TV highlights

Some satisfying moments from this week's tv viewing: the return of REV - we loved the first series of this new BBC comedy with Tom Hollander as the inner-city priest, now we have the second series just starting and it promises to be just as good - particularly with Ralph Fiennes guesting in the first episode as the Bishop of London. Hilarious sauna scene! The series to be seen in then - and next week should be amusing when our put-upon vicar mistakenly takes ecstasy during church service!

And speaking of interesting guest stars: Jane Asher, elegant as ever [left, right] turns up in the otherwise routine school drama WATERLOO ROAD [while Liam Neeson was fun in the new Ricky Gervais series].

Below: Dan Stevens as Matthew Crawley has something to announce in DOWNTON ABBEY, which finished last week, as he has been getting a tingling in his legs and is no longer crippled or indeed impotent ! Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and Countess Violet (Maggie Smith) will be pleased, just as the great 'flu epidemic of 1919 strikes ... two things about DOWNTON: the amount of commercial breaks was annoying, so I ended up recording it and then starting watching half an hour later, thus zapping out the adverts - the final episode was 90 minutes of which 67 was the actual programme! Roll on the dvd. Also the timeframe: the first series begins in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic and ends with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, then series 2 takes us through to the end of the war and to 1919 - nobody looks any older but Matthew and Lady Mary have been mooning over each other for 7 years! Let's see what the two-hour Christmas special brings ...

Over at STICTLY COME DANCING (the UK's DANCING WITH THE STARS, but so much better) the best male celebrity dancer is Harry Judd from pop group McFly, who is sensational paired with Aliona Vilani - Watch out Jason and Kristina, Harry and Aliona's Argentine Tango is the one to beat. Their samba is sensational too! Holly and Artem's take on SWAN LAKE was also a favourite, let's hope he is back soon after his back injury, and one never tires of watching the professional dancers like Flavia and Vincent; looking forward to their Tango show in January! Flavia is a stunning woman - like Sophia she hails from Naples....



Then of course there is the latest from Sir David Attenborough, still going strong in his 80s: FROZEN PLANET is as superlative and jaw-dropping as one would expect. This is what one pays one's license fee for ... more amazing footage of animals in the Artic and Antartic wastes - that footage of the polar bears, and killer whales working in teams, and all those penguins .... nature in the raw indeed - fantastic stuff !



I don't bother much with cop shows, but its interesting catching up with LAW AND ORDER SPECIAL VICTIM UNIT from America, both the latest series and repeats of earlier - this is not mainstream viewing here so Meloni and Mariska [sometimes she looks so like her mother Jayne Mansfield] are not well known here; we have our own version, LAW AND ORDER: UK - the U.S. SVU also has some fascinating guest stars: Franco Nero recently as the diplomat accused of rape, a hilariously over the top Ann-Margret etc.



Bottom: a reminder of Tom Hollander in that hilarious scene from BEDROOMS AND HALLWAYS (1998) where he is blindfolded and tied to the bed as the owners of the house return ....

Hanna / Let The Right One In

I love a good thriller and HANNA is nothing like a good thriller! Is it too much to expect some kind of logic in a thriller but I should have known not to expect any from a Joe Wright film. I was so outraged by what he did to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE that I threw the disk in the garbage bin, and I didn’t bother with ATONEMENT until it turned up on television and I was not impressed with that either, but HANNA somehow seemed like the kind of thriller I would like.

Is it logical to imagine that the very fit Eric Bana would spend 15 years bringing up Hanna to be a highly trained assassin without any other human contact, without electricity or computers or any modern technology with nobody knowing where they are, as they hunt and train and live off the land somewhere in remote Finland. How then is Hanna able to use an internet café later on? Her release into the world sets in motion a man hunt by a CIA agent (Cate Blanchett) with her own agenda.


As Hanna travels across Europe how on earth do the assassins track her down to that particular café in Morocco? What happens to Olivia Williams (a thankless role for her after her terrific turn in Polanski’s THE GHOST) and her kids? Seeing how the assassins treat the man who helps Hanna in Morocco, they will hardly allow the family to resume their travels.

The laugh of the year though is the sight of little Tom Hollander as the camp killer with the colourful tracksuits taking on Eric Bana! One brilliant sequence is where Bana outwits the gang after him and the score by The Chemical Brothers pounds along nicely. The climax seems very botched too – does Blanchett trip or stumble before she falls or does Hanna cause her to take a tumble – the editing does not make clear. I suppose I could go back and watch it again to tie up any loose ends, but frankly I have too many other things to do and see. The narrative seems disjointed and the editing muddled which does not aid concentration.

