Reviews

Washington Globe is a news paper of repute (in the plot) headed by an uptight Helen Mirren at the helm. Russel Crowe (who filled in after Brad Pitt said NO to this role, God knows why) is a middle aged, broodish and old school investigative Journalist/Correspondent who keeps crossing swords now and then with Helen who is under pressure to change the serious outlook which the paper has and go for the Gossip by its new management. Rachel McAdams (for once she has tried putting in serious acting here apart from her oft romantic role casting to suit her famed dimples) is the Desk Manager/Journo of the online version of this paper which is full of gossip coverage. Ben Affleck is a suave Congressman who also happens to be class mate and good friend of Protagonist Russel is another character in whose political career some upheavals happen and paves the way for the caper to chug along. The excreta hits the ceiling when his assistant gets murdered and the team of Russel & Rachel join hands, smells rat & tries to get to the bottom of intricate and complex conundrum of Corporate and Political Espionage and misuse of congressional aid funds meant for defence contracts.

The movie passes off as a decent thriller, keeps you hooked to your seats till the end, thanks to brilliant performances by Russel Crowe and Ben Affleck, ably supported by Helen Mirren & Rachel McAdams. So it is a good political thriller genre movie with suspense, action, drama & story line. The Director Kevin McDonald has done a good job reducing this 6-part (6 hours) BBC series of same name in about 2 hours, while keeping intact the eye for all the details. Camera work is good and slick. Editing it neat, and the idea of shooting some parts of movie inside the Watergate building add that aura of notoriety subtly for a Thriller!

Sublime acting by Crowe with his disheveled longish hair adds the touch of reality to his role pretty aptly. Overall, it is definitely a decent watch without an iota of doubt. And Rachel walks that extra mile to make her role as realistic as possible and somewhat succeeds. Do watch it if you are a sucker for Noir Politico Thrillers!

Director Lone Scherfig is an acclaimed contemporary film maker from Denmark with many meaningful and fine movies to her credit like Italian for Beginners, The Riot Club, Just Like Home, Red Road, Their Finest, Wilbur wants to kill himself - and the Oscar nominated An Education, amongst many others. Amongst these, An Education was nominated for 56 Awards in total across various famed awards and in all she managed to NET 25 out of them! That's an impressive HIT ratio when you look at it!

So when we decided to watch One Day which is from Lone Scherfig's stable, starring seasoned Anne Hathaway & Jim Sturgess to drive the lockdown blues away, we knew the rest of the evening will be engrossing. And it was and how! The movie is crafty and a nice theme of July 15 as a red-letter day for 2 decades! And it is a very fine adaptation of famed author David Nicholls without many deviations so the movie is true to the novel. That's kind of nice! The story is weaved around Dexter and Emma who are central to the plot and the goings on keep you engrossed and hooked and pinned to the plot!

The movie opens in the period of late 80s, from the college days of Emma & Dexter (Hathaway & Sturgess) and follows them for 2 decades and keeps you engrossed to one day which is 15th of July every year, year on year between these two characters. It goes through many metamorphoses right from the late 80s youthful, exuberant and rebellious life days to mellowed, matured and heading towards middle age days, It meanders through racy, charming days of youth and moves on to observant and relaxed days of maturity with consummate ease, deftly holding you to thrall without your knowledge! Anne manages to steal the show and be ahead of race the when compared to Sturgess in emoting and breathing life to her character with composure while Sturgess pulls off his Hugh Grantish role with ease too! Will they both finally unite together after nearly 2 decades and after their other relationships that keep going on - on the side is what the climax heads to. Saying anything more will be spoiler so lets avoid it. But do see it, the movie keeps you on the hook while Anne takes the line and sinker!!!

During the time of Germany's impending invasion of Poland during WW2, a God-fearing Jew from Warsaw brings his prodigal violinist son Dovid, in expectation of finding him an ideal tutor to get tutelage so to hone his skills. He finds the family of Martin & his father who volunteers to board, lodge and learn Violin, after knowing Dovid is a wizard, by hearing him play the instrument with ease and brilliance. Dovid grows up like an adopted son of the family and goes from strength to strength in Violin skills. During this process he loses touch with his family and gets totally distanced from his family thanks to WW2 and is unaware of his family's where & what abouts during the war.

