'Archie', Britbox biopic on Cary Grant stuns with class and style
Jason Isaacs shines as Cary Grant in Britbox's Archie; a four part limited series based on the life of Hollywood icon
The epitome of elegance and method Acting, Jason Isaacs shines as Cary Grant in Britbox’s Archie; a four episode production based on the life of the 20th Century Actor. The miniseries released November 23rd, received a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics called it, ‘perfectly casted’, and ‘convincingly debonair’. Isaac’s uncanny channeling of the icon will leave you wondering if the wardrobe department ironed Cary’s essence before every take.
The biopic series begins with young Archibald Leach and his upbringing in early 1900’s poverty stricken Bristol, England. A cataclysmic introduction to the world, Archie’s brother passes away at the age of one from tuberculosis, before his Father commits his Mother into a psychiatric hospital. His Fathers lies, telling Archie she died too. He is sent to live with his Grandmother, before joining a traveling performance circuit around England as a means to escape. Archie hones his passion for the stage and the spotlight on the road, before venturing to New York and being discovered by Mae West, with the help of friend George Burns.
Archie supplies superb insight into the psychology of how far one will go to survive their demons. We witness Archibald Leach abandon identity as he steps into the role of a lifetime — becoming Cary Grant. Few truly knew who Cary was, apart from one of Hollywood’s greatest leading men in Film. He carried Archie and his formative years in a vice, insurmountably haunted. He compartmentalized the two personalities all his life. His gift was stage and screen, where Cary shined. The moment the lights went down, he was Archie. His self reflection wasn’t of a star, but a troubled boy who lived between thin lines of rejection and love all his life. In the end, it was his daughter and fifth wife with whom he shared genuine happiness for the first time.
Executive producers for the limited series, Cary’s fourth wife Dyan Cannon and their daughter Jennifer oversaw story development. The Mother and Daughter lended first hand knowledge of Cary and critiques towards the show, to illuminate Cary’s essence and factual accounts of his life. He was as flawed as he was talented, and as charming and graceful as he was dysfunctional and neurotic.
The series is engaging and wonderfully written. It relies heavily on themes of love and death, victory and betrayal, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. With generous undertones of self analysis in the form of two men co-existing in one body, Isaacs is effortless in delegating the ‘Cary Grant’ and ‘Archie’. Archie also boasts a multitude of scenes with Cary’s fellow inner circle. One evening finds he and Dyan Cannon attending Halloween dinner at Alfred Hitchcock’s home before Hitchcock’s wife Alma, ridicules Dyan for the age difference between the unlikely couple, and the fact he’s still married to his third wife. Cary seeks advice on becoming a Father on an afternoon walk with Grace Kelly, and George Burns teaches the ‘North by Northwest’ star about serendipity and LSD.
Cary Grant is one of the greatest Actors in Film History. His most notable roles include, ‘The Philadelphia Story’, ‘My Man Godfrey’, ‘To Catch a Thief,’ and ‘Arsenic & Old Lace’. He remains timeless in character and in the ways which some things never change. The closer to the human, the further from perfection. Archie is a must see.