Review: Paddington 2 (UK Cert PG)

Three years on from the first film, the marmalade-loving little bear is back on the big screen with another madcap adventure. 

Paddington is settled with the Brown family and has become a popular member of the Windsor Gardens community (well, with everyone except the curmudgeonly Mr Curry). When on the look-out for the perfect birthday present for Aunt Lucy, he finds an old pop-up book in Mr Gruber's antique shop and resolves to get a job to pay for it. However, the book is stolen- and Paddington ends up in prison. It's down to the Browns to prove Paddington's innocence and find the real culprit. 

One word kept going through my head as I watched Paddington 2. Charming. The whole endeavour is absolutely charming. I'd say it's nigh-on impossible to leave the cinema without a warm, fuzzy glow and a smile on your face after seeing this film. 

It's impossible not to warm to Paddington's naively optimistic view of the world. He's a true believer in the good in people and, even when things prove otherwise, he still holds on to that thought. Ben Whishaw's wonderfully light and earnest voice performance really helps to sell that. Hugh Bonneville and Sally Hawkins are great as Mr and Mrs Brown, while Julie Walters gives a warm performance as Scottish housekeeper Mrs Bird. 

Hugh Grant seems to be having a ball as the flamboyantly villainous Phoenix Buchanan, a West End actor reduced to doing dog food commercials. He thinks the pop-up book is a treasure map to reveal a lost fortune, which will restore him to his rightful place on the stage in a one-man show. He makes for a wonderfully unctuous villain. Brendan Gleeson is similarly great as hardman Knuckles McGinty who Paddington meets in prison. 

There's an veritable cornucopia of British acting talent on display here, many in very minor roles: Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton, Eileen Atkins, Meera Syal, Joanna Lumley, Peter Capaldi, Jim Broadbent, Jessica Hynes and Richard Ayoade all make appearances, with a particularly good turn by Tom Conti as a grumpy High Court judge. 

The whole design of the film is also great, with some wonderful visual flourishes; in one sequence, Paddington imagines himself and Aunt Lucy in the pages of the pop-up book, visiting the sights. 

This is an utterly delightful film, with something for the whole family. Very enjoyable indeed.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Suffragette (UK Cert 12A)

It's a sobering thought to realise that the UK has only had universal suffrage for less than a hundred years. It was 1928 before all women over the age of 21 were allowed to vote; in 1918, women and men over 30 who met certain property criteria could vote. The suffragette movement, headed by Emmeline Pankhurst, would often use civil disobedience to make their points. Many suffragettes were imprisoned and several gave their lives for the cause. 

Written by Abi Morgan (Shame, The Iron Lady) and directed by Sarah Gavron, Suffragette tells the story of the women's suffrage movement through the prism of a fictional character, laundress Maud Watts (Carey Mulligan) who gets caught up in a suffragette riot on her way from work. She gradually becomes more involved in the movement which causes friction at home and work. Meanwhile, the suffragettes resort to more and more extreme measures to get their voices heard.

Mulligan's performance as Maud is just superb. Maud really goes through the wringer, imprisoned, beaten and (in one particularly unpleasant scene) force-fed, then ostracised from family and friends for daring to speak up. The irony is at the beginning Maud isn't at all interested. Mulligan has some great scenes opposite Ben Whishaw, who plays her husband Sonny, who is opposed to the movement. There's a particularly well-written scene where Maud asks Sonny what they would have called their child had it not been a boy. I fully expect to see Mulligan's name crop up in the upcoming awards season as this is a truly brilliant performance. 

Helena Bonham Carter is similarly excellent in her role as Edith Ellyn. Ellyn is a fictional character, although based in part on a suffragette called Edith Garrud. Ellyn is a chemist and one of the instigators of a more extreme type of protest. I fully expect to see Carter recognised in awards season too. Meryl Streep is as good as always as Emmeline Pankhurst but, if she's onscreen for longer than five minutes, I'll be surprised (which does make the poster slightly misleading). She gives a rousing speech from a balcony and then disappears into the back of a cab. Whilst the story of the suffragette movement would be whitewashed without a mention of Pankhurst's role, I do wonder about whether this scene is particularly needed.

Other performances are similarly strong: Anne-Marie Duff is a strong presence as Maud's workmate Violet Miller who helps get Maud into the movement and there's a good turn by Romola Garai as a local MP's wife who is also sympathetic to the cause. FInally, Natalie Press is powerful as Emily Wilding Davison, the suffragette whose actions at the Epsom Derby brought the movement to widespread attention. 

In terms of the male characters, you may expect them all to be unsympathetic oppressive bastards. This isn't entirely the case, although both Samuel West and Geoff Bell fulfil those roles as the local MP and the lecherous laundry boss respectively. Whishaw's performance is strong but Sonny's sympathy only extends so far before social pressure becomes too much for him. Similarly, Brendan Gleeson is good as Inspector Arthur Steed, a man charged with finding and dealing with any suffragette actions. He has some particularly good scenes with Mulligan as Maud and Steed clash heads.