After more than a decade, Dovid suddenly vanishes one evening before debuting as a violinist, leaving the entire full house audience and his adopted family at back stage in despair! 35 years after his disappearance, a late 40s Martin played by Tim Roth, criss-crosses Europe, hoping to find his adopted brother played by Clive Owen. The movie starts slow at first, holds sway in the middle and comes to a crescendo of a climax in the end while intertwining past and present times in a clever mixture, holding you to a thrall.

Tim Roth throughout and Clive Owen in the latter part bring the movie alive while transforming you to early 40s and bringing you back present day with consummate ease. At times you wont even realise that you were in early 40s in one scene and the present day five minutes later! The celebrated director Francois Girard of THE RED VIOLIN fame rarely loses the grip on narration while the same is ably supported by Tim Roth and Clive Owen with their sheer brilliant and matter of fact emoting, while bringing their characters alive and how. To top it, there are some finest compositions of Johann Sebastian BACH that stir your soul!

See it if you like the genre of Period Saga. To be frank, its the combo of a Period Saga & a subtle thriller!

Shakespeare's Hamlet is the longest play penned by him, which is spread over 5 Acts and is one of the most read, acclaimed & studied literary works of the world. It is also the most performed stage play and also the most filmed story, second only to Cinderella. May be because none can dramatize and make the story spell binding as powerfully as Shakespeare, when a combo of cold-blooded, enchanting amour, schemey murder, calculated revenge, carnage and thwarted desires take centre stage in a hypnotic manner that holds you to a thrall 😎

Coming to this caper Ophelia, it is a clever and thoughtful manifestation of how things unfolded in Hamlet from the eyes of Ophelia and her take on the entire happenings that unfolded in a tell-tale manner! Daisy Ridley melds into this role of a younger, charming and at times lusty, lissom lass like perfection. She performs with aplomb and a calculative girl with a cool head, determined to be in control & wade through the tricky plots that destiny throws at her through the complex male dominated medieval times which is brought forth only to eliminate the likes of her. She handles them all with a couldn't care less approach & grit!

The plot is interestingly sequenced too from start to finish. Here, Ophelia is raised as a common in the castle, doing errands with elder and haughty girls while her brother Laertes keeps studying in the library, which is no entry to girls during that medieval time. One day Ophelia is found gate crashing the party for off to college Hamlet & other boys the next day, Naomi Watts (who plays the role of Gertrude the Queen) takes this Tom fooling rebel girl under her as her protege and makes her a lady-in-waiting entourage of assistants of hers. Ophelia is mocked by the other girls since she is not from the herd of NOBLES like how they are, but they are also jealous of her because of her ability to read, which makes her a close assistant to Gertrude the queen. This scenario present Ophelia, a closer access to Gertrude's fear of ageing, her weakness which makes her succumb to the amoral advances of her brother-in-law Claudius played by Clive Owen. In this back ground she starts mingling a little more with Prince Hamlet who first keeps flirting with Ophelia, progresses to proclaim genuine love to Ophelia while knowing her societal nomenclature as a Common and caring a damn for the same. Ophelia remains central to the theme here, being witness to her raise from a common to a lady, King Macbeths decline and his death, Queen Gertrude's tryst with all that is sane and insane, King Claudius's devious ways of treachery and cunning manoeuvres and of course, Prince Macbeth's undivided attention & devotion to her. To be frank she is a refreshing change as a young lass Ophelia, compared to the older/aged versions of Ophelia we have imagined, scene on stage and movies.... and used to! This is where the plot turns on its head and takes us in a thrall 😊

As a penultimate thought, Ophelia in this movie comes across as a Sum & Multiplication of a dedicated and passionate human who gives it all with grit & pumps in all her energy and devotion to a man who adores her with equal passion while also looking for revenge in violent ways looking at the political subterfuge that is befalling on him. Well that's why it is called a plot and there are umpteen plots which have been played with which the history is replete with. The screenplay and the rich camera work brings it to life in a fresh, off the pan serving with a dazzling narration which is at times ever so subtle and at times ever so powerful, while never ever being brittle 😃

To sum up, Ophelia is a real charming & brainy yet vivacious spin off on the Shakespearean, original Hamlet and makes one think that this too can be a possibility! So it has that over bearing and mind altering influence on the spectator too at times! The calculated and interestingly mounted plots by tactfully amending the outcomes which make us sit up, take notice & think of the outcome from a 180 degree to original (told by SP) plot as - may be this is the natural outcome 😃

That's sheer Brilliance indeed. Bravo Claire McCarthy (the director) Bravo!

