This is my review of We Have A Pope [DVD].

During the film the audience around me laughed continually, the opening scenes of red-robed cardinals filing in to vote on the next pope are very striking, and the end of the film is well-judged and moving. The basic plot idea is good: an unassuming old prelate, sensitively played by the octogenarian Michel Piccoli, prays not to be elected pope, which seems unlikely in view of the odds. When his worst fear is realised, he suffers a panic attack on the famous balcony, seconds before his announcement to a vast, eager crowd. A celebrated psychoanalyst, who happens to be an atheist, is called in to cure him, but the reluctant pontiff succeeds in escaping into the Rome crowds.

At this point, the plot loses its way. Despite the many amusing incidents and some expressive acting, it is unclear whether the film is meant to be pure comedy and farce – as in the overlong and therefore tedious scene where the psychoanalyst organises a volleyball championship to keep the cardinals occupied while held in seclusion pending the pope’s reappearance – or an attempt to explore deeper issues beneath a light-hearted veneer. It therefore misses the mark on both counts. What is the director’s intended message? He portrays a church steeped in magnificent but archaic and empty ritual, bedevilled with cynical politicking and obscene wealth, not to mention the self-indulgent, elderly male cardinals, yet I don’t think the film is meant to be anti-Catholic.

The film is certainly about a simple man’s sense of unworthiness but fails to develop this. The unwilling pope demonstrates himself time and time again not to be up to the job, which makes for a thin drama. I expected that he would show himself to be a truly good man, assisting the ordinary people he encounters with his wisdom. Instead, he appears self-absorbed, petulant under pressure and clinically depressed. Far from experiencing the lives of ordinary, real people, he gets mixed up in a theatrical troupe spouting Chekhov and it turns out he would really like to have been an actor but was rejected for drama school – another jibe at the catholic priesthood, it seems.

I do not object to the prominent role the director has given himself as the flamboyant psychiatrist, but it might have been better if he had remained in the wings to take stock of the film’s intended and actual impact.

This is my review of Les émotifs anonymes (FR IMPORT).

Titled “Romantics Anonymous” in English, this short film introduces us to Jean-René, the chronically shy owner of a failing chocolate factory who pays regular visits to a shrink in an attempt to overcome his inability to relate to others. He hires Angélique, a hypersensitive young woman, as a totally unsuitable sales rep, not realising that she possesses a rare talent for making irresistible chocolates which can save his business. Unable to cope with personal recognition and being the centre of attention, she has managed to pass herself off as a mere go-between ferrying what have become widely celebrated chocolates made by an imaginary elusive “hermit” to a confectioner who is “in” on her secret but whose death has forced her to seek another job.

In this short, lightweight comedy, much of the humour revolves around Jean-René trying to fulfil basic tasks to develop his social skills: steeling himself to touch people, or to take Angelique out for a meal. We realise why he brings a suitcase to the restaurant and hides it in the gents: he needs to rush off every few minutes to change his shirt, as he is “burning up” over the stress of the meeting.

Similarly, we see Angélique taking her problems to a support group full of ironical situations, such as when the girl who “can’t say no” proudly tells the others that she has managed to resist a man’s advances, only for it to become sadly apparent that she has destroyed what sounds like a genuine relationship which she should have encouraged.

The incidents are too exaggerated for anyone to take offence over laughing at what is in fact a real problem for many people. Overall, the film is quite well-made, and it is all “wonderfully French” apart from the jarring, glaringly inappropriate English pop music inserted to cover some scenes.

Can Jean-René overcome his gaucheness sufficiently to stop driving Angélique away because she thinks she has “done something wrong”? Can two such emotional people find happiness together? The outcome is not really in doubt. If it all sounds too trivial, you can at least take the opportunity to practise your French comprehension.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

This is my review of The Deep Blue Sea [2011] [DVD].

Although I was expecting a brittle and dated unhappy love affair, this remake of Rattigan's play proves quite moving up to a point. Set around 1950, the film starts with the attempted suicide of Hester Collyer, privileged wife of a high court judge who has sacrificed her reputation and material comforts to live in a dreary flat with Freddie, a former wartime pilot who beneath his charming veneer is finding it hard to adjust to a mundane life in civvy street .

The plot gradually reveals through a series of flashbacks how Hester has been reduced to despair. At first, it is hard to understand how this beautiful young woman could have married such a stiff man as William Collyer, not to mention the fact he is old enough to be her father. Then we wonder how such a cultured woman can be so infatuated with a man like Freddie who, apart from his thoughtless neglect of her, prefers downing pints and singing along in a working class pub to visiting an art gallery with her or listening to classical music. Is it just a question of passion and lust, applied through fate to a man who cannot make her happy in the long-term?

Although acted with great sensitivity by Rachel Weisz, Hester is an odd mixture of sophisticated self-possession and neediness, and comes across at times as just a "poor little rich girl". By contrast, the two men, ably played by Simon Russell Beale and newcomer Tom Hiddleston reveal complex reactions in a way that eventually arouses as much, if not more, sympathy.

The set plays close attention to period detail, although the Barber score at the beginning is too loud and intrusive, as is too often the case with films, and the flashback to people taking refuge in an underground station during the Blitz is too much of a romanticised tableau.

