If you want to spend time watching Alan Cumming Traipse around the Scottish Highlands, I would recommend every season of “The traitors” on peacocks Over Toronto International Film Festival premiere ”Glenrotan. “One of these things has intrigue, murder, exciting cinematography and fantastic suits.
This is not just my half -hearted foundation for a large cinematic institution to program a “traitor” marathon. (Put Gabby Windee on a jury! It would be fun!) It’s also a digging on “Glenrothan”, a waste of a talented role, including Brian CoxWho draws double service as a director.
In fact, because of the promise that Cox is stepping behind the camera that the eyes are on “Glenrothan” on TIFFBut the valued artist gives none of his best performances to this task. One would think that a man is now best known for Belling “Fuck Off” on “Success” May have chosen a project with a little more advantage. Instead, “Glenrothan” is a fairy tale at surface level about family drama that is not so dramatic.
Cox plays Sandy Nairn, CEO of the family’s prestigious whiskey company in the unspoilt village of Glenrothan surrounded by rolling green hills. After a blast of unmatched Jaunty music, the film opens with Sandy’s voice that dictates a letter to his foreign brother Donal (Cumming) and encourages him to return to his home country. Sandy’s health fails and he wants to see his family. Donal, a nightclub owner in Chicago obsessed with Blues, has resisted going back to Loch’s land for reasons that will only be somewhat clear during the running time. In addition, he has too much fun singing “a meat ball” to an enthusiastic audience.
Donal, however, eventually relies after his place burned into a comfortable plot device. So he goes with his daughter Amy (Alexandra Shipp) and her young children on her journey. These two visit Sandy regularly, after seemingly established a very close relationship with him even though Donal has been in contact throughout Amy’s life.
“Glenrothan” is full of puzzling details like these, where it seems like the script by David Ashton and Jeff Murphy only find lazy ways to get their characters in the same place. There is a clumsiness that permeates the entire company. The dialogue is especially wood and the actors struggle through mixed metaphors such as: “Be careful in time, it can crawl up on you as a shit storm.” That line is spoken by cumming with zero irony.
The reasons why Donal has avoided this wonderful place all these years is teased over a series of powerful flashbacks where we mainly learned that his father was hard against him and he was very close to his mother, who died. There is no shocking trauma in Donal’s past, just a father who put a lot of pressure on him. Everything makes his behavior seem petulant rather than anchored in some pain. Not because the city people, who treat him as a kind of true Pariah, are much better.
All the main actors in the role seem to be lost. Shipp is tasked with scolding his father and delivering lead exhibition. Cumming really only comes alive when he sings. Blessed, there are a couple of moments when the natural showman will croon and they are the most fun. Otherwise, Cumming must externalize all the Donal’s feelings, because the script makes him speak loudly to himself instead of letting him show his battle. Perhaps the artist who makes the dirtiest Mike Leigh and Kelly Reichardt Veteran Shirley Henderson, who plays Donal’s former best friend and Sandy’s now right hand. Too often, her character requires that she falls into hysterics.
Perhaps most confusing is Cox’s obvious disinterest, given that he is the one who chose this material. Maybe he liked the chance to play someone with much more warmth than Logan Roy, but Sandy is just a vague nice guy like Donal Harm for many years for reasons that are unclear. At least Cox gets to laugh the word “Wastrel” at some point – the only pace where you see a hint of what makes him usually such an exciting presence. (He also has speed. So that’s it.)
As a director, Cox also seems to be lost. During a sequence where Donal begins to get stuck with a band at the local pub, Cox does not know where to place the camera, quick cut between your fingers playing instruments in a hard way. Elsewhere, the measure is statically staged. Kinematographer Jaime Ackroyd certainly captures Scotland’s Majesty, but there is no character to the frames, which looks like they can be picked out from an advertising from a tourist office.
At the end of the Lugubrious 97 minutes, all problems that the Nairn family had – as undeveloped as they are – are nicely solved. There is much more humanity in viewing in a section of “Traitors.”
“Glenrothan” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2025. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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