SET FIRE TO THE STARS, starring Elijah Wood and Celyn Jones, takes its inspiration from Dylan Thomas’ poem Love in the Asylum, and the catalytic effect this has on the poet. We seem to be going through a lovely B&W renaissance at the moment (THE ARTIST, BLANCANIEVES, A FIELD IN ENGLAND, NEBRASKA… the list goes on) and here the monochrome goes quite some way to masking the fact that the film, set in New York City and surrounding provinces, is in fact shot in Swansea and its surrounding provinces.

We are used to seeing Elijah Wood as a Hobbit or a hooligan, but a professor of poetry is quite something else. All credit to his gene pool – the guy just doesn’t age. It’s over twelve years ago that we saw him ride off through the Shire and beyond as Frodo Baggins, and he doesn’t seem to have aged a day. Here, he pulls in a convincing performance as John Malcolm Brinnin, the academic responsible for bringing Dylan Thomas over to the USA for a series of poetry-reading tours.

His acting style is reminiscent of Colin “Dr Who” Baker…

Thomas himself is played ably and engagingly by Celyn Jones, an actor whose work few of us have seen so far – for instance, he played a minor role in Stephen Poliakoff’s JOE’S PALACE in 2007. His acting style is reminiscent of Colin “Dr Who” Baker: the ability to switch emotionally in a scene from clowning to earnestness either end of a set of lines is no easy task, and he pulls it off effortlessly. Whilst this can be attributed in part to playing the role of Dylan Thomas, drunken mumbo jumbo, BoBo Grand High Wizard of English and Welsh language that he was, credit is also due to Jones’ skill at drawing out of thin air a quite remarkable performance.

The icing on the cake comes in the form of the soundtrack to the film – scored by none other than the Super Furry Animals’ Gruff Rhys, whose harmonium/woozy accordion lends auditory delight to SET FIRE TO THE STARS, a great addition to Wales’ burgeoning film sector.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWO0VbgGKFU