Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher’s highly skilled dramatisation of the remarkable true story about the so-called “Zodiac killer”, who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Mark Ruffalo plays the cop investigating. Robert Downey Jr is a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle. And Jake Gyllenhaal is Robert Graysmith, a cartoonist at the same paper who becomes obsessed with the case and intent on solving it, no matter what.

Ruffalo and Gyllenhaal are such sensitive performers that they build huge depth into their characters. Downey Jr. is less impressive. Nothing wrong with him as such, but he makes less of an impact.

I like the way the film charts the passing years, and keeps the narrative on the ongoing quest to resolve the case rather than veering off too much into the personal soap operas of the main characters' changing lives. 

The Last Legion (2007)

It’s not specifically marketed at children, but this action-adventure romp directed by Doug Lefler is certainly well-suited to the younger viewer. 

Thomas Sangster plays Romulus Augustulus, who is descended from the Caesar bloodline when his parents are killed. He is taken in by the kindly Aurelianus Ambrosius (Colin Firth) and Mira (Aishwarya Rai), and guided by the wise – and oddly bearded – Ambrosinus (Ben Kingsley). 

It’s quite entertaining in a fairly silly manner. The only real criticism is that Sangster could’ve been more of a hero, instead of someone that things merely happen to. That way, you might have found yourself actually rooting for him.

Persuasion (2007)

Excellent television adaptation of the 1817 novel by Jane Austen. Directed by Adrian Shergold, it transcends the usual limitations of TV drama.

There’s something very fresh and even raw about it – both visually and emotionally – and this makes it feel much more real. 

Sally Hawkins is superb as Anne Elliot, conveying a huge range of emotions with her face alone. Rupert Penry-Jones is fine as Captain Wentworth, but less impressive overall.

It's nice to see the familiar Bath city locations as well as a very cold-looking Lyme Regis.

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

Light drama adapted from the novel by Karen Joy Fowler. A group of women (and one man) congregate monthly to discuss the novels of Jane Austen. They find the minutiae of relationships detailed in those books mirror their own love lives. 

The writing seems clever on one level – the intertextuality of plots – but the characters are mainly annoying. Especially unbearable is Kathy Baker as Bernadette, who knits a lot and looks smug, but isn’t given a plot thread of her own. 

Emily Blunt is probably the best of those in the ensemble cast, but even she is only given trite dialogue.

Music and Lyrics (2007)

Enjoyable romantic comedy directed by Marc Lawrence. 

A 1980s pop idol named Alex (Hugh Grant) is tasked with writing a song for a Shakira-like pop star of the present day (Haley Bennett). To achieve this he ends up collaborating with Sophie (Drew Barrymore), the slightly eccentric woman who comes round to water his plants. 

Plot-wise it might sound silly (and indeed it is), but Hugh ’n’ Drew have real chemistry. Also, they get to reel off some genuinely funny lines. 

The film seems to lose its way a little about two thirds of the way through, with a couple of rather misjudged scenes. For example, why does Sophie take a box of biscuits to the party? It seems to be setting up a joke, but there’s no pay off. Was a vital bit of the script cut at the last minute?

Thankfully, the film recovers before the end. 

Kristen Johnston is easy to like as Rhonda, Sophie’s sister. Grant is surprisingly effective as a pop star, and his song and dance routines are all quirky and enjoyable.

88 Minutes (2007)

Preposterous thriller directed by Jon Avnet. 

Al Pacino stars as famed forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm, who is suddenly faced with a new murder that resembles the ones from his past that led to him putting away serial killer Jon Forster (Neal McDonough), who is now on Death Row. Then Gramm gets a phone call telling him he has 88 minutes to live… 

The premise is a strong one, and Pacino cannot help but be anything except extremely charismatic, but the film just doesn’t work. The action is meant to occur in almost real time, but so many of the episodes shown would have taken much longer than the narrative allows them. Crossing a concourse, driving across town, going up in a lift: all of these things take more time than the few minutes the plot allows for them. And for some of that time, he doesn’t even seem in a hurry.

The story logic is pushing it, but just about holds together. But it’s still deeply odd, and only works if you accept that Pacino hangs around with young girls all the time.

I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007)

Witty romantic comedy directed and written by Amy “Clueless” Heckerling.

Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is a TV scriptwriter. Adam (Paul Rudd) is an actor who comes to work on the show she writes. There’s a big age difference between them. 

There are some funny lines and there’s obviously a lot of intelligence in the Hollywood satire. Overall, though, it doesn’t quite work. The “magical” thread in which Tracey Ullman plays Mother Nature isn’t funny enough to work, and seems like a leftover from a different kind of story concept. Also, it sometimes seems too knowingly crammed full of industry in-jokes and references that aren't directed at the wider public. A cameo by Henry “Fonz” Winkler is thrown in with little effect.

