Hugo Weaving, Web Weaving: For Love Alone Review
 
Hugo Weaving, For Love Alone, smile teach
 

n.  Hugo Weaving ~ For Love Alone 

AU Movie 1986:     Hugo content: approx  28%   (102 mins )
Character: Jonathan Crow ~ dashing philosopher, self-loathing misogynist
Cast: Helen Buday   Teresa,  Sam Neill   James Quick,  Hugo Weaving   Johnathan Crow, Huw Williams    Harry, Hugh Keays-Byrne   Andrew,  Odile Le Clezio   Kitty, John Polson   Leo
Dir: Stephen Wallace
Availablity: not available in UK.  US Video deleted (Amazon Z-shops, Ebay etc.)

Hugo Weaving: For Love Alone Plot/Comments:

Based on Christina Stead's novel, For Love Alone is an inoffensively watchable (if not exciting), well-filmed and acted romantic drama, set against the backdrop of early feminism: it's sort of a posh Catherine Cookson .

    Teresa, a spirited young woman stuck in the no-hope 'good little woman' Edwardian Australian existence, dreams of excitement and bohemian living…and most of all, her dashing free-thinking, Free-Love espousing local philosophy lecturer, Jonathan Crow (Hugo Weaving, charming and tormented).
   They begin a relationship of sorts, though he steadfastly refuses to commit to anything beyond midnight discussions on the beach, adamant that he will not be 'owned' by a woman. Soon after, he leaves her and a broken-hearted class of female students behind as he quits Australia for the intellectual glamour of London.
   Eventually saving enough to get passage to London herself, Teresa follows him, meeting Nice Man, rich banker, and friend of bohemians and radicals, James (a stalwart and gentle performance by Sam Neill). On being reunited with Jonathan, she finds him misogynistic, full of bitter self-loathing and an emotional sado-masochist (though he insists that he's the sadist). 
Hugo Weaving, For Love Alone, realisation

For Love Alone Gallery
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Web Weaving

After being increasingly mocked and shut out of his life, she eventually shacks up with James, briefly experiments with her much-vaunted Free Love, and returns to James' secure arms, vowing never to leave him.
    It's not as soppy as it sounds: it's well shot and often moodily-lit, showing a grimmer look at Edwardian life; but when the edgey Weaving isn't onscreen, it's rather an emotional soufflé: all air and no grit.
Hugo Weaving, For Love Alone, push away

Typical Hugo Weaving Quotes:

"You women with your high ideals of love and romance: you;re your own worst enemy. Your image of  marriage and your find emotions are not for me. I come from the slums where we don't have such 'ideals': we marry early and have a family"
"I was born into the wrong class: no property, no family influence; just willpower"
"I could have made you a bet about all this: about women's degrading greed for men"

Comments & Queries

  • Several critics noted how Weaving looked a lot more like photographer Norman Lindsay than Sam Neill, who played him in Sirens. It would seem like more of a natural Weaving part: was it originally offered to him?
  • Sam Neill worked with Weaving on The Magic Pudding. John Polson was in Dadah is Death &directed What's Going on Frank? See The Usual Suspects for a huge list of recurring Weaving co-workers.
Hugo Weaving, For Love Alone, realisation 2

Hugo Weaving Content

It's interesting that, coming so early in his career, Jonathan Crow fits the profile of the 'typical' Weaving part: a self-loathing, society-hating loner who has closed himself off from further emotional disappointment (most parts: see Proof , Russian Doll,True Love & Chaos , The Lord of the Rings, Bordertown, The Blind Giant is Dancing, andeven The Matrix).
    Jonathan is the good-looking local heartthrob/hero who hasn't quite got enough talent, original intellect or luck to make it, and takes his failures out on everybody else. 
    He also takes satisfaction in the cruelty of others, self-disgustingly admitting that he watched and laughed as a friend raped a girl in front of him.

        However, there's more to him than just being a token Bastard: the final scene with  Teresa where they shelter in a storm for the night seems all set up for the perfect Mills & Boon pash-up but he cruelly rejects her as she moves in to him: "it's all you women think of, trapping me". He faces away from her but towards the camera, allowing the viewer to clearly see the pain on his face as he deliberately pushes her away one last time. Just as he seems to change his mind, she leaves him for good, Weaving allowing the fragile, almost childlike side of the character to seep out with the pain of losing her.