It's longish name and presence of Michiel Huisman & the Brit actress Lily James picked my interest and I decided to have a dekho. It's a nice movie no doubt. One of those whom you think Pretty Nice after its over and feel at peace types 😊

Plot is woven around Lily who is some what an established author and is in London in 1946 which is still ravaged under post effects of WW2. For some strange reason she publishes all her books under a male pseudo identity. She is looking for a new home to buy but which ever home she visits, she gets the nightmarish flashback of her parents dying in their house which was bombed. She has a boy friend who is in Army. Most of their meetings happen only in some clubs and parties. After establishing this narrative, the camera pans over to the beautiful English country side to the Island of Guernsey and starts establishing a premise

The flashback starts during German occupation. That's a time when most of the farm produce and livestock and poultry etc is confiscated by the NAZIs to feed their forces. And to escape from the prying eye of NAZI soldiers, few English folk have a secret meeting in their dilapidated country home where they cook pork and have gin along with Potato Pie and generally have a nice time, away from the town & prying eyes of the German soldiers. The NAZIs get a whiff of the act and raid the place to find these Brit folks though they have switched off all the lights and lurching in a corner. Upon confrontation as to what they were doing in the dead of night so far from town, they mutter and make up a story that they have a Literary society and a book club and meet there periodically. The captain asks what's the name of their club and then one thinks for long and comes up with this unusual name - Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society 😃 Then since they have made up this story, they go on to actually establish this as a book club with Name Plate and the works just in case if NAZIs come looking again and that way they can actually meet too since they have made it public to the Germans now!

The flashback then comes to real time 5 years later to 1946 and now Lily is assigned to write a story on the Literary society in the London Times Literary Section. That's when she gets in touch with Michiel Huisman who is sort of unofficial spokesman to the Society and starts exchanging letters with him, enquiring about the same. They both are nuts over Late 17th century poet Charles Lamb & Jane Austen and that brings them closer. Then one fine day she sets out to Guernsey Island to meet the Literary Society Members and put in place the article post meeting all the members and interacting with them. Every member of Society welcomes her warmly and exchange many notes and treat her like a VIP and give her a tell all kind of run down but also hide few facts from her - so she thinks. To top it they don't want her to publish the article about their Society in London Times at all and refuse to tell her why they feel that way! The REFUSAL OF PERMISSION to her to publish the story and and how she goes about unravelling the reasons and the dark murky past of on goings during German occupation times, makes up the rest of the entire movie and keeps you engrossed till the end!

Photography is excellent and the plot is well woven, thanks to the director Mike Newell who knows his game well and has proved so already in 4 Wedding and Funeral & Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, hence needs no introduction 😊 The British country side is made look more beautiful and quaint N charming thanks to brilliant camera work. The script is neat and editing is slick too. Over all a 7 on 10 easily !!

When it is a world war 2 time's Spy saga, helmed by Brad Pitt & Marion Marion Cotillard with Robert Zemeckis behind Camera, you will be brimming with excitement and anticipation of a well told & well-made story that befits everybody's lofty standards. Well it does but just above average. This potboiler, resembles Casablanca a lot but made little different in terms of plot that unfolds a little different.