So, it's well acted, well written for the most part (the script manages to mostly avoid the tendency to be overtly preachy), and the period detail is impeccable. However, the whole thing is let down by some frankly nauseating camerawork. It uses the handheld approach for scenes that really don't need it which does detract from what's actually going on in the scene.

That niggle aside, this is a well made film about an important part of British history and should be seen widely.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez

Review: Calvary (UK Cert 15)

Brendan Gleeson is one of the most versatile character actors working in film at the moment. From Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films and other big budget blockbusters like Mission: Impossible II and Troy, to smaller films like In Bruges and Perrier's Bounty, he can play hero or villain with the same commitment and intensity. His last collaboration with writer-director John Michael McDonagh was The Guard (2011) where he played a crass, drink- and drug-addled police officer. Now, in Calvary, Gleeson plays a County Sligo parish priest facing a terrible situation.

Whilst hearing confession, Father James Lavelle talks to a parishioner about the horrific sexual abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a Catholic priest. The perpetrator is long dead and cannot be brought to justice for his crimes. So, the parishioner gives Lavelle a week to get his affairs in order... and then Lavelle will die. Not because he is corrupt or bad, but because he is decent. He will die for the sins of others. 

This might sound like a wholly bleak and depressing watch and it's not a feel-good  film by any stretch of the imagination, but there's a rather pleasing streak of black humour that lightens things and the whole thing is led from the front by one of Gleeson's finest performances.

Lavelle is a fundamentally good man, a man of staunch faith even in the face of the darkness surrounding him. But he's not a saint or a martyr. There are a few rough edges: he has previously had a drinking problem and he's been a distant father to his daughter (conceived before he joined the priesthood). These aspects of the character are explored subtly- when pushed to the very limit by the killer's actions, Lavelle loses himself in drink- and there's a real chemistry between Gleeson and Kelly Reilly (who plays his daughter Fiona). Their scenes together are touching and well-performed, with years of unsaid things coming to the fore.

Other notable performances come from Aidan Gillen as an athiest doctor, full of snark and sarcasm; Chris O'Dowd is good as the local butcher, who is suspected of knocking his adulterous wife about, but seems very happy that his wife has a distraction, whilst Dylan Moran is on form as a dissolute banker having a crisis of conscience. There's a lovely comic turn by Killian Scott as Milo, a thoroughly strange young man, whilst there's a moving performance by Marie-Josee Croze as a young French woman who Lavelle meets when delivering the last rites to her partner. 

The film is not exactly a whodunit (or, more accurately, a who-will-do-it): in a conversation with his superior, Lavelle states that he knows who it is as he recognised the voice (although this wasn't obvious to me). It's more of a character study as Lavelle negotiates his relationships with his parishioners. There's a curiously stagey and knowing quality to the script which is a little jarring at times (things like Lavelle and his daughter talking about 'third-act revelations' and the doctor stating that he 'gets some of the best lines') and there's an unnecessary diversion where Lavelle goes to visit a prisoner (although inthat scene, you do get to see Gleeson act opposite his son Domhnall). 

The nihilistic viewpoint won't be to everyone's taste and in places it's a hard watch but overall it's a gripping drama with some knockout performances that will stay with you once the film has ended.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Tez

Review: Edge of Tomorrow (UK Cert: 12A)

Sometimes, no matter how good a film trailer looks, or if it’s definitely your cup of tea, you go into the cinema not expecting much. Rise of the Planet of the Apes? After the Tim Burton remake, I didn’t get my hopes up. The Amazing Spider-Man?  Expected to see the same scenes from the Sam Raimi films played out all over again, only not as good. The Evil Dead remake? The same film for fans of torture porn. Usually with films your gut instincts turn out to be right, but sometimes you’ll be surprised (I was surprised by how good all three films I mentioned were). After last year’s Tom Cruise sci-fi Oblivion, I wasn’t expecting much from Edge of Tomorrow. Despite being directed by The Bourne Identity’s  Doug Liman, starring the always impressive Emily Blunt, and having a trailer that ticked all the boxes, I sat down at the cinema expecting to struggle through Edge of Tomorrow’s two hours. Instead I was massively surprised to realise early on that I’m enjoying this film; I’m enjoying it a hell of a lot!

Edge of Tomorrow sounds like the safest bet a Hollywood studio could make for a big budget film: aliens, huge set pieces, things blowing up, all happening in this Groundhog Day-style narrative and starring one of the most famous actors on the planet. What makes Edge of Tomorrow stand out is that, while it’s hard not to spot its many influences (The Matrix, Starship Troopers, and just about every war movie ever made), Liman and screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie, and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, have come up with plenty of their own ideas.

In recent years its felt like all Tom Cruise has had to do is run round and shoot people. Here, Cruise gets much more to do. Edge of Tomorrow’s protagonist isn’t a family man or a secret agent, he’s a media consultant; a man who has never fought in a warzone (he joined the US military after his advertising firm collapsed) and whose job it is to glorify war so that more men and women join the army. William Cage is an arrogant, permanently grinning coward. In a brilliantly subtle scene alongside Brendan Gleeson, Cage sinks to new lows as he tries to save his own skin, talking his way out of being sent to the frontline. It’s not until Cage sees the full horrors of war first-hand, and is forced to get shot, blown up and torn to shreds, that he begins to change. Cruise also gets to remind us how good he is at comedy, Edge of Tomorrow doing a lot with the central idea that Cage has to keep dying over and over; Cruise delivering several blackly comic high-pitched screams.