Saoirse Ronan is again very watchable but the waif looks far too under-developed to be a trained fighter who can outwit those chasing her. Blanchett just seems to be on autopilot here. There seems to be some play on fairy tales, with Hanna hiding in the gingerbread house in the playground and she looks at illustrations of Snow White in an old book, but again, what point is being made? Why does the grandmother get shot? She's been ignored for the last 16 years! Still, it makes a good sequence. Why is Hanna so astonished by an electric kettle or any other appliance, but she can speak several languages! HANNA is nothing like the BOURNE films or LEON which it probably aspires to. For those who want a more rational explanation there are 224 reviews of it on IMDB. I think though I will be giving Wright’s films a wide berth from now on.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. As mesmerising as I had been led to believe this 2008 film by Tomas Alfredson (who has since directed the highly-anticipated TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY) slowly draws one in to this snow-covered world. Set in Sweden in the early 80s it is both horrifying and tender as it features Oskar, a bullied 12-year old, who lives with his mother in a dreary suburb, and who dreams of revenge on those who bully him. He slowly gets to know Eli, a peculiar girl who moves next door to him with her guardian. She can't stand the sun or food and to come into a room she needs to be invited. Eli gives Oskar the strength to hit back but when he realizes that Eli needs to drink other people's blood to live he's faced with a dilemma.

It is like no other vampire movie. So slow and dreamlike – the sudden spurts of violence as Eli drops from a tree onto a victim, or at the start with the man being strung up to have his blood drained. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a dreamy early teen – how safe will he be with Eli? Their relationship and co-dependance is nicely played out and the bullies certainly get their comeuppance. Oskar will grow up but Eli presumably will always be 12 years old, but it looks like Oskar is replacing Hakan as Eli’s protector … will he too end up killing others to feed her? This one has 420 reviews on IMDB and has already been re-made. It is also a truly great addition to the vampire cannon, a thing that can be said of very few variations on Bram Stoker'
s brilliant original.

Actors

Its an exciting time for young British actors, with several major productions on the way. The new TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY highlights several of them: Colin Firth cements his Oscar-winning year, Mark Strong who has cornered the market in evil villains after his breakthrough in THE LONG FIRM a few years ago, Benedict Cumberbatch - probably THE actor of his generation after several high profile roles (SHERLOCK HOLMES on tv, we are looking forward to the second series) and his highly praised FRANKENSTEIN at the National Theatre where he and Johnny Lee Miller took turns playing the Doctor and the naked creature, this was such a sell-out I couldn't even get tickets for the local cinema link-up!



Good to see John Hurt in another good role - I spent an evening with him and Ray Winstone last year when they were promoting 44 INCH CHEST at the National Film Theatre. Then there is Tom Hardy another actor on the cusp, with INCEPTION etc - he was fun in ROCK'N'ROLLA. Dan Stevens after his success in THE LINE OF BEAUTY and that nice new version of SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (he is both a risk-taking actor and an ideal choice for costume dramas, like Colin Firth before him) certainly scored in DOWNTON ABBEY, which is also heading back for another series, and these are only the main ones! If they can avoid the Hollywood rom-com route we should see a lot more varied work from them and others like Ewan McGregor now making very interesting choices too.
Tom Hollander continues in varied roles like his hilariously camp assassin in HANNA (review next) - then of course there are the vagaries of the actor's life: Jude Law got horribly over-exposed while that other TALENTED MR RIPLEY actor Jack Davenport hasn't quite got the breaks he deserved... ?

Persuasion, Persuasion, Persuasion

Away from the Arthouse Classics and Bad Movies We Love and sometimes Utter Trash, we occasionally need a good Costume Drama - and no-one does it better than the BBC or ITV with their Jane Austen adaptations. The recent PERSUASION was an ideal treat after the Royal Wedding, so it was fun to see it again.