The movie opens to the premise of both the spies Pitt & Marion enacting the roles of a Married French Couple. With that as the background where both are pitted behind enemy lines to do an encore with the Nazis where Pitt is a Canadian RAF Wing Commander and Marion as French Resistance operative, pull off an assassination coup with perfect finesse & understanding that they both fall in love and get married post that daring operation and escape from there. Back in UK they do get married and have a child (The child birth happens when the German air raid is happening and, in a half, shelled hospital and bombs are getting dropped left and right. Looks kind of dramatic). Then then settle in such a neighbourhood of London, which is a war time settlement for Jewish intellects, free mind European refugees, artists, haute couture types, other various freethinkers and free-lovers. Then the Brits suspect her to be a spy on British Military now and is double crossing her unsuspecting husband since the WW2 is still ON. How the movie unfolds from there and heads towards a climax forms the rest of the story in 2nd half.

Marion has put in a pretty enigmatic performance which does look flawless at times and unconvincing at times. Pitt is kind of below par in his performance may be since knowing his acting prowess we expect more from him. Though the movie is flawless in terms of technicalities with vintage frames & locales and camera angles that transform you to the WW2 period with no room for any errors including even the camera work & editing. The Technical brilliance of Zemeckis shine bright when that aspect is considered. He also deftly covers the blind faith and the bonding that forms the basis of a relationship, the trust factor which holds and some times blinds the relationship angle into fine tuning that with of suspicions that form part and parcel of spying and how they raise their head in family background...et all with consummate ease which Zemeckis can pull off in a very fine tuned fashion. But something lacks with Brad which is little difficult to pin point. He comes across as more technical than heart in it kind of performance, overall.

Had Pitt put in a little more INVOLVED performance as finely honed that he is in acting which he is known for, this movie would have upped the bar that high which we know he is capable of but alas. It falls a TRIFLE SHORT to drive home that nuanced plot which Zemeckis wants to drive home that with personal lives of spying as profession couple makes it difficult to trust even the life partner you think that you know fully well and that speck of doubt and devil in the detail & nagging DOUBT remain a CONSTANT without ever ceasing to exist, even after your JOB/PROFESSIONAL DUTY does. Having said that its not a passe but it keeps you engrossed for most of its almost 2 hour run time. Zemeckis has taken very little freedom to express this saga of history, passion, despair and war story and kept it almost true to the period it belongs to, with very little deviation in the form of allegiance & Constance to history 😊

Hollywood A Lister Blake Lively is a complete, versatile actress. In a span of 10 - 12 years and around 20 movies to boot till date, she has carved a niche for herself with her par excellence emotive skills and a higher class of acting that elevates a caper notches high in quality even when at times when the movie is bordering on tolerable absurdity, oscillating in the borderline. Right from Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, Green Lantern, Savages, Shallows, All I see is You & Simple Favour, she has grown in level of finesse, delivering almost virtuoso performances with an endearing, graceful poise. She has also delivered memorable performances on the Tube in that runaway hit soap Gossip Girl & hosted few Saturday Night Live shows displaying perfect funny bones and in the moment presence.

The caper which am now talking about, The Age of Adaline is no different either which am still surprised as to how I had missed it till date! Anyway, I made amends at last and happy that I did. Better late than never. Blake plays the role of Adaline, a 1908 born woman who stops ageing at the age of 29 after coming alive after being clinically dead, out of a sunken car which she hurtles down the river below Golden Gate Bridge in a freak accident in 1937. That is a RARE affliction she is suffering from now, which many men and women give their right arm to get 😃The movie actually opens when Blake goes into a fake records maker to get her new set of driving license, Passport & Social Security and starts unfolding Blake's spell binding presence on us from that point onwards. During her lifetime she gets married, delivers a daughter then loses her husband in an accident. All this is shown with some kind of commentary of sorts in the background while life goes whirring past. That narration is some what the only below par point of an otherwise engrossing and taut movie which it turns into in the second half. There is a full-blown explanation on how things happened and how things changed for her and the scientific reasons behind it, made in an effort to make it realistic actually does the opposite to the movie. Minus that the movie is Brilliant.

