Just For Lookin' Thru

  When a film opens with a torrent of f***ing you might suspect a lack of imagination in the scriptwriting. The unseen foul mouthed Londoner is played by Ralph Fiennes as Harry, paymaster or gang boss. He’s sent Ken (admirably played by Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) to Bruges after a botched assassination, so they can hide out and await his instructions. The two are supposedly hit men but lack underlying menace so this may be a light hearted homage to ‘Pulp Fiction.’ Ken patiently tolerates Ray’s nervousness and the two spend time sightseeing. Nothing happens for a time although Ray does meet a girl working on a film set but, once he’s asked her out, she doesn’t work on it anymore which is puzzling. The earlier botched assassination also makes no sense as a small boy would run away or hide if he heard gunshots. Common sense and continuity flaws aside, there are references to ‘Don’t Look Now’ in the way Bruges is made to look sinister at times around the cana...

Simple, retarded asthmatic gasps and giggles her way through this nonsensical film from Mike Leigh. 30 year old Poppy’s arrested development is masked by her carer who provides meals and stability. This form of care in the community works well so that Poppy is able to extend her adolescence in this flat-sharing arrangement by climbing into bed with her carer and exhibiting teenage tactile behaviour. Her flatmate is tolerant, even when getting no answers as to where Poppy has been and whether or not she’s ok. To Poppy’s credit she holds down a job. Inconceivably a primary school teacher, she is left in a position of responsibility with young children for long periods without supervision. However, classroom activities are restricted to making masks out of brown paper bags in case anyone thought primary school teaching involved real work. Leigh raises the possibility of serious subject matter when a boy begins to bully others. Without parental involvement, a Socia...

Written in 1940, Miller’s play reached Broadway in 1944, closed after four performances, and knocked his career sideways. It must have been way before its time, because this play about a young man having it all while those around him fail and flounder is superb. Staged in 1944, post-depression, perhaps it was too realistic. Seeing the play today, it is about fate, acceptance, and philosophy, and sits comfortably with our modern understanding of psychological self-doubt and anxiety. Western neuroses recur about why some of us have wealth and success and some have nothing, locally and globally. Miller’s play questions how much control we have over our own destinies, and what effect we have when we try to force events. From a go-with-the-flow attitude to make-it-happen determination, The Man Who Had All The Luck suggests a combination of the two. David Beeves is a cheerful, self-taught motor mechanic with a small repair shop in Michigan. In love with his childhood sweetheart, al...

We are treated to a bizarre short film set in a hotel room in Paris with Jack’s girlfriend (Natalie Portman) before the main feature. As a result, Jack (Jason Schwartzman) holds attention in the main feature because we have some idea about his sense of loss. Perhaps if all three brothers had been given a short of their own we could have understood them better. The film blurb gives us the clue that three brothers haven’t spoken for a year, since their father’s death. Without reading that first, the film doesn’t show us this, or tell us why. What we see is a meeting of the brothers on a train in India, for the purpose of a spiritual quest orchestrated by brother Francis (Owen Wilson) heavily bandaged after a bad car accident. Peter and Jack humour him. Again, what’s the backstory? There are clues that their mother wasn’t around much for them and won’t want to see them, but no clues about their relationship with their father, or whether their low-level sibling rivalry has st...

Fabulous cinematography creates a moving painting; colours and images stay in the mind long after the film has ended. Intense darkness, golden lighting and lustrous colour bring the Old Masters to life. Costume designer Sandy Powell used old works of art for research, so costuming is lavish and rich while the camera lingers on fabric, skin and hair to produce an acutely sensory experience. Scarlett Johanssen plays the loyal and affectionate younger sister, Mary, used as a honey trap to charm the king and gain power for her family. Reluctant at first, she seems cast as unwilling whore but this fictional representation portrays Henry VIII and Mary Boleyn as tender lovers. Henry (Eric Bana) is shown to be capricious and easily bewitched by Anne although her power appears fleeting. Natalie Portman plays the scheming Anne, maturing from cocky, arch young girl to challenging temptress, before she loses her hold over him, and her descent into terrified desperation is effective an...

Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank, a retired military policeman, father to two soldiers. Mike, the youngest, goes missing shortly after his return to base from Iraq, and Hank sets out to find him. He comes up against Charlize Theron playing a desensitized female detective working amongst misogynistic officers. Hardened to human suffering, this woman in a man’s world is impatient with Hank when he asks for her help. However, the nature of the murder intrigues and touches her, and they form an uneasy alliance in the search for Mike’s killers. Theron is convincing as the isolated single mother; fallible, human but also determined. Lee Jones is on good form as the disciplined, methodical military man, who loses control just once, his emotions only for him to know. Susan Sarandon, as the bereaved mother, conveys the loneliness of grief and deep, internalized suffering. Handled with restraint throughout - dialogue, performances and cinematography, writer and director P...

Dodgy Clutch Theatre Co in assoc with The Market Theatre, Johannesburg UK Tour, March - April 2008 A bewitching production providing a great evening’s entertainment, with story, dance, music and song. The elephants of the title are stunningly beautiful, enormous puppets that are both awe inspiring and enchanting. Dancers and singers from Johannesburg and the UK combine to perform Elephant, a cautionary tale about forgiveness and humanity. This is Chief Zanenvula’s story: refused entry to heaven, he has to look back over his life to discover his mistakes. Accompanied by a manipulative new ‘friend,’ who has something of Alexei Sayle about him, the Chief revisits key scenes in his childhood, adolescence and maturity. He gradually understands how he has offended the spirit of Africa and learns how to redeem himself. This an energetic production: the dancing is varied, athletic and graceful; songs are soulful and lively, the text touching and comic. Staging and lighting recreates the warmth...

Pitch perfect. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman play a brother and sister (Wendy and Jon) with some distance between them. Both writers, he is a college professor specializing in Brecht, she is an aspiring playwright. Both are uneasy about their childhood and have put it behind them, until a crisis recalls them to their estranged father. They have to care for him when he had never cared much for them. Seen from Wendy's viewpoint, she reacts emotionally, tries to do the right thing and feels guilty, while Jon takes a practical line, refusing to make a fuss about any of it, which she misinterprets as a callous attitude. It reveals an interesting difference in approaches to the elderly, and his calm, reasoned approach seems the more effective. When Wendy agonizes about how to ask their father what they should do in the event of his unconsciousness or 'possible' death, their father shouts 'Pull the plug! Bury me!' as though they are idiots. Now and a...

The Northcott Theatre Company perform the UK premiere of Tennessee Williams’ 'The Notebook of Trigorin,' a free adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s 'The Seagull' to an almost exclusively white and grey haired audience. Why does Chekhov not appeal to the under 55s, or is it that tragedy appeals only to the worldly wise? Chekhov’s play about human fragility and the impossibility of people relating to each other in an equal and meaningful way is a depressing premise. However, despite the gloomy subject matter there are touches of intentional comedy. Mme Arkadina, a successful dramatic actress, clings to her youth and glory, and fears the decline of her powers. She is unable to recognize – or she resists – the talents of her son, Constantine; he has youth, vigour and a passion for writing ... and the whole of life ahead of him. He merely reminds her of her age. Liz Crowther plays a sprightly Arkadina although the choreography has her skipping around the stage at times which is in...

Unrelenting, gratuitous violence in the mould of spaghetti Westerns, this film provides superb tension throughout, with touches of dark humour. Largely silent, with close focus on minutiae, it’s an acute visual experience but also a philosophical treatise on the meaning of life, or lack of it, and the role of chance. Western lovers will enjoy the abandoned and wrecked pick ups in a circle with corpses strewn about, not a rifle deal gone wrong or a wagon train ambushed by pesky red Indians, but a Mexican drug deal. The lone figure who comes upon this scene is not cheroot smoking Eastwood but a capable, resourceful and monosyllabic ex-Vietnam veteran who keeps one step ahead of his pursuer, the psychopathic assassin who wants to recover the cash. The Coen brothers drive the narrative along, providing the expected markers of stalking movies: laconic, indestructible assassin Chigurh (Javier Bardem) and his fearless and confident prey, Llewellyn (Josh Brolin), working towards t...

