This is my review of Fences [DVD + Digital Copy] [2017].

Retaining the script and staged quality of the original theatre play, but capturing in its street scenes and domestic interiors the atmosphere of 1950s suburban Pittsburgh, this film revolves around Troy, the garbage collector with some understandable but mighty chips on his shoulder: only white men are allowed to drive the vans which he has to ride hanging on to the open back, and his glory days as a baseball player occurred when the teams were segregated. One may admire his rash persistence in claiming the right to work as a driver, but will he be satisfied if he obtains it? Is his harsh treatment of his younger son the result of a brutal upbringing which denied him a good role model of how to be a father, or has he fallen prey to jealousy of the boy’s easier path to becoming a successful footballer? He clearly loves his wife, willingly handing over his pay cheque each week, but can he resist the temptation to betray her, and will he acknowledge and take responsibility for his weakness? At times, he shows great compassion for the pathetic brother injured in battle, but has he taken financial advantage of him?

The garden fence which Troy never quite gets round to completing is the metaphor for the barriers he erects in his life. Troy is clearly a complex, flawed man, so is he fated to sink into self-destructive failure or achieve some ultimate positive resolution?

Although I understand why Denzel Washington hoped for an Oscar in his demanding part, dominating the screen in virtually every scene, I found it hard to catch all the meaning of his passionate rants. By contrast, most of the strong supporting actors were very clear, notably the elder son who had suffered his father’s neglect, and the long-suffering wife, played by the brilliant Viola Davis.

I agree with reviewers who feel that, although well-directed and acted with realism, the play itself, the intense, emotionally draining work of August Wilson, a kind of black Arthur Miller, leaves one feeling a little disappointed, I think because it makes its points early on, promises much in the build up, but tails off, losing its dramatic punch at the end.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of Viceroy’s House [DVD] [2017].

In the false calm before the carnage, we see the hundreds of servants in their immaculate “native” uniforms performing the symbolic pageantry of a declining Empire bent on withdrawing from a colony with dignity. I have no idea how faithful this film is to history, but when the world is still riven by fighting between religious factions, this film is a timely reminder of historical bungling from seventy years ago. Yet unlike many humanitarian disasters, it is unclear what actions could have been taken to avoid it.

Hugh Bonneville is well-cast as Lord Mountbatten, the affable, unflappable negotiator brought in to pour oil on the tense meetings between the two adversaries Nehru and Jinnah, the one seeking liberty in the form of a united India, the other set on partition to permit the emergence of Pakistan as a Muslim state.

As British administrators indulge in heated debates as how best to stem the growing tide of unrest, they fail to notice the Indians in attendance hanging on on evey word, to pass on in whispers, only feeding the climate of prejudice and intolerance. The apparently illicit and futile love affair between a young Hindu and his longterm Muslim friend is a perhaps slightly sentimental metaphor for the problem of finding a solution.

In the film, the alleys of Delhi and the poor who throng them are impossibly clean and well-fed, and it must be hard to follow the arguments without prior knowledge of situation, as convincing lookalikes for the Oxbridge-educated Nehru, Jinnar and giggling, barefoot Gandhi make their appearances. Yet this is a visually impressive, well-acted, compelling film reminding us of a tragedy which time has eroded too quickly from memory: the massace of millions during the enforced displacement of 14 million Indians, and the terrible dilemma of having to choose quickly which country to join. There is also the twist at the end when we learn how Mountbatten himself may have been a mere pawn in a cynical exercise.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of Toni Erdmann [DVD] [2017].

In this offbeat farce with a serious message, artistic prankster Winfried Conradi is appalled to see how his daughter Ines has become a high-flying workaholic, driven to succeed in a ruthless, corporate world. This is a far cry from his own idealism and lack of materialism, born in a time when Germany was redefining its values after WW2. Ines is by turns embarrassed and furious when he gatecrashes her working life in Bucharest, where she is trying to negotiate a delicate contract which will involve handling the redundancies which will inevitably result from the reorganisation of Romanian oil production on efficient modern lines.

Winfried has been likened in appearance to Dame Edna Everage’s counterpart Les Patterson, but I have to confess being irritated by his trademark fake goofy teeth and mop-like wig. He struck me as the kind of attention-seeking unfunny would-be comic I would avoid like the plague in real life, making it hard to be convinced that there is supposed to be a wise, perceptive, right-thinking character underneath.

