Reviews

I had never expected to see Robson Green in a role like Jack Chambers, but it was wonderful. Chambers is a good man who works hard at his ad agency. Unknowingly, his wife, Kay(Beth Goddard) is having an affair with Chamber's best friend, Sam(Aneiran Hughes). When he finds out, they decide to move to "start over". They move to Hadley's Court where they become entrenched in sexual games led by Doug Patton(Daniel Webb). Patton is married to a provocative woman, Andrea(Olga Sosnovska). One night at a party, Doug confesses that in a game of auto erotic asphyxiation he had killed a woman and begs for Jack's help. Jack does help and that's when the murder mystery begins. Jack realizes that there is more than meets the eye about the dead woman. For one thing, the dead woman is not the same one that was on the bed. He also realizes that a neighbor who had "gone" to New Zealand was actually dead and becomes convinced that Doug had killed her.

During the murder mystery part Kay begins her affair with Sam again. What was left of the Chambers marriage dissolves. In the process, Jack falls in love with Andrea.

This movie has several layers and I recommend it because the layers are fully fleshed out.

There is the relationship between Jack and Kay. There is the relationship between Jack and his father. There is the relationship between Jack and his children. There is the relationship between Jack and Andrea. Then there is the murder mystery, which includes the destruction of Jack and Kay's marriage, the murder mystery, and the sex games.

The only question that is not answered is who is responsible for the serial killings. Doug is a forensic photographer for the local police. I have my own thoughts about who is guilty. The keys are there somewhere, I'll have to watch it several times, which is a good thing, because I enjoyed it so much.

I guess the only real review I can give this movie is to tell everyone that I've watched it twice since I got it 2 days ago. I really enjoyed the growth of the Rory character from an unsophisticated **, to a kind and loving man. Charlotte taught Rory the difference between child-like lust/infatuation and mature love. Even though Rory died in the end, the ending was completely satisfying. Rory's death at the end seemed to put a metaphorical "period" due to Rory's growth.

I really enjoyed Robson Green's performance as Rory. He took the character from an unsophisticated clod to a self-sacrificing mature man. Sylvestra Le Touzel(Charlotte) was the perfect counterpart to Green's mature Rory. These two actors brought a simple sympathy to their characters which transfered to the audience.

It do recommend this movie. At one point I wanted to slap Rory around, but at the end I cried when he died. A very satisfying ending.

I don't know what I expected with series, but one thing it is, is thoughtful. This series is multi-layered that work together in the end to form one ending.

The main story deals with Jack(Robson Green) and Kay(Beth Goddard) Chambers who have moved to Hadleigh Corners, a suburban area, to try to save their marriage. Kay has been unfaithful. Jack is a hard working, mellow man who knows that keeping his marriage together will take work. The problem is; Kay really doesn't want it too. Less than 3 weeks after moving into their new home with their two children; Maggie(Julia Mallam) and Dan(Sean McMahon), Kay returns to her relationship with Kevin, Jack's best friend. Like many who move into new neighborhoods, the Chambers try to fit into their new surroundings. Enter Doug(Danny Webb) and Andrea(Olga Sosnovska) Patton. All the action is at their house. Doug and Andrea have regular sex parties with wife swapping etc. Jack feels that it is wrong, but goes along anyway. Kay has stopped seeing Kevin by this time and is enjoying her new life in the neighborhood.

Although, Doug works with the police as a forensic photographer, Jack begins to suspect Doug in the disappearance of one of their neighbors, Lillian Stokes. Jack begins to believe that Lillian is dead. He finds mail that should have been forwarded to Lillian who is supposed to be in New Zealand. As Jack becomes more and more suspicious of his neighbors, the police become involved. One night during a sex party, Doug and the woman he is with, experiment with autoerotic asphyxiation. The woman dies and Doug asks Jack for his help in burying the woman. Jack helps him bury a woman, but later discovers that it wasn't the one he had thought it was. It turns out that the dead woman is one of Doug's regulars. Kay, of course, doesn't believe him. Jack finally gets courage enough to phone the police and tell them where to find the body.