I absolutely love Jane Austen's book "Persuasion" and have re-read it several times and no doubt will again. This latest version is quite nice - though Sally Hawkins is a very put-upon dowdy Anne Elliot while Rupert Penry-Jones positively smoulders as Captain Wentworth, and Alice Krige is the meddling Lady Russell. Anne is only 28 after all but is practically an old maid as she missed her chance with the dashing Captain 8 years previously when she was persuaded to give him up as he had no fortune. Now he is back, wealthy and looking for a wife .... we travel from her estate to Bath and Lyme Regis with its famous cobb where that silly Louisa Musgrove famously falls from, as our star-crossed lovers slowly rediscover each other. For me it is a perfect romance. Anne, as Lady Russell knows, is so much better than her frivolous father and bitchy sisters.



The 1971 version is in 4 parts so can take its time and Ann Firbank and Bryan Marshall are quite ideal but looking at it now it has that bright over-lit look of 70s television. The best version for me is the 1995 BBC production where Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds (below) are quietly excellent, it is nicely condensed and is a real film, as directed by Roger Michell, with able support from Corin Redgrave, Fiona Shaw, Phoebe Nicholls and Susan Fleetwood etc. The most recent version also alters the ending with our heroine running all over Bath to catch up with Wentworth - but then Austen wrote two endings both perfect but not very filmable for a romantic climax!

The recent SENSE & SENSIBILITY is also a treat, nice to look at - I love their idea of the cottage the poor Dashwoods have to make do with! Dan Stevens and David Morrissey are ideal romantic leads and it all looks a treat.
Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and a top-notch cast even in the small parts (Gemma Jones, Elizabth Spriggs, Harriet Walter, Imelda Staunton, Hugh Laurie) all make Ang Lee's 1995 film the definitive version, as scriped by Emma (whose playing of the final scene is a delight).



And of course the only definitive version of PRIDE & PREJUDICE is the BBC's 1995 version, ideally cast too with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, plus of course Alison Steadman and Benjamin Whitrow as the Bennetts and the fearsome Lady Catherine De Burgh of Barbara Leigh-Hunt and the oily Mr Collins of David Bamber, and Susannah Harker and Anna Chancellor. The 2005 film by Joe Wright with Keira Knightley enraged me with it's filleted version of the book, major characters reduced to the sidelines and its period all over the place. THAT version ended up in the trash can! - despite sterling work by Tom Hollander as Mr Collins and Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench. The 1940 film has it's pleasures too though one can hardly take it seriously, Olivier and Garson sparkle though. (A shame though to see Ehle in just the small part of Mrs Logue in Firth's success THE KING'S SPEECH).



The 1999 version of MANSFIELD PARK is also very entertaining with the likes of Sheila Gish, Lindsay Duncan, James Purefoy and Harold Pinter. EMMA and NORTHANGER ABBEY though do not interest me at all! Then of course there are those Merchant-Ivory productions like A ROOM WITH A VIEW, MAURICE, QUARTET, HEAT AND DUST, HOWARD'S END, THE EUROPEANS, THE BOSTONIANS and the great tradition of costume drama continued with CRANFORD and Julian Fellowes' DOWNTON ABBEY, we will be waiting for that second series, let's hope Maggie Smith gets some more great moments. Hmm, maybe it's time to re-visit those '70s hits: Lee Remick as JENNIE Churchill and Francesca Annis as LILLIE Langtry (which also has a sterling Oscar Wilde by Peter Egan)...

Jim and Ewan or Tom ? + Brad, George, Tilda etc

I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS tells us the "true story" of Steven Russell (Jim Carrey), a supposedly happy married man with a good job who in reality is a gay con man. In one of his many visits to jail, he falls in love with Phillip Morris, delightfully played by Ewan McGregor. The jokes are provocative and will offend quite a few people - such as the first in-your-face depiction of his secret life, or his faking his death from AIDS - hence, presumably, it's delay in getting a USA release. It has been and gone here in the UK without causing much of a ripple and the dvd is now out.

I don't usually see many Jim Carrey movies, but he convinces here as, after a car accident, he reassesses his life, and decides that he is truly gay, and he leaves his old life behind. He moves to Miami and finds a boyfriend, but to live the life he wants he admits that "being gay is expensive" (if you want expensive watches, matching cars, a dream home etc), and so begins a life as a conman. Steven gives up being a cop to cause his own accidents to get compensation, lying to banks and so much more besides, and the police eventually catch up to him and send him to prison - not once but several times. It is in prison that Steven sees and falls almost instantly in love with fellow prisoner Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor), and they find themselves smitten with each other and by making deals get to share a cell.

