A live performance at the Savoy Theatre, London, based on the book A Little Life ,was filmed. Film-goer CLIVE HODGES settled into a cinema to watch the film and soon forgot there was an audience, even though a selected few were seated behind the actors on the stage.
Running time is 3 hours 40 minutes … with a 15 minute interval. 
In Australia the film has an R (restricted) classification. The website of the Australian Classification Board warns of high impact themes and gives details: self-harm; sexual violence; suicide; and reference to child abuse. Lawyers, doctors, nurses and social workers will not be shocked … but others may be.The movie is based on A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara that was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 2015. The book’s 720 pages were adapted for the play by Koen Tachelet with input from the author and the director, Ivo van Hove.
A Little Life features four young men who attended the same prestigious New England university and moved to New York City to pursue their careers. The actors speak with English accents and the diction is excellent; I heard every word. There is one female in the cast – a social worker – who acts as an occasional narrator. A small orchestra plays in the pit that adds tension to the drama on the stage. And James Norton – who plays the handsome clergyman in Grantchester – is compelling as Jude. A Little Life is brilliant, confronting, dark and disturbing. Movie-goers need to make up their own minds whether or not to see it.
On leaving the cinema, I realised – once I had my feelings under control – I’d been exposed to excellent acting, impressive presentation and admirable directing. Five stars from me.Reviewed by Clive Hodges
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hanya Yanagihara is a prize-winning author and the Editor-in-Chief of T: The New York Times Style Magazine. Her novel A Little Life, won the 2015 Kirkus Prize, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the 2016 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The People in the Trees was shortlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize in 2014. She joined the PEN America Board in 2016.
