Belle (2013)

Somewhat stilted period drama directed by Amma Asante. 

The premise is intriguing enough – the upbringing of an illegitimate girl is entrusted to William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, the Lord Chief Justice (Tom Wilkinson), who lives in Kenwood House, Hampstead. The girl's mixed-race background is a cause of controversy within the Earl's social standing.

This is based on a true story inspired by the 1779 painting of Dido Elizabeth Belle, but – frustratingly – events have been changed and fictionalised for the purposes of this film. Why invent parts of the plot when the truth is more interesting? 

The older actors are impressive – Penelope Wilton, Emily Watson and Tom Wilkinson – but the two would-be sisters Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Sarah Gadon, are surprisingly flat for such important roles. And annoyingly, it wasn't even filmed at Kenwood.

Selma (2014)

Historical drama dealing with the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King. 

David Oyelowo stars as King, Tom Wilkinson is President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Tim Roth is George Wallace. 

It’s slow to get going and I wasn’t especially engaged until the second half. I would have liked more about MLK’s family – the kids are barely seen or mentioned, and even the scenes with his wife Coretta (Carmen Ejogo) seem to lack dynamism. There's too much of King the legend and not enough about the man, who must have felt so conflicted as he surely knew he wouldn’t be around for long.

The Debt (2010)

Remake of a 2007 Israeli film called Ha-Hov. 

In 1965, three young Mossad agents attempt to capture a Nazi war criminal called Dieter Vogel. Their plans go wrong and he escapes. The agents choose to give a false account of what happened and live with that lie permanently. That is, until Vogel shows up 30 years later and their deception risks being exposed. 

This is an excellent drama that successfully tells parallel stories separated by three decades. It’s centred on Rachel, who is believably played by Jessica Chastain in the 1960s scenes and Helen Mirren in the 1990s sequences. Sam Worthington and Ciarán Hinds both play David Peretz, while Marton Csokas and Tom Wilkinson both play Stefan Gold.

Jesper Christensen is suitably creepy as the so-called “Surgeon of Birkenau”.

The Debt asks deep questions about morality, and the plot is pleasingly unpredictable. It's scary, too.

Duplicity (2009)

Former CIA and MI6 secret agents Claire (Julia Roberts) and Ray (Clive Owen) work as corporate spies. They become romantically involved and decide to pair up as a team. The stakes are raised when they have the chance to earn themselves $35 million, but the problem is that they simply cannot trust each other. There are hints of The Thomas Crown Affair, but it’s less skilfully handled. 

It’s nearly an engaging comedy thriller, but the “funny” bits really aren’t funny enough. Also, there are so many bluffs and double-bluffs that it can be tricky to follow. Ultimately, the whole scam scenario is so unlikely that it’s difficult to believe. 

Owen and Roberts always appeal but they can’t really shine in such a self-consciously tricksy, disjointed narrative. In fact, the film’s flaws are built in from the very beginning: the characters have a deliberate coldness to indicate their professionalism and mutual distrust. But that coldness makes them – and their story – a lot harder to like. One solution would have been to spice up their encounters with a little more passion (which worked in The Thomas Crown Affair), but Duplicity, which has a “12” certificate, opts not to take that route. 

On the plus side, it’s refreshing to see a thriller that doesn’t include any guns or killing.

Michael Clayton (2007)

Confusing “corporate wrongdoing” thriller starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton. 

I found the plot needlessly complicated, with a few loose ends, and the “four days earlier” contrivance made that worse.

Clooney is always highly watchable, even if his perfect, unruffled hair looks too good to be true. Tom Wilkinson is compelling as an attorney in the middle of a mental meltdown.

But storytelling that loses you so early on can be frustrating to play catch-up with, and for that reason I never felt fully engrossed.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

A man and woman undergo special treatment to have their painful memories of each other erased so that they can forget the suffering they endured when their relationship broke down. But, mid-procedure, the man realises he’s making a mistake and tries to hang on to what remains of his precious recollections of the person he still loves. 

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are endearing in the lead roles, and their opposites-attract romance is offbeat and believable. What spoils the film is that the visual representation of memory – much of the story takes place in Jim Carrey’s mind – seems gimmicky and over-stylised. I appreciate that they were looking for a cinematic style that could resemble the way memories appear to us, but the fast-cut visuals are so full-on and relentless that they get in the way of the story. It could have been a far stronger film if the narrative and the editing allowed for some slower scenes that gave us the space to get to know the couple better. Indeed, the rare moments when they are simply talking or enjoying being together make up the best parts of the story. 

Oddly enough, a sub-plot about the boss of the company offering memory removal (Tom Wilkinson) and a woman who works for him (Kirsten Dunst) is better handled because it unfolds at a more natural pace. 

It’s so nearly brilliant, but the execution gets in the way. It’s a shame because the idea is a great one, and it enables the film to consider all sorts of ethical and even spiritual issues about identity and how much our pasts define who we are.

Denial (2016)

Gripping account of the high-profile London court case between US historian Deborah Lipstandt and David Irving, the Holocaust denier who filed a libel suit against her.

Based on Lipstandt's memoir, History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving, this film is presented from her point of view. She’s played, fairly convincingly, by Rachel Weisz. Irving is played by Timothy Spall, who – in a transfixing performance – alternates between character traits that seem almost charming, a bit mad and quite terrifying. Both of these actors do wonders with what must have been extremely difficult material. Tom Wilkinson and Andrew Scott (who was “C” in the Bond film Spectre) play her heavy-drinking barrister and clinical-but-brilliant solicitor.

It’s a taut legal drama in which the stakes are incredibly high: if Irving had won, it would have given Holocaust denial far greater cultural weight. It’s also a personal drama about a writer who has to let go of what she believes most strongly and place all her trust in her team to seek justice.