The acting is good, particularly the role of the tense Ines, whose sense of the ridiculous, which is perhaps inevitable in the child of such a father, nevertheless breaks through, even at inopportune moments.

This film has been highly praised by the critics, and certainly had many people roaring continually with laughter when I watched the film with a live audience. Yet for me, the film does not really “work”.

It is at least 45 minutes too long with some scenes so protracted, possibly in an attempt to immerse the audience in realism, that their initial dramatic impact is allowed to evaporate. Since the director apparently produced about 100 hours of footage, I appreciate that cutting it down to barely 3 hours must have been a challenge, but the lack of editing seriously weakens the film.

I admit that there are some moving moments, and that the main aim may be to explore the relationship between father and daughter, a serious theme leavened by a comic framework, but I am not sure that the film added much insight over the three hours. Although perhaps too different from her father ever to give up her career and become genuinely laid back, Ines shows from the outset that, despite her uptight exterior, she cannot help laughing at, even joining in, some of her father’s pranks, and is remarkably tolerant towards his excesses.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

This is my review of Manchester By The Sea [DVD].

Lee Chandler is forced to abandon his work as a Boston caretaker to deal with a family crisis back in the small town of Manchester on the New England coast, a far cry from its English namesake. Through a series of flashbacks, we gradually piece together the tragedy which destroyed his life as a loving family man, if over-fond of calling his mates round for drinking sessions into the small hours. We begin to understand what drove him away from Manchester in the first place, and numbed his emotions, so that they can only be expressed in occasional destructive outbursts.

Perhaps a little too slow-paced in parts, this realistic and subtle film, by turns painfully moving but also amusing, explores how people react to life stings and arrows. Lee has had more than his fair share of misfortune, and suffers from the inability to communicate his feelings, but his essential decency and perseverance arouse our sympathy and ultimately respect.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of La La Land [DVD] [2017].

If you watch this film only having heard the hype, you will be disappointed. It is best to approach it with no expectations, just curiosity as to why it has attracted so much attention. The plot is fairly thin, predictable and cheesy in places, and neither would-be trad jazz club owner Seb, nor aspiring Hollywood actress Mia can really sing, although Emma Stone seems to my untutored eye to dance quite well, and Ryan Gosling has achieved impressive mastery of the piano to play his part. You probably need to be a lover of big screen musicals really to appreciate this, although there is only one passable song and instrumental “love theme”.

La La Land is “book-ended” with two quite striking and ambitious dance sequences, there are some jazz pieces which might just enable someone like me to grasp what it is all about and the film is saved from utter vapidity by the bitter-sweet underlying message that following one’s dreams is necessary for personal fulfilment, but may be at a high price.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

This is my review of Tangerines [DVD].

This subtle, film, for the most part slow-paced and low-key, with occasional flashes of violent action, proves to be a searing indictment of war.

The outbreak of war in 1992-3 has driven away the expatriate Estonian community from a remote village in Abkhazia, a Russian-supported separatist enclave in Georgia. The political geography may be unfamiliar, but it is clear that only Margus has stayed behind to harvest his valuable tangerines, together with his carpenter friend Ivo who provides the wooden crates, but perhaps has an additional unrevealed reason for his reluctance to leave.

A shoot-out on their doorstep between two Muslim Chechen mercenaries fighting for the Abkhazian separatists and a trio of Georgians leaves only two injured survivors, one from each side. This is clearly a recipe for high tension, requiring all the pacifist Ivo’s skills to manage. Yet even as a bond forms between the four men, they are at risk from marauding bands of soldiers from both camps who may turn up at any moment, pumped up with adrenalin to shoot on the slightest pretext.

This film contrives to convey a sense of the value of rural life in its calm, natural rhythm, a growing empathy with all the four main protagonists, with their differing viewpoints and personalities, an awareness of the arbitrary nature of survival and conviction as to the utter folly and waste of war as it impinges on innocent parties.

A near perfect film in its development of characters and storyline, with excellent, naturalistic acting, this is all the more striking for being unexpected and deserves to be more widely seen.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Stars

This is my review of Denial [DVD].