It's visually distinctive, with super-bright, bleached-out lighting. It's notable, too, for the number of British actors, from Graham Norton to Sarah Alexander, and also for the inclusion of several songs on the soundtrack by The Cure.

Premonition (2007)

Sandra Bullock stars in this mystery thriller directed by Mennan Yapo. 

Linda is told that her husband has died in a car crash. When she wakes up the next morning, he’s still alive and it’s as if nothing has happened. But then she wakes up again and he’s still dead. Is she dreaming? Is she losing her mind? This alternating pattern repeats itself, with Linda trying to piece together which of these realities is real while simultaneously trying to prevent her husband from dying. 

There are elements of Groundhog Day and Memento about it, but the premise is intriguingly original and I was fascinated to see how it would play out. 

Premonition touches on themes of freewill and determinism, love and trust, faith and belief. 

The semi-religious aspects that develop towards the end made me wonder if it was funded by the Catholic church.

The Heartbreak Kid (2007)

Crass, unfunny comedy starring Ben Stiller as a man who marries a woman he’s not suited to (Malin Åkerman) only to then meet the woman of his dreams (Michelle Monaghan). 

It’s almost entirely devoid of humour. There are “jokes” at the expense of gay people, fat people and Mexicans. Even worse is a section in which Stiller attempts to cross the US border illegally. This ends up troubling and not remotely amusing.  

Stiller and Monaghan are OK and nearly develop some chemistry, but the ugly sentiments of the script deny them any real depth or warmth.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

Directed by Ben Affleck, and based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, this is a brilliant, extremely gritty thriller that’s also a moving domestic drama. 

Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan play a couple who agree to investigate a missing girl in a poor part of Boston. They do so in parallel with the police, who are led by Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman. 

There are plenty of surprises as the plot twists and turns, but the resolution is satisfying and none of the threads collapse under scrutiny – as tends to happen with lesser storylines. 

One criticism: a lot of the dialogue is difficult to make out.

Hot Fuzz (2007)

Police Officer Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) is sent away from London, for being too good at his job and showing up his colleagues. Transferred to the sleepy village of Sandford, Gloucestershire, he expects a frustratingly quiet life with his amateurish partner Police Constable Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). But inevitably there’s far more going on there than he realises. 

This is a comedy from the same team behind Shaun of the Dead, and it's almost as sharp. Anyone who’s anyone in British acting/comedy pops up, including Bill Bailey, Jim Broadbent, Steve Coogan, Timothy Dalton, Martin Freeman, Stephen Merchant, Bill Nighy, Rafe Spall and Edward Woodward. 

It’s funny and silly, with a lot of jokes crammed in. Not all of them work, but there are enough that do to keep you entertained.

Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

Directed by Mike Nichols, this is based on a true story. 

A US congressman takes it upon himself to assist the Afghan troops suffering at the hands of Soviet invaders by raising the funds to equip them with weapons.

Tom Hanks is ideally cast as the charming, heavy-drinking Wilson. Julia Roberts is good as an influential socialite Joanne Herring, but doesn’t have enough scenes to really shine. Better is Amy Adams as Wilson's personal assistant Bonnie Bach. Philip Seymour Hoffman is charismatic as CIA operative Gust Avrakotos. Emily Blunt is weirdly underused in a role that gets very little screen time.

Hanks is deliberately ambiguous and the film steers clear of passing judgement on his character. The story is excellently told, so I’m not quite sure why I didn’t enjoy it more. Perhaps it's because it aims at comedy in places but could have been much funnier.

Atonement (2007)

Adaptation of Ian McEwan’s popular Booker-shortlisted novel. 

England, 1935. A precocious girl named Briony blames her sister’s lover (the housekeeper’s son) for a crime he didn’t commit. This simple act of immature cruelty has vast implications for the rest of their lives.

Briony is played by three actors – at the ages of 13 (Saoirse Ronan), 18 (Romola Garai) and as an elderly lady (Vanessa Redgrave). Keira Knightley plays her wronged sister and James McAvoy plays Knightley’s lover, sent first to prison and then off to war. Benedict Cummerbatch and Brenda Blethyn also feature. I’m not especially keen on the aesthetic, but the soundtrack – with rhythms built around the pounding of a typewriter – perfectly suits the mood and builds tension when needed. 

A lengthy, unedited shot showing the soldiers on the beaches at Dunkirk is incredibly panoramic and impressive.

The film cleverly jumps around in time and perspective, but the storytelling is so lucid that this never becomes tricksy or confusing. It tackles issues of class and social inequality, along with deeper questions about morality. It’s to the credit of McEwan and director Joe Wright that no easy answers are given and religion doesn’t even get a look in. There’s no easy “forgiveness” to be had here. The bleaker message is that you can spend a lifetime atoning for a moment’s misjudgement and never erase the damage you have done.