A modern version of the theme of a married woman forming a passionate physical attachment to an "unsuitable" man is covered with more depth and subtlety in "Leaving", the French drama starring Kristin Scott Thomas. "The Deep Blue Sea" left me feeling rather sad, but a little dissatisfied as if Rattigan's drama had not achieved its potential.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

This is my review of The Ides of March [DVD].

What do you do if your idol seems to have feet of clay? How do you take revenge and at what price when others try to destroy your prospects to protect their own?

Ambitious yet idealistic young press manager Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) is convinced that he has found a man he can trust and admire in the form of Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney), a charismatic, liberal Democrat candidate running for the US Presidency.

For all his confidence and self-assurance, Stephen has a lot to learn about the ruthless tactics of those who have been in the game longer. Matters begin to go awry when the main Democrat rival's strategist, Duffy, makes a bid for Stephen's talents. Morris's campaign manager, Zara, sets a surprisingly high store by loyalty and a pushy journalist, Ida Horowicz, adds to Stephen's problems. There are tense encounters with sharp dialogue delivered by some great actors, not least Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti in the roles of Zara and Duffy. A further twist is provided by Stephen's unwise affair with a beautiful young intern.

The storyline is slow-paced at first, with a good deal of mumbled jargon likely to make a non-American viewer long for subtitles, although one can get the gist. The plot speeds up and becomes gripping, then ends abruptly, leaving you first surprised, then caught up in considering the issues raised before the inevitable "but what about?" questions surface as you begin to see flaws in the plot.

Overall, this is an absorbing political drama about issues of loyalty, how the desire for power corrupts, to what extent the ends justify the means. The modern fable raises some complex moral issues and leaves you to decide what is likely to happen next and why.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of Leaving [DVD] [2009].

This is a fresh and moving take on the familiar theme of an unfulfilled woman sacrificing family and properous home for her obsession with an unsuitable lover. We expect tragedy from the opening scene of Suzanne, played as subtly as ever by Kristin Scott Thomas, slipping out of bed and out of sight, only for us to hear a gunshot. The film is never tedious or depressing because of the well-paced plot and clearly drawn characters.

Our sympathies are divided. We feel for Suzanne as she seeks happiness away from her controlling husband, even though we know that she is being devious, selfish and on a practical note ill-advised in choosing an unsuitable lover in the shape of a "bit of rough" immigrant handyman with a prison record, with whom she has little in common apart from sex and whom she at times seems to manipulate for her own advantage, not considering the risks she is asking him to run on her behalf. Her actions, well-intentioned or criminal, tend to have unintended damaging consequences.

On the other hand, although he rides roughshod over his wife's needs, one feels for the husband who understandably in some ways tries to use his position of power and influence to cling on to the wife he wants to possess, and may genuinely love.

We also empathise with the lover, vulnerable despite his physical strength, and with Suzanne's teenage children, torn between their parents' distress, all put under pressure in the chain of events.

In short, this is an intriguing drama of complex emotions, well-acted, with an unpredictable twist at the end.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

This is my review of Oranges and Sunshine [DVD].

The cruel deception of thousands of British children in care, misinformed that they were orphans and then transported to Australia as a cost-saving policy continued until as recently as 1970. A documentary of this would be shocking enough, but the director Jim Loach, carrying on his father Ken's tradition, achieves an even more powerful effect by making this a docudrama.

Emily Watson gives a convincing and moving performance as the determined real-life social worker Margaret Humphreys who discovered by chance that this injustice existed, and that many children had suffered hardship, even abuse, providing cheap labour for the Christian Brothers in Australia. Her establishment of the Child Migrants Trust has helped to put many naturalised Australians back in touch with their birth parents in Britain after decades of separation, but the indelible effects of childhood trauma often remain. We see the irony that Humphreys' dedication to making amends for the cruelty of others was often at the expense of giving enough time to her own children.

This thought-provoking and well-made film is worth seeing. It may leave you depressed for a while but we can't pretend ostrich-like that this never happened.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of Mammuth [DVD] [2010].

Forced to retire from his job at a meatpacking firm, Serge (Gerard Depardieu), a bloated, mammouth-like former hippy biker, long hair still straggling down his back in greying locks, is at a loss how to spend his time, and is reduced to petty wrangling with the supermarket assistant on the cooked meat counter.

After a life of dead end jobs, his pension record is patchy, and his wife Catherine (Yolande Moreau) sends him off on the bike he hasn't ridden for years to obtain evidence of past employment to fill the gaps. There follows a sequence of amusing or poignant scenes, involving meetings with unsympathetic bosses or puzzling round buildings long ago changed to an unfamiliar use, culminating in Serge's meeting with the artistic, and probably also autistic daughter of a former friend. At this point, I thought Serge begins to recover a sense of his lost youth, or perhaps a period of liberation he has never had. Like a motorcycle out of control, the story does not end here but careers on in ever more fanciful images. We see a naked Depardieu squatting at the side of a pool – leaving me only with the sense that it must be the mark of a great actor to be capable of such unashamed lack of inhibition. Returning from his travels in a flowing caftan, arms spread wide in a universal blessing, he seems to have had some kind of revelation, but what does it all mean? Perhaps you may feel intrigued to watch this and tell me.

⭐⭐ 2 Stars