The camera work is brilliant without a doubt. First 4o minutes of movie is some what slow which is building the story up and putting all the bricks in the wall to make it complete before it starts gathering pace and picks up pace and nicely chugs along. Adaline finally leave daughter behind in the race since she is ageing and Adaline is not and gets into tricky situations when her acquaintances start noticing it. She makes an appearance later when her daughter is considerably aged and daughter starts introducing her mother as her friend since the mother is still 29 and daughter is nearing 50! There are some poignant moments like these where Blake starts upping the ante and shows her class in acting department, showing that confusion, avoiding love/relationships, suffering loneliness and despair in a pretty supple yet sublime fashion that only she is capable of! In one of her meetings with her daughter to celebrate new year almost near the end of first half is when the Hero, dashing Michiel Huisman of Black book, 2:22, Irreplaceable You etc, makes the entry.

They both have a very good understanding and terrific on-screen chemistry that's pretty riveting. Harrison Ford also puts in a very measured and endearing supporting role as Michiel Huisman's dad and there is a mystery angle which brings the movie on its head in a pretty engrossing manner when Harrison enters the frame. Overall the movie makes an honest effort and succeeds in weaving a sweet connect between a romantic past and embracing the love & happiness of the present. Overall it is a charming, flairful & a captivating saga of passion, despair, love & reality, well told. And of course, Blake is pretty witty and lively as always !!

Hollywood A Lister Blake Lively is a complete, versatile actress. In a span of 10 - 12 years and around 20 movies to boot till date, she has carved a niche for herself with her par excellence emotive skills and a higher class of acting that elevates a caper notches high in quality even when at times when the movie is bordering on tolerable absurdity, oscillating in the borderline. Right from Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, Green Lantern, Savages, Shallows, All I see is You & Simple Favour, she has grown in level of finesse, delivering almost virtuoso performances with an endearing, graceful poise. She has also delivered memorable performances on the Tube in that runaway hit soap Gossip Girl & hosted few Saturday Night Live shows displaying perfect funny bones and in the moment presence.

The caper which am now talking about, The Age of Adaline is no different either which am still surprised as to how I had missed it till date! Anyway, I made amends at last and happy that I did. Better late than never. Blake plays the role of Adaline, a 1908 born woman who stops ageing at the age of 29 after coming alive after being clinically dead, out of a sunken car which she hurtles down the river below Golden Gate Bridge in a freak accident in 1937. That is a RARE affliction she is suffering from now, which many men and women give their right arm to get 😃The movie actually opens when Blake goes into a fake records maker to get her new set of driving license, Passport & Social Security and starts unfolding Blake's spell binding presence on us from that point onwards. During her lifetime she gets married, delivers a daughter then loses her husband in an accident. All this is shown with some kind of commentary of sorts in the background while life goes whirring past. That narration is some what the only below par point of an otherwise engrossing and taut movie which it turns into in the second half. There is a full-blown explanation on how things happened and how things changed for her and the scientific reasons behind it, made in an effort to make it realistic actually does the opposite to the movie. Minus that the movie is Brilliant.

The camera work is brilliant without a doubt. First 40 minutes of movie is some what slow which is building the story up and putting all the bricks in the wall to make it complete before it starts gathering pace and picks up pace and nicely chugs along. Adaline finally leave daughter behind in the race since she is ageing and Adaline is not and gets into tricky situations when her acquaintances start noticing it. She makes an appearance later when her daughter is considerably aged and daughter starts introducing her mother as her friend since the mother is still 29 and daughter is nearing 50! There are some poignant moments like these where Blake starts upping the ante and shows her class in acting department, showing that confusion, avoiding love/relationships, suffering loneliness and despair in a pretty supple yet sublime fashion that only she is capable of! In one of her meetings with her daughter to celebrate new year almost near the end of first half is when the Hero, dashing Michiel Huisman of Black book, 2:22, Irreplaceable You etc, makes the entry.

They both have a very good understanding and terrific on-screen chemistry that's pretty riveting. Harrison Ford also puts in a very measured and endearing supporting role as Michiel Huisman's dad and there is a mystery angle which brings the movie on its head in a pretty engrossing manner when Harrison enters the frame. Overall the movie makes an honest effort and succeeds in weaving a sweet connect between a romantic past and embracing the love & happiness of the present. Overall it is a charming, flairful & a captivating saga of passion, despair, love & reality, well told. And of course, Blake is pretty witty and lively as always :-)