During the course of his investigation, Jack and Kay become more and more estranged until Jack moves out. Also, it the process, Jack becomes attracted to Andrea who tells Jack about her miserable life with Doug. Her life had gotten so bad, she put herself in care at a local mental hospital. Doug explains that Andrea had tried to take her life because she had been dumped by a man she had had an affair with. Doug becomes more and more jealous of their relationship and eventually loses it, culminating in a fight.

There are two sub stories that are worth noting which lead Jack into self discovery. He reconnects emotionally with his estranged father and discovers that his marketing firm is buying troubled businesses and selling them for a profit. He chooses not to participate any longer and loses his job.

In the end, because of the parties: Jack and Kay kill whatever was left of their marriage, Kay becomes pregnant with her brother-in-law's child, Doug and Andrea lose everything.

There are questions at the end. I learned who killed Lillian, but who killed Janet? Jack and Andrea leave together, but I wondered about Jack's future with Andrea after seeing her history with Doug.

All in all, I would recommend this series, but it is "TV Mature" and not for young people below the age of 18. The series presents some very adult themes. I gave this series an "8", so I did enjoy it.

Black Easter is a very relevant movie of today. It starts out like quite a few cop movies. A "loose-canon" cop is called out of suspension to solve the murder of an illegal immigrant. But that is where this movie moves off from the norm. The story revolves around the European Union, specifically Germany. The European Union countries are wealthy and wonderful places to live, while the Eastern European countries are economically depressed. In order to save their families many citizens of the eastern countries jump the border in order for a better life. Refugee camps are created on the Germany Polish border as these refugees are caught. Detective Alex Fisher(Trevor Eve) is brought off suspension to find the murderer of the woman and this takes him into the refugee camp. There he meets a woman, Anna(Amanda Ooms), who is trying to make the refugee's life easier. She is also part of an underground movement, that gets refugees out of the camp to a better area, but it's not much better. It is also monitored by the police and little food is dropped to help. As Fisher and his partner look through a building, an illegal makes a run for it. They can't catch her, but when Fisher returns home he finds her in his trunk. He feeds her, gives her food and sets her back on the road. Throughout this, he's terrified, because he could be imprisoned. Fisher begins to find out more about the refugee problem and realizes that the local eastern police are in league with the Russian Mafia and that the dead woman was killed because of her knowledge about the connection. The illegal woman that he had helped and left on the side of the road returns to his home and with the help of his partner, he gets the woman to the border check point. When his car is searched, the woman is missing. She has been taken and killed. He begins to investigate this, but gets stuck behind the border in the refugee camp. His police force is now looking for him, thinking he killed the second woman. He meets up with Anna and together, with the son of the second woman and an old man they join a group of refugees trying to cross the border into Germany.

One of the other reviewers thought this movie was a bit confusing, but I live in Southern California and it was perfectly obvious to me what this movie was about; Illegal Immigration. Fisher started out with the perspective that alot of us have. The illegals come to the US and "steal" jobs from hardworking Americans. This isn't true, of course, because the illegals tend to take the jobs that most American's don't want, due to the working conditions or wages. Fisher learns this in his trek back to Germany. That the immigration problem is more complicated than it appears and that many criminals take advantage of the refugee's desperation. As drivers in Southern California get closer and closer to San Ysidro on the Mexican border we start to see yellow signs of the sillhouettes of a man, woman and child darting across the freeway. It works perfectly with the ending of this movie.

The movie was poignant and the actors were a great ensemble. Trevor Eve and Amanda Ooms led the way with their wonderfully emotional performances. They were backed up by some wonderful actors as well, Bruce Meyers, Peter Stormare, John Shrapnel and Shaun Dingwall are on the top of the list.

