Directed by Alex Holmes, it’s a fascinating and surprisingly emotional film. It’s impressive how much footage has been assembled and how beautifully edited together it is. The interviews with the crew in the present day make for fascinating viewing, especially intercut with their younger selves at the time of the race.
Edwards emerges as a uniquely determined and focused individual who took on a challenge and succeeded, despite her own deep insecurities and the prejudice she faced from others.
Anthony Hopkins is the only good thing about the film, and thankfully he’s in virtually every frame. He plays a know-it-all billionaire, Charles, who survives a plane crash in Alaska and attempts to walk back to civilisation. His efforts are hindered by the vain photographer, Bob, who he accompanied (Alec Baldwin), who happens to be having an affair with his wife (a miscast Elle MacPherson).
For some reason, Charles and Bob are continually saying each other's names.
The situation is exciting enough – there are plenty of showdowns with bears – but the execution is third-rate and even comical. In one laugh-out-loud scene, Hopkins and Baldwin don bear-hide costumes that they have apparently rustled up in mere minutes. They look like Ewoks.
Mark Ruffalo plays Robert Bilott, who tried to sue the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont for their contamination of a small town in West Virginia.
Anne Hathaway portrays his wife, Sarah, and Tim Robbins plays his boss Tom. Ruffalo is extremely convincing and hugely sympathetic in the main role. You really feel every emotion he expresses.
Photographer Maggie (Meg Ryan) and astronomer Sam (Matthew Broderick) team up to spy on and torment their former lovers, who have become a couple. This unlikely and mean-spirited premise sees the pair squatting in a New York City apartment opposite their exes and watching them by using Sam’s astronomy equipment for surveillance.
The story doesn’t work for a number of reasons, but mainly because it’s built around cruelty. Are we really meant to relate to them destroying the lives of the people who wronged them?
There are so many silly aspects:
1. Maggie is a revenge-crazed grungy biker/artist with perfect make-up. The film can’t decide how we’re supposed to feel about her.
2. Neither Maggie nor Sam have anything else they need to do, such as earning a living. They can spend all of their time dismantling other people’s lives.
3. The Frenchman Anton (Tchéky Karyo) who steals Sam’s sweetheart Linda (Kelly Preston) doesn’t sound French at all. I kept thinking that the plot would reveal him to be an American, but no, he was just acting badly.
4. There’s an absurd scene in which a bunch of kids are persuaded to spray perfume on Anton via water pistols. This sort of thing just doesn’t ring true.
It’s fascinating in a way, but the tone is all wrong and it’s simply not funny. You wonder why Ryan and Broderick ever got mixed up in something so misjudged.
Joaquin Phoenix is perfect in the lead role, underplaying rather than overplaying the part. It’s a simmering performance full of nuance and strength.
Central to the story is his relationship with Joséphine, brilliantly portrayed by Vanessa Kirby.
There's a lot to cram in, in terms of historical events and the surrounding context, and Scott does this without cluttering the story or making it unwieldy. At 157 minutes, it's long but it doesn't outstay its welcome.
Troublingly, there’s no apostrophe in the title (which should be Two Weeks’ Notice). That aside, this is a charming rom-com. Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock have great chemistry together, and a sharp script lets both of them deliver some funny lines. I like the fact that the pair have so much screen time together. Often in rom-coms the story is all about getting the couple together, leaving you feeling that you've missed out on enjoying their relationship.
Donald Trump has a slightly bizarre cameo, and indeed Grant’s empire seems loosely based on Trump’s own. Singer Norah Jones also briefly pops up as herself.
In 1942, Paris is occupied by the Germans and the Jews are deported in the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup. Sarah, aged 10, hides her brother in a cupboard before fleeing with her parents, vowing to return. The implications of this promise affect many lives, rippling outward in time.
It’s highly engaging. Kristin Scott Thomas gives one of her best performances as Julia Jarmond, a journalist who begins researching Sarah’s life and finds it’s unexpectedly connected with her own.
Somehow, all the jumping around in time and geography doesn’t quite work. I wished it was a true story rather than a slightly convoluted work of fiction. And in the final third, there are some slightly silly decisions. For example, there’s an incongruous father/son scene that feels completely out of place. And the scenes of Julia with her journalist colleagues feel hammy and lack the ring of truth. All that said, there’s a touching story at the heart of this drama and the two female leads are both superb.
There’s no tension or drama. But there’s plenty of sexism, homophobia and racism. There's also a clumsy sub-James Bond plot that doesn’t make sense, and a total lack of characterisation. Even the celebrated climbing sequences end up being dull.
Clint is usually reliable, so you can only wonder how this ended up being such a turkey.
Directed by Gabriele Salvatores, it’s a powerful drama and the performances are remarkable. Giuseppe Cristiano is incredibly believable, with none of the self consciousness that often affects child actors. The little girl who plays his sweet younger sister, is also fantastic.
Ultimately it’s an extremely sad film about poverty and its effects on a community.
Kim (Felicity Jones) is a former skateboarding champion whose mother died in a car accident. Since then, she has been living in semi-poverty with her depressed father (Bill Bailey). She takes a job as a chalet girl in an Austrian ski resort, where her working-class origins place her in stark contrast with her posh co-worker (Tasmin Egerton) and the wealthy family they both work for. Meanwhile, Kim rediscovers her sporting mojo and enters a snowboarding competition…
It’s frothy and very silly, but Felicity Jones is extremely charming. Brooke Shields and Bill Nighy play the parents of the fairly lame male lead (Ed Westwick).
The issues of class aspiration are never really resolved, but despite that there’s a reasonably satisfying progression to the plot. The script features some witty lines and it’s engaging enough to keep you watching.
The story deals with the intersecting relationships of two men and two women. Clive Owen and Natalie Portman are both excellent at presenting complex, rounded characters. Jude Law just does his usual Jude Law thing. And Julia Roberts is oddly drippy and underwhelming with a character that’s barely there – to the extent that you have no idea why two men would be obsessed with her.
It ends up a little overwrought, with lots of rather pompous statements about truth and honesty uttered by characters who are all over the place. You feel the writing tries too hard to be shocking and morally confrontational. As an account of intense human emotions it’s compelling but difficult to like.
It’s quite funny in places if you can suspend disbelief about various scenarios that fail to ring true. Morally, it’s all over the place and I’m not entirely sure what point it was trying to make about predatory men.
It’s an enjoyable twist-filled tale, even if it begins to stretch credibility in the final sections. Owen is always charming, and he is excellent with the limited material. Aniston is better than expected – or rather, at least she’s not merely reprising Rachel from Friends.
On the downside there is a silly character played by rapper RZA, and Clive Owen’s wife played by Melissa George is sketchy and unconvincing.