Arjun Sarja has come a long way from his earlier Sandalwood debut and then finding fame and fan following in Kollywood, having clocked 150 movies to date from his entry to filmdom. Arjun Sarja was also in news pretty recently for the wrong reason, having been named in Me Too allegation by Shruthi Hariharan and had filed a 5 Cr. Defamation suit on her. His films with Shankar (particularly GENTLEMAN and MUDHALAVAN) firmly established him as a action hero to reckon with in Kollywood. He proved his acting skills too pretty well, emoting his sensitive side in Rhythm with Meena as his heroine and also in the Kannada movie Prasad, in 2012 where he has enacted the role of a middle class father of a deaf son whom he helps to overcome his disability to become a swimming champion. He won best actor award for that role. Arjun also has excelled in villainish, schemey roles in Maniratnams KAADAL to establish himself as a truly versatile actor. But his fan following is mostly for his Action/tough cop roles.

This being the background, it was exciting for me to look forward to him as a Cop again in this movie after seeing his cavalier execution of tough cop role pretty effectively that too with Kamal Hasan as his boss in KURUDHI PUNAL which was a remake of Govind Nihalani's DROHKAAL.

In this movie, KOLAIGARAN, Arjun plays the role of upright and tough DCP Kartikeyan with dedication. And he is not the Hero of the movie but he makes sure the attention turns to him from first frame onwards. The movie opens like a typical South Indian movie showing a woman getting murdered and with only the boot strapped legs of the murderer shown along with ominous music and also tunes of title song running in the background obviously. In the next frame you can see Vijay Anthony the protagonist in the movie walking in to the police station saying he has come to surrender since he has committed a murder! Incomes Arjun who doesn't arrest him but takes his statement and when Vijay starts narrating his side, the movie goes to flashback and starts unfolding the plot, subplot, twists, turns and climax. The movie then explains us who is the killer and how the entire equation is unmasked thread bear by Arjun.

This movie is the second adoption (differently) of the Japanese novel - The devotion of suspect X after Drishyam! Like Drishyam this also has some classic twists but the execution falls short of the finesse when compared to Drishyam which was way above in class. May be because the composer turned actor Vijay Anthony is a major reason for that despite finest effort put in by Arjun Sarja. Vijay cant emote and has same expression for all feelings. Be it surprise, romance, despair or grief. But the movie has its fine moments no doubt when the motto behind action, imagination of cops which turn into reality etc are concerned. Nasser plays a very effective & Meaty supporting role as a retired detective, mentoring Arjun Sarja at tricky situations. The heroine Ashima Narwal is ok but she needs to learn few more finer nuances of acting. She definitely has to hone her skills more like Vijay Anthony who has to improvise more than her if he has to remain in acting. Songs are pushed in unnecessarily and the movie would have done better without any songs. But a Tamil movie without songs in unheard of so you have to bear them :-/ The camerawork is nice and editing is also good like many other Tamil capers.

Over all it is an above average movie. Could have definitely been better without any doubt if it was some one else in the place of Vijay Anthony. Kudos to Arjun without a doubt !!

Throw in a wannabe super cop hubby who in reality is an also ran, throw in a double 7 year itch marriage situation, throw in two A listers who have made a name for themselves in RomCom genre AND throw in some cliched script with attempts at making funny dialogues based on situations that are staring at the face at that time. One thinks the premise is great and it will now deliver a classic RomCom and will do wonders. Well the same thought draws viewers to have a dekho and may be that's why this title surpassed the viewership record of Bird Box on Netflix but may be because a smart move of Netflix's casting strategy including some known names of British, Mexican, Welsh, South African, Icelandic, Japanese celluloid along with Hollywood A listers Jen & Adam did the trick. When you look at this diverse nationality, all those countries above are Key Markets of Netflix which got them the eyeballs. Brilliant strategy and hats off to Netflix 😉

