it's a classy weepy with some killer dialogue, but Bening is the big sell here. Given one of the juiciest roles of her career, she makes every moment count
director Paul McGuigan, here brings off a tender, affecting romantic drama. He and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh employ the currently fashionable style of non-linear storytelling, and they intercut two different time periods with considerable elegance
"Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool" is a tawdrier, more tragic, but similarly superficial "My Week with Marilyn"... by the time it ends, that darkness has grown so complete that it's hard to tell whose story we're even watching