Since it is widely known that historian David Irving lost his libel suit against the Jewish American academic Deborah Lipstadt who had branded him a “Holocaust denier” in her book published by Penguin, I was at first reluctant to watch a film on a harrowing theme about which I considered myself already reasonably well informed.

In fact, I gained quite a few fresh insights from what proved to be a well-acted fact-based drama with a powerful script by David Hare, which manages to both moving and peppered with wry humour.

A feisty and outspoken woman, Deborah is perplexed to discover that, under English law, the burden of proof rests on the defendant, so her lawyers must satisfy the judge that Irving lied in his work, deliberately distorting evidence to show Hitler in an unduly favourable light and to present false evidence to “prove” the Holocaust had never occurred. Deborah’s outrage boils over when it becomes clear that, not only is she to be prevented from taking the stand, but the concentration camp survivors desperate to honour the memory of the dead by giving evidence will also be excluded. The lawyers know that a dispassionate approach, using painstaking historial research to find the flaws in Irvine’s work, will prove more effective than emotional scenes which Irvine, who is representing himself, will twist into theatre to play to the gallery.

The screenplay avoids the pitfalls of getting bogged down in a morass of detail, with a focus in the trial scenes focus on a few striking pieces of evidence to give a flavour of the complex proceedings.

I realised for the first time that the existence of gas chambers at Auschwitz is hard to prove, since the Germans bulldozed them causing barrister Richard Rampton to exclaim in despair over the lack of impartial, systematic forensic analysis of the site over the half century following the Holocaust. So, for instance, mavericks have been able to concoct false analysis of the levels of Zyklon B in the brickwork.

There is a double denial in the title: not merely Irving’s deceit, but the fact that, to gain justice, holocaust victims must remain silent while the legal team ferrets out the points which will discredit Irving.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of Sully: Miracle On The Hudson [DVD + Digital Download] [2017].

This film may be most dramatic for those who have not heard of the US passenger plane which in January 2009 was forced to make an emergency landing in the near freezing waters of the Hudson River, too close for comfort to the densely built up centre of New York. Both engines shut down on impact with a flock of Canada geese, but the skilled pilot Sullenberger (“Sully”) judged correctly that there was insufficient time to reach a nearby runway.

Clint Eastwood, who has proved a skilled director, saw the potential of the celebrated pilot’s memoirs to produce the kind of drama which will make the most nonchalant air passenger a little apprehensive on his or her next flight. Since the survival of all 155 passengers is still widely remembered, the interest lies in developing the technical and psychological aspects of the story. So we see the outwardly cool and collected Sully suffering stress-induced nightmares and visions of the plane crashing 9-11-style into a Manhattan skyscraper. Even if not prepared to admit to any doubts, he is inevitably forced to question the soundness of his actions by the initial report that one of the engines was in fact working. Has he put lives at risk needlessly?

Yet, although there is compelling drama in the scenes of terrified passengers bracing themselves as the plane hurtles towards the water, or forced out to totter on the wings, awaiting rescue, the film, despite being relatively short at 90 plus minutes, often seems essentially quite thin in content. The heavy reliance on flashbacks is fine, but the repetition of some scenes, however dramatic, Sully’s frequent banal telephone conversations with his anxious wife and shots of his younger self learning to fly or succeeding in a difficult landing often seem like efforts to pad the film out.

The tension between the media adulation of Sully’s achievement and the speed with which a censorious National Transportation Safety Board latches on to the charge of pilot error may have been exaggerated to make the story more gripping. However, when I read the details of the real events online, I was surprised that more drama was not made of the recorded details of the rescue. It bothered me that passengers were shown leaving the plane without life-jackets, unless lucky enough to catch one thrown by the cabin crew, a woman even falling into the water with a jacket hooked precariously over one arm. If the evacuation was performed as shown, it would seem that the cabin crew for whom the pilot was responsible were at fault. This is an interesting twist, but unfair if untrue.

Although the graphics used to show the emergency landing are impressive and the technical details to do with use of flight simulators to recreate the forced landing are interesting, dialogues are sometimes hard to hear, and overall the film lacks the spark it could have had. I would as soon have seen a good documentary on the incident.

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Stars

This is my review of A United Kingdom [DVD].

