Hi there
For those who missed The Ukulele Orchestra of Britain in Venue Cymru this week you have my sympathies - great fun as always.
Anyway, enough of that - let's look at the films.
A SINGLE MAN (Theatr Colwyn)
This drama is based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Christopher Isherwood and stars Colin Firth in his BAFTA-winning role as a gay college professor whose lover has recently died. Set in 1962 when America was panic-stricken about the Cuban missile crisis, the film concentrates on a day in his life while he tries - and fails - to come to terms with his loss.. Julianne Moore plays his friend, an irritating semi-alcoholic divorcee, with whom he shares a meal and an argument, and his lover, in flashback, is underplayed nicely by Matthew Goode. But this is Firth's film, and he plays it with subtlety and restraint, with the camera watching his every English repressed emotion. Dressed impeccably, with horn-rimmed glasses that place him somewhere between Jarvis Cocker and a young Roger Moore, he embodies Isherwood's famous line ‘I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking'. Tom Ford's debut is assured and uses the fashion techniques he is known for - graded photography and changes of colour depth to signify flashback and imagination. The evocation of the period is pitch-perfect, and as a study of a man quietly in turmoil, is both moving and life-affirming.
I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS
Steven Russell (Jim Carrey) is a liar. He narrates the story of his life from his hospital bed, married with a child, then breaking up, all the time lying and cheating to achieve and maintain his lifestyle. He becomes a professional con-man, but eventually the law catches up with him and he is sent to prison where he uses his time to learn how to become a lawyer. While locked up he meets a pretty young inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor) and they fall in love. He uses his new-found skills to obtain an early release for Phillip and they soon are living the life of the rich and successful. This, astonishingly, is based on a true story, and that's what makes it so interesting. Carrey gives one of his best performances as the Walter Mitty-esque character, oozing so much charm and confidence that no-one thinks to question him. But behind this veneer is, well, what? Everything is built on a lie so the truth hardly exists. And as he is narrating the story for us, can we believe everything we are told? It's a thought-provoking film and it's refreshing to see a gay relationship treated in an amusing yet adult fashion. McGregor is excellent, and they do make a handsome couple!
GREEN ZONE
It's 2003 and the Americans (and their allies) have almost ‘won' the war in Iraq, or so they think. It's just up to Matt Damon and his crew to seek out those weapons of mass-destruction. Unfortunately every dangerous site they are told will yield them turns up nothing, and soon he begins to feel they are being fed incorrect information. So he then goes it alone to try and find out who gave them this intelligence, and it soon seems the enemies might wear sharp suits and talk with American accents. This is an adaptation of a novel by Rajiv Chandrasekaran who was a reporter in Iraq, and as such is fiction, but there is no reason to suggest that this interpretation of events is any less valid than what we have been led to believe. Paul Greengrass's film is not as hard-hitting as it might be, preferring instead to go for the rock music fuelled gung-ho war-as-video-game approach. But Damon's performance is solid, and if it makes you stop and think whether we should believe everything we are told by the media then it will have done its job.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND 2-D AND 3-D
A composite of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass and, oddly, Jabberwocky in which a 19-year-old Alice returns to the Wonderland she first visited 10 years before. It's in a bit of a mess, to be honest, and she's seized on as the heroine who can defeat the Red Queen - an excellent performance from Helena Bonham-Carter with a big head - by slaying the Jabberwocky. Yes, I know it should be the Jabberwock, but they don't. It's a dark affair, as you would expect from Tim Burton, and, as is his trademark, the evil court of the Red Queen looks stunning whereas the good White Queen and her palace are cold and anaemic. Amazing 3-D effects, a nice part for Johnny Depp as a flame-haired Mad Hatter and more British CGI thesp cameos than you could shake a vorpal sword at. As usual, ignore the reviews, park your memories of sweet little Alice outside and enjoy the film.
SHUTTER ISLAND
A new film from Martin Scorcese is always an event and this is no exception. The plot is deceptively simple. It's 1954 and two US marshals, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo, are sent to an island institution for dangerous criminals to investigate the unusual disappearance of an inmate. But DiCaprio's character has suffered tragedy and he begins to find life on the island difficult to cope with. The film plays like Cape Fear, The Prisoner and, inevitably, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The doctor in charge, nicely underplayed by Ben Kingsley with more than a nod to Leo G Carroll in Hitchcock's Spellbound, is trying to help the patients rather than using sedation and surgery, but DiCaprio suspects he has something to hide. There is a storm brewing and things need to be sorted out.... Part gothic horror, part noir thriller, the film never loosens its grip. DiCaprio is superb, and Scorcese clearly knows how to get the best from his team, which include Emily Mortimer and Max von Sydow. It might not be his best film, but it's a masterclass in film making, and an enjoyable one too.
