Lovely & Amazing (2001)

Comedy-drama written and directed by Nicole Holofcener.

Jane Marks (Brenda Blethyn) is the mother of two grown-up daughters, Michelle (Catherine Keener) and Elizabeth (Emily Mortimer). Jane has also adopted a pre-teen girl called Annie (Raven Goodwin). Each of them experiences various ups and downs in their personal lives, and the story expertly examines these domestic threads and how they interrelate.

Catherine Keener absolutely shines as a would-be artist who cannot sell her craft creations. She goes to work in a photo-development shop and becomes involved with a teenage co-worker (played by a young Jake Gyllenhaal), with inevitable consequences.

It’s a funny and perceptive film that’s highly entertaining.

Secrets & Lies (1996)

Absolutely masterful drama directed by Mike Leigh. The members of a family find out things about each other that transform their lives as secrets and lies are revealed. Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall star as siblings. Marianne Jean-Baptiste stars as Hortense Cumberbatch, an optometrist seeking her birth mother.

Leigh cleverly unpeels layers of the story, letting you know more about the characters and how they interrelate. It’s brilliantly shot, too. A party in the garden is framed like a play, with everyone in shot and everyone doing something at the same time. It’s fascinating to watch and definitely has the feel of a stage play. But, at the same time, the realism is such that it never seems “theatrical”.

Beyond the Sea (2004)

Intriguing but flawed biopic of Bobby Darin, written and directed by Kevin Spacey, who also stars as the singer. 

It’s a baffling film. The set pieces featuring the songs are expertly created and Spacey inhabits the role brilliantly. But things come slightly unstuck with the “magical realist” element of him talking to his younger self. There’s no attempt to describe his rise to fame, but there’s lots about his health problems and his ambiguous parentage. 

John Goodman and Bob Hoskins are on screen too much. Brenda Blenthyn is excellent as his mother. Kate Bosworth is underdeveloped as Darin’s wife. It’s suggested that she drinks too much but the question of alcoholism is never explored further. 

In terms of storytelling it’s disappointingly shallow and inconclusive, despite moments of brilliance.

Little Voice (1998)

Drama starring Jane Horrocks as “Little Voice”, a talented singer who – following the death of her father – hides away in her room owing to her intimidating mother Mari (Brenda Blethyn). But when Mari takes up with shifty promoter Ray Say (Michael Caine), the latter sees a fortune to be made by exploiting the reclusive young vocalist. 

Horrocks and Blethyn are both excellent. Jim Broadbent is suitably seedy as club owner Mr. Boo. And Ewan McGregor is more likeable than usual as the telephone engineer Billy. It's appealing and gritty, like Brassed Off, but I found the styling of LV's father (a sort of ghost or imagined visitor) oddly naff. I can see why he was portrayed in black and white – it was how he was shown in LV's treasured photo – but as a visual treatment it looked silly.

That point aside, it's engrossing and Horrocks' vocal impersonations of Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey, and so on are compelling. Likewise, it's fascinating to hear Michael Caine's desperate, deranged version of "It's Over" by Roy Orbison when he realises that his various problems have all caught up with him.

Music from Another Room (1998)

Extremely unusual romantic comedy. 

It’s 1973. The five-year-old Danny (Cory Buck) is with his father, visiting family friend Grace (Brenda Blethyn). Grace is about to give birth and – bizarrely – Danny helps save the baby by freeing the umbilical cord round its neck. When the baby, Anna, is born he announces that one day he will marry her. Twenty-five years later, Danny (now played by Jude Law) is back in the USA and has a chance meeting with the Swan family. (He would have just decided to visit them, but the writers clearly preferred a far more unlikely scenario.) He sees Anna (Gretchen Mol) and falls in love. But Anna is part of a big, complicated family and about to get engaged to a man she doesn’t really love. 

The film is strange in many ways. The plot doesn’t really ring true, but the members of the family are quirky, well-drawn characters and you are quickly drawn into their world. There’s a blind sister, a suicidal sister and a slightly odd sister. 

There’s a thread about Anna Karenina running through it, and the sisters are named Anna, Karen and Nina accordingly. Some of their stories don’t quite work (the suicidal sister actually shoots her husband and nothing more is said about it). A writer such as Nora Ephron or Woody Allen would have done a better job of neatly tying those threads together. But the film exudes charm and all of the performances are hugely likeable. There are genuinely touching parts and a few laughs too.