Eclipse (1977) – Film Review

Director: Simon Perry
Cast: Tom Conti, Gay Hamilton, Gavin Wallace
Certificate: PG

By Sarah Morgan

Unless depicted by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito, twins in movies are rarely seen in feelgood comedies. Instead, you’re more likely to see them be more than a wee bit creepy in The Shining, Dead Ringers or the Hammer Films classic Twins of Evil.

Although not outwardly odd, the brothers depicted by Tom Conti in long-lost British psychological thriller Eclipse are certainly dysfunctional – and one of them is dead, as we discover in the opening scene when his body is washed up on a Scottish beach.

“Awkward gathering”

Geoffrey, or Big G, as the deceased was known when he was alive, was apparently a larger-than-life character who left his loved ones trailing in his shadow – although there is an actual blocking of the moon depicted in the film, it’s Big G who is the real eclipse of the title.

After the inquest into his death, during which his sibling, Tom, painfully recalls how his brother must have fallen overboard during an ill-fated nighttime sailing trip, we cut to a remote house somewhere in the very north of Scotland, where Tom is spending Christmas with Big G’s alcoholic widow, Cleo (Gay Hamilton), and young son Giles (Gavin Wallace).

At times it’s an awkward gathering, with the dead man’s presence overwhelming events, even though he’s not actually there, unless you count the bizarre nude portrait Cleo has painted of her husband; Tom is understandably disturbed by her rendering, particularly as the body looks more like his own than his brother’s.

“Unnerving”

As time passes, what really happened on the night that Big G died, as well as the truth about the seemingly quiet and gentle Tom’s nature, are slowly revealed in a series of speeches and shocking flashbacks. But can Tom really be relied upon to tell the truth?

Based on a novel by Nicholas Wollaston, Eclipse boasts quiet, thoughtful performances from Conti and Gay Hamilton. Wallace is a little shrill as Giles, sadly, but the film as a whole is so intriguing and unnerving, it hardly matters.

Some observers have likened Simon Perry’s film (his last as a director before moving into journalism and, later, becoming a film executive) to Mark Jenkin’s haunting 2022 offering Enys Men. They do share some qualities, including mood, a coastal setting and colourful anoraks, but it’s also reminiscent of Nicolas Roeg’s work, which often played with memory and flashbacks. And I can pay it no higher compliment than that.