Covert assistance doesn't get much PR so this seems to be an American propaganda film demonstrating how the US funded the defeat of Russian troops in Afghanistan during the eighties, whilst making the point that after sales service is non-existent at US inc. Congressman Charlie Wilson is persuaded to visit the refugee camps in Pakistan and is converted to the cause of the Afghan people fleeing occupation. More than simply a tale about Wilson’s realization that civilians suffer in wartime, this could have the subtitle, ‘Americans love guns.’ Wilson manages to persuade various committees to supply money which provides anti-helicopter weaponry and the chaps get very excited about these big tools. He is, however, unable to persuade them to provide any cash for schools or hospitals once those Ruskies are whupped. Iraq war anyone? West Wing scriptwriter Aaron Sorkin delivers a rapid fire script which, with mumbling, is sometimes hard to follow but it’s nicely acted. Hanks is bel...

Shame runs right through this redemption story, the filmed adaptation of the bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini. The central character, pre-pubescent, aspiring writer Amir, is not an easy boy to like, and he disappoints his father, (an apparently shining example of the chivalric), because he is not a manly boy. Amir’s doggedly loyal young friend and servant, however, is a moral barometer, a knight in the making, saintly and ballsy by turns. The opening credits use fabulous graphics and atmospheric music to create a sense of the eastern exotic and conjure up childhood tales from 1001 Arabian nights – Amir is a storyteller after all – but the film is strongly realist. The Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir escapes to America with his father, and they must adapt from their ancient code of caste rules and family honour to consumer culture. Twenty years later, he returns to war torn Kabul, in the grip of the Taliban, his time of revelations. Wholly masculine, apart from ca...

Immeasurable gloomy, the length of the title and the running time of 2 hrs 39 mins give pretty strong indications - it’s too long and too slow. However easy on the eye Brad Pitt may be, close ups of his face and that of Casey Affleck as Ford fail to illuminate a tedious and near incomprehensible movie. Strong on atmosphere and weak on story, interminable shots of snow, winter landscape and bleak interiors are overlaid with voiceover historical narrative which make the heart sink. We could go and read this stuff for ourselves. What could have been an interesting psychological profiling of the lead characters is instead dreary. Contradictory behaviour gives clues to James’ psychotic state - he talks about suicide and feeling depressed, is coldly violent then almost maniacal. There are also demonstrations that he is a ruthless killer - but he’s quite nice really because he plays with his children and is affectionate towards his wife. Following the savage beating of a teenage boy ...

The Frames’ front man Glen Hansard plays a wounded busker singing songs of heartache and heartbreak on the streets of Dublin. He is spotted by a young Czech immigrant who loves his songs although they are pretty maudlin. She is the driving force that shakes him out of his inertia, prompts him to pick up the pieces and follow his dream, and it’s interesting that she is making such a success of her life in a new country whilst he is floundering in his own. Without her inspiration he'd still be fixing vacuum cleaners in a back street shop. They recognize each other as a pair of love casualties and this film is a touching study of two people meeting at a vulnerable time in their lives and making a deep connection. It shows how even a transitory relationship can have a profound effect on our lives, without the obvious outcome, and avoids the cliché of boy meets girl. Despite the hand held camerawork being a bit jerky at times, intentionally arty but disconcerting, and the poor ...

Newton Faulkner’s returned to Truro after visiting Europe this autumn. He’s a sell out in most British venues and his last date is back in Cornwall where, only in March, he was the support for James Morrison. Since the success of his single Dream Catch Me with its summer sound that gets right in your head and stays there, he’s also getting plenty of airtime for his new single, Teardrop. Relaxed and easy on stage, Faulkner chats between numbers, his long dreads swinging in front of his face. He goes into a soft reggae song, just off the beat, for ‘People Should Smile More’ and the warm crowd of 1700 go crazy for him, cheering, waving and calling out, ‘I Love You.’ Strumming and banging, using his guitar as percussion, he’s backed up by bongos and a bassist, and moves from ballad to funk. He’s got such a great voice it seems he can’t make an ugly sound, then he shifts into a stomping rhythm for ‘UFO.’ Whatever he does the crowd love it, and he’s having fun. He raises a finger - they chee...