THE LOVELY BONES
A murdered girl watches over her family from a place between earth and heaven to help them come to terms with her death and to help them find her killer. Peter Jackson adapts Alice Sebold's excellent novel and tries too hard to make it all things to all men. Whereas the novel was perfectly judged, Jackson instead can't decide whether it's a supernatural story, a thriller, a horror film or, disastrously, a comedy with Susan Sarandon as the alcohol fuelled granny. With some script editing and a firmer hand this could have been a much better film. Still, it has a great performance from Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon (like the fish).
THE BLIND SIDE
Poor Sandra Bullock. She spends ages making lightweight romantic comedies, then gets an Oscar for being the most frightningly assertive woman you've ever seen. You can't help thinking the judges simply were worn down by her bullying. This film is based on a true story about a millionaire American family who take in an enormous sad black teenager who they groom to be a football star. She plays Leigh Anne Touhy - there is a husband but wisely he doesn't say too much - who picks the ‘boy' off the streets and welcomes him into their home, and then proceeds to bully everyone in sight to give him a chance. And he rewards her. Great story, but this film milks every cliché possible about rich white liberals, black integration and that trust invested always pays off. Throughout the film she always gets her way, and that obviously included winning the Oscar. If you like ‘feelgood' movies and can eat a whole can of condensed milk with extra sugar in one sitting, then this is the film for you.
NANNY McPHEE AND THE BIG BANG
Much as I love Emma Thompson, I'm not altogether sure I like her incarnation as the facially challenged Nanny. In this second outing, written, produced and directed by Thompson, she finds herself in World war Two, where farmer Maggie Gyllanhaal is battling with an English accent, horrible children and spiv Rhys Ifans while dear old Ewan McGregor is away fighting. So the dear old Nanny does her stuff and as the children become more angelic she gradually becomes less ugly. Maybe there's a moral here, but this is good entertainment for children which, unlike Alvin and his insufferable mates, won't cause the hapless parents to leave the cinema baying for blood. Nice to see Bill Bailey, and there's a strong supporting cast including Maggie Smith and Ralph Fiennes.
Also showing are:-
THE BOUNTY HUNTER
A bounty hunter is assigned to track down his bail-jumping journalist ex-wife, but she gives him the slip to chase a lead on a murder cover-up. Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler star in this romantic comedy that has too much of an antagonistic edge between the leads to be either very funny or very romantic.
HACHI - A DOG'S TALE
Based on the true story of a college professor's bond with the abandoned dog he takes into his home. Richard Gere and a big dog. Bring a tissue. No, make that a box.
THE CRAZIES
The residents of a small town are plagued by insanity after a mysterious toxin gets into their water supply. Remake of the George Romero 1973 zombie film.
THE SPY NEXT DOOR
Jackie Chan plays a former spy who pretends to be a pen salesman in order to romance his next door neighbour. But soon he has to save her moppets from nasty Russians. Passes the time, but Chan can do so much better.
KICK-ASS (new this week)
A high-school student and comicbook obsessive decides to become a superhero, eventually teaming up with a vigilante and his daughter
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (new this week)
A Viking teenager aspires to hunt dragons, but changes his mind when he himself becomes the owner of a young dragon who teaches him some life lessons.
THEATRE
SHAKESPEARE'S WILL - ThCl To Saturday.
Anne Hathaway waits for the reading of the late Bard's will and remembers their life.
ANDERSEN'S ENGLISH - ThCl till Saturday
Hans Cristian visits Charles Dickens. With Niamh Cusack and David Rintoul
JOE LONGTHORNE - RhPav, Thursday -
Comic impressionist
BEVERLEY KNIGHT - RhylPav - Friday,
Soul singer
DAVE GORMAN - VenCym, Wednesday -
The Sit down, pedal pedal, stop and stand up tour
JAKE AND ELWOOD - THE BEST BLUES BROTHERS SHOW EVER -
VenCym, Friday
And there you have it!
Glyn
Mostly Cloudy (61oF • 16oC)
Loading Poll...