This heart-warming story of the power of love and clear-sighted integrity in the face of prejudice and ill-judged political expediency is worth reviving at a time when many people are too young to remember the true events on which it is based.

When London office worker Ruth Williams fell in love with a black African student who shared her love of dancing to jazz music, she did not realise what problems would be posed by his role as future King of Bechuanaland, a British Protectorate on the borders of South Africa, which was in the process of developing apartheid.

The film is effective in showing the flowering of a romance based on deep-rooted love and the couple’s shifting emotions of shock, despair, anger and defiance as the two find themselves caught between racism and hostility in both white and black communities resistant to change. It conveys a strong sense of place in foggy post-war London and the semi-arid African plains. We see how Ruth gradually begins to forge relationships with the local people, who are perhaps a little too good – gentle and law-abiding – to be true.

The drama is less successful in charting a coherent course through the political shenanigans, as entertaining but stereotyped British diplomats try to cajole, bully and trick the pair into giving up a marriage thought likely to stir up local unrest, or worse still threaten UK access to South Africa’s supplies of diamonds and uranium. Since in real life the couple were exiled from Bechuanaland for several years, perhaps the filmmakers feared the narrative would lose pace unless events were concertinaed somewhat. The weakest scenes are those involving poor look-alikes for British ministers gabbling lines at each other to explain complex geo-politics to the audience, on a set which looks nothing like the House of Commons, as intended.

Such a fascinating story does not need much tinkering to hold our interest. If anything, the film underplays Seretse Kharma’s achievement in developing an independent, much more prosperous and relatively free from corruption African country, renamed Botswana, one of the tragic continent’s few success stories.

The film inspired me to familiarise myself with the details of the original true story, is a salutary reminder of the extent to which attitudes have changed over the past sixty years, and reminds one of the overall benefits of a tolerant, open-minded society – also of the important link between individual freedom and democracy of which we may be in danger of losing sight.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars

This is my review of The Innocents [Blu-ray].

The setting is rural Poland in the aftermath of World War Two. Unable to bear any long the anguished cries of pain which the pure-voiced chanting cannot drown out, a young nun tramps through the snow to the French Red Cross hospital to seek help, with the insistence that the Polish Catholic authorities must not get to hear of it. When a young French nurse called Mathilde is eventually prevailed upon to drive to the convent, she discovers that not only is one nun in labour, but that several others are heavily pregnant, having been raped by boorish Soviet Russian soldiers. As an atheist from a communist-sympathising background, it is hard for Mathilde to comprehend that, far from being supportive, the Catholic Church would close the convent down, causing hardship to all the nuns, who would also be rejected by their families, if the truth ever became known. A further frustration is that the nuns believe it a sin to remove their clothing, let alone be touched, as part of the essential business of giving them medical aid. If the mothers can be saved, what is to be done with the children? At what price should one place religious belief or duty over acts of basic humanity or the expression of natural human emotion?

What could be an unbearably harrowing tale is made a memorable and thought-provoking film through the well-developed plot, focusing on a few specific, clearly drawn personalities to show different points of view as events unfold. The scenes are very convincing in their apparent authenticity, the French Director Anne Fontaine having undertaken very thorough research of the real-life situations on which the film is based. There is a striking contrast between the convent and the hospital. In the former, calm routine prevails against the odds, with Mathilde finding herself moved by the beauty of the singing, but fear, grief and violence keep breaking through the delusion that rules and rituals can carry on as normal. In the crowded hospital with its makeshift operating theatre, Mathilde and the Jewish doctor who fancies her work to the point of exhaustion, then seek release in dancing, drinking vodka and casual sex in the knowledge that, in a few weeks, they maybe posted on separate ways. Meanwhile, the orphaned street children sell cigarettes for coins and clamber over a coffin for fun. The film may suggest that the flawed, secular world is more honest and humane, but the young nun Maria’s ability to maintain both her faith and her integrity support the other side of the argument.

The direction seems flawless apart from the details of a few scenes which I found confusing since the nuns tend to look so similar in their habits. The film has been criticised for a failure to analyse issues in depth and for a rather saccharine ending. Instead, I felt that the Director takes the mature approach of sparking questions in our minds, but leaving it to us to formulate our own answers, while the ending is merely a convenient stopping point, with much yet to be resolved.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Stars