Writer David Stuart Davies has created a superb one man show, and the script is spot on, combining humour and pathos with drama and keeping the tension throughout. Sherlock Holmes returns to Baker Street after the funeral of his old friend, Watson and, from the moment he appears on stage Roger Llewellyn is riveting. It is impossible to tear your eyes from him as he talks to Watson, or to the memory of him, recalling their first meeting, reminding him of conversations past, and recreating the cases and the stories they worked on together. He demonstrates a tender and regretful affection for Watson which is often poignant, but also amusing. Llewellyn’s performance is spellbinding. He plays a whole host of characters, switches accents and posture with bewildering ease, and terrific direction from Gareth Armstrong keeps him moving around the stage in surprisingly physical theatre. He is both fit and graceful. The pace is fine tuned so that moments of high melodrama move seamlessly into tou...

Written in 1621, The Changeling requires a modern audience to cast aside twenty-first century social and sexual politics. A pre-show talk by Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company’s Steve Unwin explains that, far from being distressed, Beatrice-Joanna would have been honoured to have her husband chosen for her by her father, and that her disobedience would have struck contemporary audiences as deeply shocking. Days before her wedding to an unwanted suitor, the apparently indulged Beatrice-Joanna instead falls for Alsemero. An awkward situation, further complicated by her father’s devoted servant de Flores, who is obsessed with her. She repels de Flores until she decides to make him useful, asking him to kill her bridegroom and leave her free to marry Alsemero. It has not occurred to her that she has made a deal with the devil. To her horror, he refuses money but claims her as his reward, switching her from privileged and headstrong young woman to hapless victim. Not only a Jacobean reven...

Clooney is mesmerizing as smooth, smart fixer for a large corporate law firm in New York. He’s brought in to tidy up the mess when friend Arthur (Tom Wilkinson) appears to have a breakdown whilst working on a lengthy compensation case for an agro-chemical corporation. The case stinks; small farmers and their families have been poisoned by the company’s carcinogenic weed killer, and Arthur switches sides. He’s up against Karen (Tilda Swinton), ruthless boss of the agrochemical company. There are no caricatures and no clichés in this cracking, believable, suspense movie. It’s a fine character study of Clayton, who operates alone using an extensive network of legal contacts. Cool and adept on the job, he is distracted and inattentive when he’s with his bright and thoughtful son, and the boy provides a nice counterbalance to Clayton’s worldly effectiveness. Wilkinson is on superb form as a clever lawyer, suffering from mental health problems and overcome with guilt. The hi...

Desperately slow moving focus on Alain (Depardieu) and Marion (Cecile de France), with the camera lingering particularly lovingly on the latter. Her beautiful eyes are almost spellbinding but that doesn’t make for enough of a story. Alain is a singer and the cheesy material and excruciating lyrics are difficult to sit through. The film quality is grainy which makes it look like a home movie but does add to the seventies, downbeat, dance hall atmosphere. However, this simple drama about an older, fading, local celebrity, falling for a young, enigmatic woman is touching at times, mortifying at others, and Alain’s dogged pursuit of the obviously reluctant Marion is embarrassing. You just want to tell him to stop it and leave her alone. She is deeply troubled, suffering from a recent relationship break-up, and hardly ready to be wooed and won by an older, overweight man. Alain persists, is rejected, then seemingly toyed with as Marion develops an affection for him. Both charac...

Gripping quarry and pursuit movie for landscape junkies. Quality cinematography and direction keep the tension going throughout the lengthy chase after Gideon (Pierce Brosnan) by Carver (Liam Neeson) and his men. Starting high in snow covered mountains, the relentless hunt continues downriver as Gideon evades his pursuers, determined to survive not only them, but an embedded bullet, freezing, near drowning, starvation and thirst. He comes up with some ingenious but brutal survival techniques. The squeamish may need to look away at times; the camera spares no detail in this visceral and thrilling adventure. However, when Gideon gets down to a dried up riverbed in an arid landscape, (which looks like seasonal confusion, but is possibly symbolic) the story dries up too. There are some surreal references to Eastwood’s classic ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales’ in the inexplicable appearance of a medicine seller and a wise Indian in the desert which are plain silly. Possible nods to Josey Wa...