Glenn Ficarra & John Requa - who gave us the enjoyable BAD SANTA, have handled this tragi-comic tale with a lot of realism as well as fantasy all wrapped up in bright colours. The main problem for me is that Stephen eventually becomes thoroughly unlikeable and blind to the fact that it is his endless lies and deceit that cause his downfall over and over again. The early scenes such as his tracking down his real mother (he was adopted) and his happy suburban life with Debbie and the kids and church are amusingly played (gays are equally satirised) as are his stunts for seeking compensation to fund his lifestyle. Once Stephen decides to be gay he becomes a super-gay moving to Miami with all the trimmings, although this lifestyle he's living is pretty expensive. It is not too long until the police catch up to him, but fate has a funny way of doing things and it is in prison where he meets his soul mate Phillip Morris (the very charming McGregor). Their romance blossoms in the prison and when they are released as well, but Steven continues to live a life of lies and sooner or later it will catch up to him again. And so it goes getting rather far-fetched with the Aids illness episodes. One has to admire the two actors for going at it full tilt. It will be interesting to see how it fares when it is finally released nationwide in the USA. It certainly flies in the face of all those small-town values - they will hate it in those Tea Bag areas! After this and Polanski's THE GHOST one certainly sees McGregor in a new light.

Now for LAWLESS HEART: also directed (and written) by two directors Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter: A 2001 indie film from England which is about compromise and rueful intelligence about matters of the heart rather like John Schlesinger's 1971 SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY, if without that film's elegance and glossy style. This is a modest production about the aftermath of a funeral in a small English seaside town. Stewart who owns a restuarant has died without making a will, leaving his lover Nick (Tom Hollander) at the mercy of Stewart's glum sister and her not very gay-friendly husband (Bill Nighy) and then drifter Douglas Henshall arrives back in town after several years. How these characters inter-relate is the tale, as we see events from their 3 different perspectives. Nighy is a marvel of believability as the older man, Dan as he is tempted to stray from his marriage; Tom Hollander is wonderfully pained and kind as the bereaved Nick putting up with everyone. Henshall as Tim becomes fascinating as we take an instant dislike to him and his leeching ways, as he starts as a very selfish character, but we slowly warm to him as the picture goes on, he too has to lose the woman he loves, and he resolves the rather nice conclusion. It It is a pleasing low budget drama that takes its time to reveal very real and complex characters and emotions – end leaves one stimulated and ultimately happy.

Nick, numb with grief, first lets Tim stay with him but soon regrets it with all those late night parties and loud music. During a wild party Tim throws, Nick meets Charlie (Sukie Smith) a lively, feckless, not-too-bright local girl who ends up drunk in his bed after a casual shag with one of the locals, and he is drawn to her energy and high spirits and they become slowly involved. Hollander as ever is a revelation here - he has been quietly brilliant for years and has played quite a few gay roles without any fuss, here he is a gay man having a straight experience! Hollander had a big hit recently with his BBC tv series REV as a priest (photo below); I saw him on stage circa 1997 as Bosie to Liam Neeson's Oscar Wilde in David Hare's play THE JUDAS KISS (photo below), which was certainly a riveting experience. [Tom stripped, Liam didn't...]

LAWLESS HEART ends nicely after the money from Stewart's estate has been happily resolved (so Nick can move back to London) with our characters all sitting around watching home movies of the late departed Stewart who finally takes centre stage. It's nicely done, and resonated a lot with me (as I had a very similar experience back in the '90s).

A third movie also with two directors is that recent Coen Bros BURN AFTER READING, their latest comedy with those regular pals George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton, here joined by Frances McDormand and John Malkovich. As with all Coen brother movies, there are going to be people who love it and people who hate it. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. I found it entertaining, dark and very funny - I just didn't like their previous NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN at all. BURN does ramble around pointlessly, but best part of the movie is watching this great cast perform brilliantly with the odd-ball material they are given. There is violence, bad language, and everyone is sleeping with everyone else, especially George Clooney, as the off the wall plot involves a disk of supposed CIA secrets found by two dim gym trainers; Pitt is wonderfully funny here and so is McDormand who just wants 4 cosmetic surgeries! of course Tilda essays another steely ballbreaker. The Coens continue to put out intelligent, entertaining material and assemble fascinating casts. Quite short too - clocking in at 87 minutes - so many films these days are half an hour or more too long.