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Emily Mortimer's The Pursuit of Love makes the case for putting more actresses behind the camera

  • "FX’s Better Things is such a spectacular show that I often watch episodes wondering how the industry might have been better if somebody had given Pamela Adlon the writing-directing-acting keys to the kingdom a decade earlier," says Daniel Fienberg. "One might say, 'But would she have been as remarkably versatile and talented behind the camera without that additional experience?' One can’t possibly know. Odd, though, how that’s a justification applied more frequently to women than men. Similar thoughts passed through my mind several times watching Amazon and the BBC’s The Pursuit of Love, a limited series that marks the wildly promising directing debut of actor Emily Mortimer, who previously turned her attention to writing and producing with the similarly assured dark comedy series Doll & Em. The Pursuit of Love, based on the novel by Nancy Mitford, has issues with pacing in its three-hour adaptation, and the swings from very broad comedy to earnest feminism aren’t always fluid, but there’s still so much confidence to the style and performances." Fienberg adds: "Whatever its occasional inconsistencies are, though, The Pursuit of Love never comes across as the work of a first-timer. It’s never stagey or stodgy, and even when I don’t completely get something, like the full logic of the soundtrack, the series is never haphazard. As an actor, Mortimer has given terrific, perhaps underrated performances in everything from Match Point to Lars and the Real Girl to Lovely and Amazing to a nearly unplayable character in The Newsroom. But now I’m really excited to see what she’s going to force the industry to let her do behind the camera, and I’m curious if she could have already been doing this sort of work for a decade."

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    TOPICS: The Pursuit of Love, Prime Video, Dominic West, Emily Mortimer, Lily James, Nancy Mitford