Gabriel Byrne stars as two versions of Samuel Beckett in a film that places the Irish novelist and dramatist in conversation with himself, looking back and unpicking a lifetime’s tangle of love and guilt. It’s a device that aspires to be Beckettian but feels synthetic and contrived – something that is not helped by the pristine look of the picture. The crisp, clean cinematography is certainly striking, but seems a little prissy, disengaging Dance First from the earth and passion and the unpredictable spirit of Beckett’s writing. But Byrne is rather good in the role, his rueful, craggy face a battleground for a war between Beckett’s self-regard and his self-loathing.
