Metronome (218 film)

***Metronome*** is a 218 Nodan psychological drama film written and directed by Graham Johnson, based on the 171 play of the same name by Benedikt Höffner. It is the second film adaptation of the play after the 190 television film, but the first to receive a theatrical release. The film stars Richard Pamm as Edgar Horne, a music teacher afraid that he working a dead-end job, as he aims to find a new purpose in life. The sound of a metronome begins to fill his ears, giving him strange hallucinations. Split into three acts and an epilogue, each their own distinct genre, it also features a supporting cast of Lexie Parker, Ian Kruger, Lucy Everly, Ronald Charles, Lena Lee-Green, Perry Cruz and Kenya Dyer.

Following the critical failure of the 190 film, Höffner's estate forbid the production of any further adaptations of his work. In 215, after producer Scott King attended a North Way production of *Metronome*, he and Johnson visited the estate and were able to obtain permission to make the film by outlining exactly how they planned to make it. Johnson made some notable changes to the source material, including setting the film in Noda and rewriting the character of Alfie Horne as a transgender woman named Amelia, but aimed to make it as faithful as possible otherwise; this included keeping the four-act structure and writing these acts as different genres. The film was picked up by TCB Films before its script had been completed, and most of the main cast joined the project between July and November 216. Filming took place on location from April to July 217 in New Joleo, with editing and reshoots taking place between August 217 and April 218.

*Metronome* premiered at the 93rd Poler Film Festival on September 4, 218, and received a limited theatrical release by Awoe Productions on October 28, followed by a wide release on November 11. The film was met with universal acclaim from critics, who lauded the film for its screenplay, direction, musical score, and the performances of the cast (particularly Pamm and Parker), and currently holds a 100% rating on FilmView. It was also a commercial success, grossing $135.7 million on a budget of $17 million, becoming Johnson's highest grossing film. *Metronome* won seven awards from a leading eleven nominations at the 85th University Awards, including Best Picture, and won three awards at the 68th Golden Reel Awards: Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Score.

## Plot

In Brayley, New Joleo, middle-aged music teacher Edgar Horne lives alone in a small apartment. As a younger man, Edgar conducted for the New Joleo Symphony Orchestra, but after a terrible accident left him permanently disfigured, all that was left was a metronome. The metronome perpetually ticks, and its beats make him remember his past life. While listening to the metronome one morning, Edgar thinks about his ex-wife, Lilly, who divorced him after he lashed out at his teenage daughter, Amelia, when she came out to him as trans. Amelia now lives with Lilly, but is required to visit Edgar once every two weeks.

## Cast

* Richard Pamm as Edgar Horne, a middle-aged music teacher with PTSD, symbolized to him as the sound of a metronome ticking.
* Lexie Parker as Amelia Horne, Edgar's estranged college-age transgender daughter.
* Ian Kruger as Christopher Drewes
* Lucy Everly as Lilly Horne, Edgar's ex-wife.
* Ronald Charles as Benjamin Wall
* Lena Lee-Green as Daria Gwendoline (Daria Glehn in the original play)
* Perry Cruz as Joel Valverde (Joel Wahler in the original play)
* Kenya Dyer as Jessica Hassell

## Production

### Pre-development

There were several plans for a film adaptation of Benedikt Höffner's 171 play *Metronome* ever since its premiere. Höffner himself had began to write a screenplay in 180, with the production being funded and distributed by Rise GmbH, but he died before it could be completed. The script was abandoned when none of Höffner's suggested screenwriters were willing to continue writing it; his estate forbid anyone else from developing the script.

In 187, Höffner's estate permitted Meik Lüthi, most well-known for *Slaughter* (185), to develop a screenplay separate from Höffner's, with this film intended to release in theaters in February 189 by Rise GmbH. However, after allegations of sexual misconduct against Lüthi arose, Rise quickly canceled the film and abandoned the screenplay. Nodan director and writer Kimberley Water acquired the screenplay and developed her own film based on it; it premiered on CBS in December 190, and was widely panned by critics and audiences for its performances, tone and lack of faithfulness to the original play.

Following the failure of the television film, Höffner's estate forbid further adaptations of his plays, including *Metronome*. They revoked permission for Steven Smith to write and develop a film based on *Money Love*; he reworked this into the original gangster film *New Rules* (194). A television adaptation of *Stare* was also canceled despite being nearly completed*.*

### Development

In April 215, film producer Scott King attended a North Way production of *Metronome* and became interested in producing a new film adaptation of the play. He sourced a copy of the play's script and sent it to Graham Johnson. Johnson showed interest in writing and directing this adaptation, but the two found a pitfall in Höffner's estate's ban on film adaptations. The two decided to visit the estate in June 215 and obtain permission to make the film by talking to Höffner's family and associates, instead of sending a letter or email as others had done. Johnson outlined exactly how he planned to make the film, sketching rough storyboards of several scenes to display how he would direct them. The presentation was met with applause, and the estate permitted Johnson and King to develop the film; Richard Schichau, one of the estate's lawyers, said that "Johnson understands [Höffner] in a way no other director could". While the decisions to set the film in Noda and to change main character Edgar Horne's nationality from Easatloan to Nodan were criticized, they were considered "minor inconveniences" and "would help Johnson to develop the film the way he needed to". Unless it was necessary, Johnson did not change the names of any of the characters, which the estate praised.