This movie, like many on the BBC or ITV have not been released to the public at large, except for several copies at the time of the release of the film. This is a case of sharing the wealth. I got mind from a young woman on ebay who had cleaned out her closet and sold it to me in her "yard sale".

I know I'm whining again, but I wish the BBC and ITV would understand how starved Americans(me) are for quality drama, that we'd sort through someone's yard sale to find it. There is a definite market out there for the products. This movie is a keeper and I will watch it until it collapses and hope I can find another.

I love Harrison Ford's movies, but I have never seen one that I would say is brilliant until now. "Air Force One" was serious, but it was fun too. K-19 is different. From the first scene, I knew this would be a serious movie. The movie is based on actual events with, of course, dramatizations, for entertainment purposes. Liam Neeson is Captain Polenin, the Captain of a submarine. He is loved by his men and in a moment of tenseness, he chooses the safety of his men over the State. He is demoted to executive officer and a new captain takes over. Harrison Ford is the new Captain; Vostov. The two men don't get on from the beginning. Their styles are completely opposite. After tense training drills, the crew begins to form around it's new Captain, except one. Because the ship was sent to sea without being ready, machinery all over the ship begin to break down, including the reactor. Eight men die bringing the reactor back on line. Of course, the movie ends with the ship being saved and returning to port. But it really isn't a happy ending. A total of 28 men die from radiation poisoning which could have been prevented if the commanding generals had taken the warnings by Vostov and Polenin seriously.

The most impressive part of this movie for me was the performances of Neeson and Ford. Neeson has a reputation for fine preformances, but often Ford plays the fun action hero. In this film, it is obvious that Mr. Ford can hold his own. This film was well put together. Directing and editing were on line with the movement of the story. The music was outstanding. But it was the performances of Ford and Neeson that made this movie.

This movie was like a 7 course meal that, when it's over, you have to sit back and say, "Now, that was satisfying." This was a very satisfying movie and I do recommend it.

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Like so many of the British films I've seen, I've been introduced to them by friends. This one is the same and once again I was not disappointed.

The only Ibsen I'd ever read was back in High School, which was eons ago, so this was a new experience for me.

The story is about a flighty woman, Nora Helmner(Juliet Stevenson), who has no real concept of responsibility and the importance of money in her society. Her husband, Thorvald(Trevor Eve) is a generous man who spoils her rotten. He doles out the money she needs like he is giving candy to a child and he enjoys the idea that he can spoil her through his hard work. In an anxious moment, Nora decides she needs to borrow 4800 Kroners from one of Thorvald's childhood friends in order to "save" Thorvald's life. When Thorvald finds out he goes into a rage and forces her to understand that she has put his integrity as a bank manager in jeopardy. In a hysterical moment, she offers to kill herself, so everyone would know it wasn't Thorvald's fault. He explains that the damage was done and killing herself wouldn't help. But at the last moment, the childhood friend forgives the debt, because his fortunes have improved. Relieved, Thorvald reveals that he must watch over his "songbird" more carefully, so that she doesn't make such mistakes again and he blames himself for not taking better care of her.

In an epiphany, Nora realizes that Thorvald sees her as his "doll wife", someone to care for and spoil, just like her father saw her as his "doll child". Nora comes to believe that she and Thorvald have been living in a "Doll's House", where she had become Thorvald's doll and likewise, their children had become hers. She realizes that she never had an opinion of her own and decides she needs to "understand" herself. In an emotional scene she explains to Thorvald that she didn't understand that she wasn't doing anything wrong by "saving" his life and must go out and discover what life is really like. Finally she tells him that she doesn't love him anymore.

This play affected me on several levels. I am a modern woman who was appalled at the way Thorvald spoiled Nora and treated her like a child, which added to her flightiness and her lack of understanding of her responsibilities. But I was more disgusted with Nora. After finally realizing at the end that she didn't know what life was really like and had to go "in search" of it, she abandoned her husband of 8 years and her 3 children. In her search for responsibility, she abandoned responsibility for her family and shoved it onto the maids of the household because she didn't feel capable of taking care of the children and that the maids knew better. That happens way to often in today's society for similar reasons.

