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Reviews
Mr. Holmes (2015)
Master classes in naturalistic Acting
A fascinating and beautifully filmed piece of work. All cast excellent, as is design, photography, framing and pacing/editing. I thought the three strands of the narrative worked wonderfully well by the time the final sequence came along. It was great to have a film that was not dumbing down at all.
Many profound themes, not least the very important one of ageing and memory - but so much more - celebrity, youth, anxiety, cultural differences, loyalty, self-preservation. I found it very moving, especially the critical scene in the "present time" when Laura Linney finally let rip. There is a shot where Ian McKellen wanders past the window as Linney is washing up - and I swear my heart was beating faster than it ever has - I wanted to scream TELL HER! TELL HER! (I am avoiding spoilers about what he should tell her.) And the scene with Ian McKellen and Hattie Morahan on a bench.... master classes in acting all round from all three of these leads with an unforced and natural performance from young Milo Parker; and perfect ensemble playing from the rest of the cast (memorable scenes from Hioyuki Sanada, Patrick Kennedy and Frances de la Tour.)
Tatau (2015)
Would watch a second series. Unusual and unique for UK.
Some shows are victims of the commissioning channel's lack of support, for example, the sudden cancelling of Atlantis which grew into a greater show with each episode. I imagine Tatau will not get a second series so we will never know whether it would have matured over another set of episodes. But I for one would tune in if the series was re-commissioned. Bravo to the BBC for giving viewers something out of the ordinary.
Tatau's strengths: It made an eye-pleasing change to see sun-kissed locations different from drab urban offices and bucolic green villages favoured by typical home-grown TV series. The actors were uniformly good with the double act of Joe Layton as Kyle and Theo Barklem-Biggs as Budgie managing to convey the reality of buddies who had been travelling and who had a shared history. Joe's intensity and Theo's buoyancy motored the plot. Theo's story contained an imaginative twist and the hints at Maori culture were intriguing.
New faces to British TV, Shushila Takau, Alex Tarrant and Rawiri Jobe as Aumea, Maui and Koringo were convincing and unsettling in their portrayals of ambiguous characters – should Kyle and Budgie trust them or not? Cian Elyse White as Lara Morgan, I thought, was an attractive and charismatic performer and character; she probably had the best-written part in terms of variety of tone and emotion.
Sadly I think the show's weakness was in some aspects of the writing, where, although the set-ups and the complications all had massive potential, there were underwritten characters and scenes that seemed either missing or rushed. I want to applaud Richard Zajdlic on the one hand for creating a complex show with some fine scenes and character moments but I wonder whether the pressures of budget and/or time and/or location meant he would have produced a more satisfying total narrative if circumstances had allowed. I noticed he was producing too. I know he is an experienced writer and one of the past shows to which he contributed, This Life, was a classic.
I wanted to see more depth to particular characters Aumea's father and her brother both had much more potential than the script allowed. Temuera Morrison had a powerful screen presence and his role in the climax could have been much more developed. Budgie's mum (and Budgie's whole back story prior to arriving on the island) proved functional rather than integrated and thematic. It struck me that Tyler and Dries (Tai Berdinner-Blades and Barry Atsma) had a lot more mileage and were fascinating in their vignettes but it struck me they were potentially more complex than the screen time given – the relationship between Kyle and Tyler seemed to have resonance but we weren't shown how or why. Ditto Maui and Dries.
Future Stars:
All the actors were engaging and I hope to see them again in the future. Overall my family and I enjoyed this series a great deal – and enjoyed shouting at the characters' decisions – always a good sign of an engaging drama.
Camelot (1967)
Visually stunning, aurally mixed
Like the earlier reviewer, the film gets full marks for costumes, sets and photography. The light, the textures, the colours - especially if you see a well-projected version or a restored DVD version - are absolutely ravishing in conjuring a faux-medieval fantasy land. Some moments, such as the candlelit wedding or the early scenes in the snow, will linger long in the memory.
I will always remember seeing this film at a young age and being amazed at one of the later scenes when Vanessa Redgrave is so emotional that her nose drips snot. It made the moment raw, real and true - and I followed her career ever afterwards. That deeply-felt acting sometimes feels at odds with the conventions of a film musical - at least in the 1960s - but it is NOT at odds with the source material - TH White's Once and Future King. In that mighty tome the whimsical mingles with the tragic in a very teasing fashion - all the more brilliant for that.
I wonder whether this film will not be revered in generations to come and its over-wrought acting (with too many disconcerting closeups) might be seen as psychologically penetrating. There is a later filmed version - a stage version starring Richard Harris which captures the "musical" side of the musical better (more even singing, for example) but nothing beats this 1967 version for DESIGN.