Reviews

If I was putting it in a double bill, it would be, not with another Scottish film, but with 'The Peaceful Man', set in Ireland, or 'Gone to Earth', set on the English/ Welsh border country.

Heck, let's call it a triple bill!

The essential qualities are: beautiful countryside: real people, albeit some a little unusual: excellent acting from fine actors - and, most importantly, a story that may not be new but is neither hackneyed nor trite.

If you want a period film that's not a 'just-so' story - where there aren't necessarily good guys who always do the right thing, and bad guys who are obvious villains, and macguffins round every corner - well, here it is.

Bottom line - I went to see this all on my own (I invited my children to see it with me, but, possibly because the weather was vile, they elected to stay home with a full fridge, computer & DVD player at their disposal. Oh - and one father - should mention that, right?).

I love the books. Part of the reason I love them is that they aim for the people who don't want easy, who don't want pat, who would quite like to sit chewing a thumbnail for a little while, thinking, 'I'm not sure about this...'.

Think 'Battle Royale'. Think 'Serenity'.

So, as I handed over my ticket, and the chap said 'enjoy the film', I said 'I hope so...'.

And he said, all quiet-like: 'best film we've ever shown here.' People - take a moment to think back through every cinema-going experience you've had. Ever had a member of staff climb out on a limb like that? Nope? It was a first for me, too...

And that's the cinema I first saw Bambi at - making the point that I think he wasn't saying: 'comparing this only with films such as 'Dumberer & Dumberest', it is my considered opinion that...' I shared the auditorium with one member of staff, one courting couple, three families, three grown-ups who arrived in a group, and about seven other people who arrived alone and without popcorn, picked a seat with a good view, and concentrated avidly on the film for the duration.

I'm sure we all had different opinions - but the two kids who moved from behind me to right down the front - they seemed pretty keen. The lad who kicked the seat seven across from me throughout the trailers - he stopped when the film started, and then used it only as punctuation for battle scenes, for which I'm enormously grateful.

Headcount when the film ended was the same as headcount when film started, and I didn't notice one person go for a toilet break. And, trust me, I have the ears of a bat, and a parent's peripheral vision...

This was always going to be a hard one to screen without being blamed for a few firebombings, but darn if they didn't walk that line.

And I did seriously consider chatting up two of the guys who arrived alone to see the film because a) they were startlingly good-looking, and b) when you glance at someone's face during a film, and they're reacting very subtly, but reacting nonetheless, and too drawn into the film to even notice you staring... well.

But instead, I sprinted home, still married.

Helen

wish they had called it 'the postgraduate'.

It's fairly grown-up humour - people who like gross-out movies are likely to walk away disappointed, and nor is it a snuggle-up-with-the-kids feel-good fest.

But if you've just spent 6 days watching snuggle-up-with-the-kids feel-good fest, this should cleanse your palate nicely.

I'd double-bill with 'the graduate' (well, duh!), and I suspect that this would prove two things - that 'the graduate' is the better film, and that, inmyeversohumbleopinion, that is largely because Simon and Garfunkel (genuflects) did the theme music for that one. I know it would be a copout to just steal *that* theme music for the new film - but sometimes copping out is a *good* thing, children!

Helen

Like Harrison Ford, don't we love to watch him win, and don't we love to watch him suffer.

We quite like watching him have a nap, wash a car, or have his lip bitten by prettier girls than us...

As if we weren't being spoiled enough already, there's an ensemble cast that makes you go 'wow, he/she was in this?' about every five minutes before you finally settle down to enjoy it.

There's social commentary to die for - I've yet to see a more succinct analysis of the (tawdry) joys of asset-stripping, or the heady (and extremely dangerous) thrills of teeming and lading.

Now admit it, all my accountant friends out there - you've never seen teeming and lading outside of a textbook or a bad client's ledger books, have you? A series brave enough to educate its audience, and gorgeous enough to keep its audience after admitting it was gonna be educational...

First off, this is not a third date movie, not a film to take your adolescent niece/ nephew/ kids' outing to. Or your favourite Aunt/ Uncle/ Lesbian Godparent.

Not unless you *like* awkward silences.

On the other hand, I watched it alone, and laughed myself silly. And was touched by the love stories, for they are plural. And, no, did *not* 'touch myself'. Not that kind of movie.

The crucial thing about it is, it's not a plot I've seen before, although if an anorak insists the same film was made in 1948 with James Cagney & his sister playing Jessica Alba & her brother - well, I'd believe it. A lot of weird stuff was made that year... And I have known a couple of real-life 'catalysts', so it's nice to see the notion get recognition.

Some people only like to see the stuff they've seen a thousand times already - me, I hope I never get *that* old.

I'd watch this as a triple bill with Happy Feet & The Thing - this would be the sandwich filler. But that's just me...

Helen

My Mum always used to tell me that you should use every part of the pig - except its squeal. She also used to tell me that the reason the Nazis lost is that they tried to use the squeal.

One of the turning points of the war was when Alan Turing (no umlaut!) - or possibly one of his chums - or even one of his enemies - worked out that the base number used to set everyone's Enigma machine was the published rate of deaths in Auschwitz. See? They prided themselves on using the skin, the bones, the fillings - the lot. And then they used the squeal.

Give me a film, or book, or song, about Violette or Odette or Noor - or Alan, or Leo, or Vera - and I'm just about in heaven. Loved this film - loved it.

Helen

If this film has a fault, it's that it doesn't spend long enough establishing 'Rwanda - not that different from Mytown, United States of RightHere'.

But then, it could spend twice as long and not succeed, or half as long and succeed - it's one of those things that's more dependant on the baggage you bring along, than on the skills of the film-makers.

Almost, I wanted the main characters to be played by Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte - almost, I said! - because it would have made better propaganda, then, even though it probably would have been not nearly as good a film.

I'm not saying it doesn't deserve to succeed as a film, either - just that it seems such necessary propaganda for the times we live in.

Someone else has written 'The country was in turmoil and the words never again never implied towards Africans or others unworthy of such saving.' I would like this person to go back to what they read and do the research again - please. I'm sure they don't intend to come across as a racist bigot, and I'm sure that's an unfair impression for me to take away.

But.

This is one of those films that I intend to keep and re-watch once in a while. My shelf of such films includes only 7, and before I watched this, there were only 6.

Helen