Nora was filled with self pity and selfishness. In the end she was calm and collected as she left her husband emotionally devastated. He lived in a society where he had done everything right. Everything he did was what was expected for a man of his period, yet it wasn't enough for her.

This play could also be considered a metaphor for men and women's relationships in the modern. Many men are still confused by the desire of many women to seek out "life", especially when they are raised in rural areas where gender roles are defined.

I do recommend this movie because it is an intelligent movie and sucked me in. Juliet Stevenson was fantastic as Nora and several times I wanted to jump through the screen and slap her around. Trevor Eve was great as Thorvald. I never saw Thorvald as a bad man as was listed in the plot outline. I just saw him as a man of his times. I had a great deal of sympathy for him.

I watched this movie because a friend recommended it and I was not disappointed. Trevor Eve is incredible as the *********** Duncan Matlock. I could come up with tons of nasty words for this character. He is a spoiled man who is the "darling" boy of the Tory Party who has begun to use his position as district politician to advance his career. He doesn't really care about his constituants. He lies to his constituants or does just enough to get re-elected. He begins to have an affair with a former prostitute(Minnie Driver). When his wife, Flora(Juliet Stevenson), finds out she is devastated and enraged. He begs her for forgiveness for this one indiscretion and that the affair was entirely sexual in nature. All the members of his party except one, Mark Hollister(Anton Lesser), also beg for her forgiveness for the sake of the Party. Hollister reveals that he and others in the "inner" circle are disgusted with Matlock and want to get rid of him. Hollister gives Flora several audio tapes with phone calls between Matlock and the prostitute. These tapes reveal that the affair was not a one time fling, but had been going on for a year.

**Note**: The audio tapes are played uncut and can be offensive to some people.**

Listening to these tapes continues to feed Flora's rage and she joins Hollister in a mission to destroy Matlock's political career. One thing after another occurs and slowly Matlock's career is destroyed. By the end of the movie he knows that his destruction has been plotted, but is unable to deduce who it was. He relies on one person, who has stood by him through out the difficult times, Flora. Then one night, after his career is destroyed, she reveals that she was the one who was the enemy within. It is his turn to be devastated and enraged, asking her why she didn't just leave him if she was so disgusted. She tells him that she believed he needed to be stopped as a political entity.

The last scene between these two major characters is difficult to describe. Matlock continues to maintain that the relationship with the prostitute was sexual in nature, because he wasn't satisfied in their marriage. He demonstrates what he believes sex actually is, by shoving his tongue down her throat in a violent kiss. She tries to insult him, but he gets the final say as he turns and spits a large glob of mucus at her, leaving her silent.

As said previously. Trevor Eve was magnificent as Duncan Matlock. Throughout the movie I felt the Matlock was a jerk(polite usage). He alienated everyone he cared about, especially his family. His son didn't want to stay in the same room with him. But at the end, with the disgust I also felt sympathy. Flora maintained a supportive demeanor, while, at the same time, becoming a vicious and vindictive woman. Matlock's punishment was to be assigned to a minor political job in Brussels, Belgium. Part of me wonders if he didn't get the better deal.

Juliet Stevenson was also fantastic as Flora Matlock. In the beginning of the movie I felt alot of sympathy for Flora. She was the dutiful housewife and supporter of her husband's ambitions. But at the end, after destroying her husband's career, she was assigned the position her husband had been fired from. She had become, what she had despised. Standing beside her, as she accepted the appointment and encouraging her, was Mark Hollister making me wonder if he had planned the whole thing himself and using Matlock's indescretions as a vehicle for his own rise.

I do recommend this movie if you can catch it. There were strong performances by all, with Eve leading the way.