Probably the only silver lining is Jennifer Anniston that too partly. She makes a valiant effort through her trademark smirks, mannerisms and cheekiness which only she can bring to the table, to make the two hour long movie somewhat funny that somewhere falls short. The plot is typical RomCom formula where Jen is a bored wife who is also a hair dresser and has a penchant for mystery novels & her hubby played by Adam is a modest also ran Officer in NYPD but keeps telling his wife that he is a Detective considering she is NUTS after mystery novels. Bored with her ordinary existence, Jen is craving for some action/adventure in life and is some what underwhelmed by her sooo predictable hubby. So once Adam decides that its time to liven up Jens expectations and tells her that he got promoted and a got a rise too; so to celebrate the anniversary he will take her to Europe. So they set out for that dreamy holiday and we think the Com part in RomCom is finally gonna kick in on all cylinders but Alas ☹

Plot wise, Jen chances upon a meeting with a millionaire cousin (played by Luke Evans of The Hobbit & Girl on the Train fame) of a wealthy Tycoon in France, who invites her to a party on his Plush family Yacht which she grabs as her only chance to indulge in grand, upgraded luxury with her hubby. The tycoon gets murdered on the party night and the suspicion falls squarely on Jen & Adam as the possible killers. How they handle the situation from there after and what all they do and go through to prove their innocence and will they succeed in it, forms the rest of the story.

The photography/camera work is good. You get to see some good locales and picturesque surroundings of Monaco and Lake Como Italy (where Virushka & Ambani daughter's wedding took place) Adam is below par. He tries to act extra goofy and some where misses the bus overdoing it. The efforts to give a European Vacation kind of comic touch to a wanna be Arthur Conan Doyle style mystery, the movie some where loses the plot and becomes a drab affair. Overall its some what below par. It would have been duller if not for Jennifer who makes an honest attempt to lift it higher. Net net, the pudding is not that good in eating as good as it looks. You can watch it on a day when you don't have any other better option

Keira knows how to outshine others when it comes to delivering classic, carved out acting without a hitch and she does that with all the panache and finesse and how in this - days of yore world war time saga of romance and despair and compassion in a power packed rendition which not many can. Measured and mature, reflecting the welled up tragic circumstances and carrying the sublime hint of static grief in posture & expression, making the viewer drown slowly into her gaze and dialogue rendition as a natural propensity that emotes from all angles. It grows over you gradually and holds you to a thrall throughout the movie without your knowledge. Stupendous is a mere adjective to describe it.

The movie starts slowly from a point where the WW2 has just ended and Allied Forces have occupied Germany which is in shambles at the end of war. The story begins at a shattered and in ruins Hamburg in 1945. Keira joins her hubby Jason Clarke (of White House Down & Everest Fame) Who is a Colonel in Brit Army, in charge of rebuilding and deNazifying Germany. They move into a classic German Mansion belonging to a well-off widower Alexander Skarsgard (of Straw Dogs, Legend of Tarzan, Hold The Dark fame) and his daughter which is been selected by the Allied Forces for the Colonel. Keira has lost her son in German bombing over London and Alexander has lost his wife in Allied bombing of Germany so there is enough tragic past on both sides. The movies opens to this background slowly.

One oddity is the Mansion looks so classy and almost contemporary with British Piano, finely carved wooden work and pretty modern looking seating while nearby it is full of rubble and dust and bombed out exterior which looks little outlandish when you look at the Mansion and war-torn land outside. Well it is a minor aberration though it does register in the mind. The movie picks up pace may be from the 20th minute onwards and then it keeps you engrossed totally in it till the end of its total length of 140 plus minutes of run time. Let me go silent now since saying anything more may be a spoiler. The movie though starts slow, unfolds in a crafty step by step manner and turns its head on you with its at times predictable turns but with more finesse than you expect every time. It's a Keira Show all the way with excellent supporting roles by Clarke & Skarsgard. Clever delivery of halted dialogues are good too since you more or less get the complete line. That's kind of charming.

Pretty sublime direction by James Kent too who gave us 13th Tale, Margaret & 13th Tale kind of movies. Has managed to extract good performances by the star cast. Effectively mirrors the feelings of mistrust, tension in the air, grief, passion, sub plots within the story & hostility without much ado. The screenplay is tight and neat and well rendered with consummate ease.

To sum up, The Aftermath is a better movie without a doubt. Keira delivers the punch with more than VFM performance. One can never believe she has Dyslexia at all!!! And the aftermath is a feel good factor which it leaves you with aplenty.