From the people who brought you the excellent Incontrol (a favourite at the London FrightFest in 2017) Devilworks’ The Man Who Was Thursday is a religious-themed thriller in the manner of the popular Tom Hanks Da Vinci Code hits.
The source material, G. K. Chesterton’s novel of the same name, was first published in 1908 and has lent it’s foundation to several adaptations over the years, notably Orson Welles’ 1938 ‘Mercury Theatre Player’s adaptation (which was broadcast around two months before his now-infamous version of The War Of The Worlds) and two BBC Radio versions in 1986 (in four parts) and 2005 (in thirteen half-hour parts read by Geoffrey Palmer).
Interestingly, this version is the first ever to be produced in a cinematic context, although previously it was reported in 1967 that APJAC Productions, the company behind the classic original version of Planet of the Apes in 1968, was preparing a musical version of the source material. More recently, there has been another adaptation of the novel by Jake Kerr which takes place in a Blade Runner-cum-VR-type setting.
The new film, directed by Hungarian Balasz Juszt, transfers the story from Edwardian England to modern-day America at its outset and this new film premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Film Festival.
Here the lead character, played by François Arnaud, is a troubled priest and recovering alcoholic who is excommunicated from his local parish (after a sex scandal involving a troubled woman on the run from local gangsters) and is sent to Rome for rehabilitation. Before long, however, he becomes involved in a local plot to attempt an assassination on the Pope at the behest of a local detective.
However, Thursday’s own desire to combat his own demons finds him suffering delusions and visions that seem to transcend time and distance, with one vision leading him to revolutionaries living in the shadow of Mussolini during World War II…
Given the numerous adaptations in various media over the years, it is a testament that this new version actually works surprisingly well, unlike some other versions that dwindle in the law of diminishing returns. On balance, it’s a cleverly structured movie that incorporates the gloriousness of an espionage film combined with the smartly coordinated style of Ron Howard’s recent blockbuster films adapted from the Dan Brown best-sellers and does have an admirably slick pay-off if you stick to the very end.
This writer hasn’t seen or heard any of those versions and it remains to be seen whether fans of the book or the other adaptations will take to this one in the same way they did the others. Newcomers to the source will certainly enjoy this one, as I did.
THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BALAZS JUSZT / STARRING: FRANÇOIS ARNAUD, ANA ULARU, EMANUELA POSTACCHINI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US), TBC (UK)
