I Know Where I'm Going, a film by the venerated film-making partnership of Powell and Pressberger, poses the question of how important money is in the pursuit of happiness, and explores what happens when a person with an eminently sensible plan for future well-being unexpectedly falls into the grip of an inconvenient passion that threatens to completely derail her plans.
Wendy Hiller is compelling as Joan Webster, a middle class English woman who travels to the wilds of Scotland to marry her wealthy fiancé - so wealthy he has his own island - but finds herself stuck on the mainland in the company of a naval officer on leave, Torquil McNeil (Roger Livesy), a man apparently of little means.
The big question the film explores is that of the source of happiness, and whether money and comfort are the key. Webster, used to a relatively affluent urban existence, is impressed by the locals apparent lack of interest in money. In one scene, travelling incognito, as it were, in a local bus, Webster overhears local people commenting unfavourably on the money-powered extravagances of her wealthy fiancé. However, although spending money is a scarce commodity amongst the locals, the lack of it is not unnoticed. The hotel owner points out that her hunting rabbits for the table is not done solely for the joy of the hunt, but as the alternative to going hungry. The happiness of the son of a local fisherman / ferry boat owner is unattainable until he can save up the relatively massive sum of £20. The underlying choice facing Webster and almost all the people she meets is, when presented with financial solutions, will they gain more than they have to lose? Should they risk it?
Here's a related quote from IMDb.com:
"Joan Webster: People around here are very poor I suppose.
Torquil MacNeil: Not poor, they just haven't got money.
Joan Webster: It's the same thing.
Torquil MacNeil: Oh no, it's something quite different."
Looking at stylistic devices, there is a noticeable use of concrete metaphors, standing for intangible attributes possessed by the characters. Most striking is the use of the varying weather and water conditions to represent Webster's emotions: the fog of confusion in which she fears she will lose her way, ironically, given the title; the buffeting winds of passion that she tries to exclude from her room but that still manage sneak through cracks in the wainscotting and flutter the curtains, like the tell-tale twitching of a nervous person's fingers; the illusory calm of the flat surface of the water in the bay; the deafening torrent of water falling bizarrely beside the village's only public telephone; the huge wind-driven waves between Webster and her fiancé, strong enough to tear a treasured object from the hand, dangerous enough to drown even an experienced sailor.
Given that a key pre-requisite of a romance is that the audience be able to fall in love, at least to a degree, with the romantic leads, Hiller, for her part, exudes vitality and poise, and projects with great credibility a person struggling to keep unwanted feelings tightly bottled, with only slight perturbations indicating the strength of emotion welling inside. She is attractive, but not unobtainably so, and generally cuts a very fine figure.
Likewise, to be credible as McNeil, the man Webster falls for in just a couple of days, Livesy needs to be charismatic, preferably with a strong under-current of passion, and preferably reasonably good-looking. I'm afraid he is miscast. To my eyes, he is just a polite cheery man with a pipe, brave admittedly, but otherwise all surface and no sub-text. Perhaps, in his day, he came across differently, and it's my modern eyes that are failing to capture the charm of his performance. Alternatively, perhaps, it's a failing of the home viewing experience: perhaps on the big screen, small nuances of body language and expression in his performance have great impact.
A minor quibble is the age of the actors playing the leads. To increase the stakes, the fear that this might be her last big chance for happiness, it is good casting to have a somewhat mature actor to play Webster, and checking on Wikipedia, Hiller was a suitable 33 at the time. McNeil, on the other hand, is supposed to be 33, but, played by Livesy, looks a good deal older, in his early 50s perhaps, although, again according to Wikipedia, he was actually only 39.
- Rating: High matinee
- When seen: 27 Feb 2011
- Where seen: Home
- More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia
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Amendments: Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.
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