Emily Blunt gives another hard to fault performance. Instead of being the love interest you normally see in summer blockbusters, Blunt is Cruise’s Master Yoda mentor. Always convincing as Rita Vrataski, the human resistance’s poster girl, she is tough, gutsy and driven. It’s not spoiling anything by saying that you get to see the softer side of Vrataski and, while you could argue this is predictable, at least her change is gradual and understated instead of being heavy-handed.

Christopher McQuarrie and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth deserve praise for ensuring the film’s Groundhog Day with aliens premise never feels tired. Scenes we watch for the first time have been re-lived by Cage over-and-over: Cage getting into a fight with his fellow squad members and effortlessly dodging every one of their punches, or meeting Brendan Gleeson for a second time and listing off everything he is about to do. You also have the flip side to this; about to fly a helicopter, Vrataski realises that Cage has lived through this moment before. Tearfully, she asks him how many times he has watched her die, Cage struggling to answer.

The only complaint you could throw at Edge of Tomorrow is that, by aiming for a 12A certificate, the film is not as complex or as unflinching as it should be. If Christopher Nolan had directed the film, you can bet there would be plenty of scenes examining what dying countless times would do to a man. How would you feel knowing that, if you die, you can start the day again and, when Cage inevitably gets his mortality back, how does this change your outlook on life? None of this is addressed in the film. If Paul Verhoeven had directed, you would have seen every time Cage was bumped off instead of cutting away. While I’m the first to argue that the imagination adds far more than any amount of splatter, seeing Cage die would have given the film more of a punch. This isn’t a video game Cage is playing; he is in his own purgatory, being killed off time and again.

Liman isn’t interested in making a violent, complex science fiction film; his plan all along was to make a fast-paced, entertaining blockbuster. Edge of Tomorrow isn’t Aliens or District 9, but it is funny, thrilling, with more than enough ideas to make it stand out from the sequels and rehashes that take over the cinemas from May to September. It’s also the best film to appear on Tom Cruise and Doug Liman’s CVs in a long time.

3 out of 5

Matt

Review: The Raven (UK cert 15)

The trope of using a mystery writer's work as the inspiration for a series of killings isn't a new idea; it formed the pilot episode of Castle, for instance. Now the Grand Guignol stories of Edgar Allan Poe are given a grisly lease of life on the big screen in The Raven. John Cusack slices the ham thick in places as Poe but makes for an engaging lead in a solid if slightly unspectacular thriller.

Screenwriters Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare have cannily chosen some of the well-known Poe stories (such as 'The Murders In The Rue Morgue' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart') and a few less well-known ones (for example, 'The Mystery Of Marie Roget' and 'The Facts In The Case Of M. Valdemar') to construct a bleak and bleached world in which Poe and the killer operate. However, the Saw-esque splatter of the 'Pit and The Pendulum' murder is grossly at odds with the surrounding killings, in which the bodies are discovered already dead in quite an atmospheric setting. It is the only murder shown explicitly on screen and jars with the overall mood.

Cusack inhabits the role of Poe with a mix of desperation, mania and melancholy, aptly showing the many sides of the character. However, having since learned that both Ewan McGregor and Joaquin Phoenix were in negotiations to play Poe, I can't help but feel that either would have made a stronger and longer-lasting impression. The rest of the cast are decent enough; Luke Evans plays Baltimore police Inspector Fields as a dogged and decent man even if sometimes he's a little wooden. Brendan Gleeson, surely a frontrunner to replace Kevin Bacon as the epicentre of Hollywood (the man is in everything!), turns in a suitably gruff and solid performance as the disapproving father of Poe's love interest Emily (Alice Eve) who is snatched by the killer and used to draw Poe into the mystery still further. Eve's performance is good, eschewing a lot of the damsel-in-distress stereotypes, which is good.

James McTeigue (who previously directed V For Vendetta) shows less of the flair he did in that film but still makes a decent fist out of it. The action set-pieces are quite thrilling (the chase through the theatre and its catacombs stands out) and the masked ball (which echoes 'The Masque Of The Red Death') looks beautiful - even more so for the fact that it's a rare scene of colour. The palette of the film is quite dark and bleak. 

Ultimately, in any whodunit, the identity of the killer and their motivation is paramount. And that's where The Raven falls flat. The identity of the killer is an interesting choice if a little Scooby-Doo-ish  but the motivation is flimsy (I don't think its too much of a spoiler to say that it comes down to a twisted form of hero-worship) and the denouement where Poe meets said killer has an interesting energy about it which peters out too soon.

For fans of Poe, this might be a diverting curio. As a thriller, it's by no means the worst I've ever seen but is nonetheless distinctly average.

Rating: 2/5 out of 5

Tez