillian Murphy, who plays the twin roles of John and Emma Skillpa, as well as being a showcase for the always-expert cinematography of Philippe Rousselot (A River Runs Through It, Big Fish, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them). Taking some cues from Psycho’s Norman Bates, the character John Skillpa develops an alter ego, Emma, after his/her/their mother dies. When a train derailment knocks “Emma” unconscious while she is hanging laundry out to dry in the Skillpa house’s backyard, and the townspeople meet John’s mysterious new “wife,” the two personalities begin a war that threatens to destroy both halves of their shared body/mind.

Extreme amounts of melodrama - enough for several Lifetime movies - are brought to the fore via subplots involving the characters played by Ellen Page, Susan Sarandon, Keith Carradine, Bill Pullman and Josh Lucas. An abusive childhood, a political campaign, an illegitimate child, a motel room set ablaze... director/co-writer Michael Lander and co-writer Ryan O. Roy didn’t know where to stop with the endless tragedies, none of which have totally satisfactory resolutions. (You also have to suspend the world’s largest mass of disbelief that not a single person in town recognized that Emma looked exactly like John in makeup, a wig and women’s clothing.) I’m not saying I expected a “happy” ending for Peacock, but there was a profusion of potential in the film’s concept which was not adequately executed.

P.S. I can’t entirely explain why since the physical resemblance is not the same, but I felt there was a connection between the German actress Margit Carstensen (especially in Fassbinder’s Martha and Fear of Fear) and Peacock’s “Emma” character, specifically in the part of the film after she has shaved off her eyebrows and penciled in new ones.

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