Black Book (2007)

Towards the end of World War II, a singer named Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) attempts to flee the Nazis in the Netherlands. She is tricked by a traitor who has set a trap for those escaping, and her family are killed. Joining the Dutch resistance movement and adopting a new identity, she becomes a spy, tasked with getting close to SS commander Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch) to gain access to strategic information. But matters are complicated when she develops real feelings for Müntze.

This is a brilliant thriller, with so many twists and turns – as various betrayals and double crossings abound – that it makes your head spin. 

Carice van Houten is superb in the lead role and by making her relationships with both sides believable the film does a good job of blurring the good/evil divide and building in shades of grey.

Director Paul Verhoeven moves away from the gleefully violent style of RoboCop and Starship Troopers, but his accomplished storytelling is still evident. 

The only criticism is that the final scene (set on a kibbutz in 1956) doesn’t make much sense without any historical context.

Once (2007)

Sweetly touching drama set in Dublin. 

An ambitious busker in his thirties (Glen Hansard) meets a Czech girl in her twenties (Markéta Irglová), and they are mutually attracted – despite complicated romantic histories. He was cheated on by his girlfriend, while she was left to care for her baby after her husband left her. They grow closer through a shared passion for music, and begin coming to terms with the past.

It works because it seems so incredibly real. That’s partly because of the low budget and partly because of the high quality of the actors and the script. The songs are perfectly suited to the story, too. Irglová is particularly compelling. She conveys so much depth in her facial expressions alone. And her shy, understated dialogue has the ring of truth – for example, a scene in which they discuss a final meeting that she declines: “We’d just hanky panky if I come now…And that would be nice…Very interesting.”

It’s full of surprising, funny and revealing moments like this. And it’s emotionally rich and open without resorting to sentimentality or standard “love story” tropes.

It was later adapted into a stage play, which I saw performed in London, but the film feels more fresh and original.

American Gangster (2007)

Biographical drama by Ridley Scott. 

Russell Crowe plays Richie Roberts, a detective trying to track down and capture the gangster Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington). Lucas has made his fortune by smuggling heroin into the USA on military planes servicing the Vietnam War. 

The historical context is interesting and the film gets better as it progresses, but I found that the first half dragged. Crowe is always captivating, but Washington doesn’t boast the kind of charisma that his character would surely have needed to be such a powerful and controlling figure. 

Not up to Ridley Scott’s usual levels of skilled storytelling.

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.

Flood (2007)

Disaster film. 

A storm surge causes flooding and mass destruction in London. Robert Carlyle has to save the city with the help of his estranged father (Tom Courtenay) and his estranged wife (Jessalyn Gilsig). 

It’s nice to see familiar locations such as the Thames Barrier, but unfortunately – despite moments of genuinely gripping drama – parts of the film are unintentionally funny. There’s something oddly stilted and false about the whole thing, with a TV-like quality to the way it’s filmed and directed. It’s like an extended episode of Casualty. Nigel Planer is especially awkward as a guilt-ridden forecaster for the Met Office.

Enjoyably daft as it is, you're left wondering how the film attracted so many relatively big names. David Suchet, Joanne Whalley and Tom Hardy also pop up with varying levels of success.

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Western. 

Arizona, 1884. Christian Bale plays Dan Evans, a rancher who – desperate for money – takes on a job escorting a dangerous criminal named Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to the train that will transport him to Yuma Territorial Prison. There, he will be hung. But Wade is a psychopath with an uncanny intelligence and has other ideas. 

Crowe is absolutely perfect for the role because the plot hinges on the power of his charisma and magnetism. He bewitches those around him and somehow gets inside their minds, like a cowboy version of Hannibal Lector. 

Adapted from a short story by Elmore Leonard and directed by James Mangold, it’s excellently paced and visually impressive. There are strong performances by Ben Foster (as a truly nasty member of Wade’s gang), Logan Lerman (as Evans' teenage son) and Gretchen Mol (as Evans’ wife). Peter Fonda also appears.

I’m Not There (2007)

Impressionistic sort-of biopic of Bob Dylan starring six different actors, each representing different aspects of Bob’s personality. 

Fragments of Dylan lyrics and interviews are interwoven into the dialogue in a way that’s sometimes cryptic, sometimes obvious. 

It’s clearly meant to be as slippery and chameleonic as Dylan himself, but somehow it doesn’t come together. The Cate Blanchett sections are compelling enough that you wish director Todd Haynes had made an entire film with her as Dylan (he directed her again in Carol), but the passages with Richard Gere are baffling and rather dull. 

Christian Bale is the only other “Dylan” that works. I was less impressed by Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw. One other highlight is Julianne Moore as Alice Fabian, a “folksinger and activist” presumably based on Joan Baez. 

It confirmed two things about Bob Dylan I already knew:

• He’s complex and difficult to pin down

• He wrote some great songs

But beyond that it told me very little.