Johnson began to write the script as soon as he and King returned from Easatloa. He decided to keep the same four-act structure (three main acts and an epilogue) from the original play, with each act of their own distinct genre. He initially planned to work with writers known for each genre on their respective acts, but this idea was dropped; instead, he developed one act thoroughly before moving on to the next. In the original play, the change in genre was signified by the change in music; in Johnson's script, he explicitly wrote about the changes in color grading, score, sound and cinematography, which were subtle ways to communicate to the film crew that there would be a change in genre. He noted that in Water's television adaptation of the play, there was no change in genre; the different score "confused audiences" more than explained to them that things would change.

The most notable change Johnson made to the play was rewriting the character of Alfie Horne. In the original play, this character is a cisgender man, but Johnson decided to rewrite the character as a trans woman because it allowed him to "create a ravine" between the two that could only be bridged by acceptance. He explained to *Maplewood Life* that he was inspired to make the change after his nephew came out as a trans man to him; his parents had ostracized him.

Johnson wrote many of the characters with actors already in mind. Most notably, Johnson envisioned main character Edgar Horne as Richard Pamm, who caught his attention after he watched Steven Smith's *Las Puertas* (196). Johnson based his interpretation of the character off of Stuart Holston-Franklin or Adam Hall, one of the characters Pamm portrayed in *The Holston Family* (187), another one of Smith's films; cynical but troubled.

### Casting

Since Johnson had written the character of Edgar Horne with Pamm in mind, he felt he was the only suitable option for Edgar, though Pamm's *Holston Family* co-star Marcus Candy was suggested as an alternative in case he declined. Luckily, Pamm accepted the offer as soon as it was proposed to him, as he had always wanted to act in a Graham Johnson film. Pamm stated in an interview with *The Maplewood Reporter* that one of the "unspoken rules of film" was to never decline an offer from Johnson. He had also taken part in a production of the play at high school, though only as a background character. He saw the opportunity as a way to "flex his theater kid muscles".

For Amelia, Johnson looked for young trans women to fulfil her role; those he considered included Lillie Potts, Amy James, Lisa Xal, Vivian Bacon, Lilli Lola and Sophia Junes. Johnson eventually cast Lexie Parker in the role after she came out as trans and announced her retirement from the *Crash and Burn* franchise. He considered her a "brilliant young talent, as used to the screen as one could be". Parker had intended to temporarily retire from acting to focus on college, but agreed to act in the film as her favorite film was Johnson's *Lucy Lake* (190) and she wanted to act in more dramatic roles, rather than the comedic role she played in *Crash and Burn*. Parker had not seen the play before receiving the part, so went to see a performance of it in Las Puertas with Johnson. The two were allowed backstage and met the cast and crew; Parker told Jacques Adams, who portrayed Alfie in the play, about her role, and he agreed with Johnson that the character should be a trans woman.

## Reception

### Critical response

On review aggregation website FilmView, the film holds an approval rating of 100%, based on 377 reviews, and an average rating of 9.31/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A perfect ode to the powerful medium of music unlike any other, *Metronome* strengthens Graham Johnson's claim as one of this era's greatest auteurs, while proving entertaining, emotionally resonant and terrifying." Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Lucy Samson of *The Wolf*, giving the film five out of five stars, called it "immersive, immensely gripping and bolstered by a strong cast and tight direction that pays perfect ode to the classic play it's based on". She also praised Johnson's decision to rewrite the character of Alfie Horne in the original play as the transgender woman Amelia Horne, stating that "it creates a riff between [her and Edgar] not present in the play and gives reason to his general disdain toward her." She considered Parker's performance as Amelia to be her favorite part of the film, calling it "University Award-worthy" and "a way for the former child comedy actress to branch out into darker dramatic roles".

Although the film's reviews were unanimously positive, some critics did not praise it as highly as most. Robert Herbily of *The Linconia World*, giving the film a rating of 6/10, praised the performances, score and writing, and considered the film to be a "masterpiece" from a filmmaking standpoint, but found it too "self-indulgent" to be properly enjoyable as a cinematic experience.

### Accolades

*Main article: List of accolades received by Metronome (218 film)*

At the 85th Academy Awards, *Metronome* won seven awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (Parker), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. It was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing.