A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer's Eve

A Limousine the Colour of Midsummer’s Eve 1981 (Limuzins Janu nakts krasa)

• Director: Janus Streics
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Lilita Berzina, Olga Drege, Uldis Dumpis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why?  Gift from our dear friend in Riga, AZ
• Seen:  9 November 2019

 Erik’s old aunt Mirta (Berzina) has won a car on the lottery. She lives alone on a farm outside of Riga and she can’t drive. Erik (Dumpis), his wife Dagnija (Drege) and son come to help her, though they are not close. They discover that the aunt’s neighbours are very good friends. A fierce rivalry ensues, city slickers vs country bumpkins. More long-lost relatives arrive. Everyone wants to inherit the car.

This is a Latvian classic, voted many times as the most popular Latvian film ever. It is amusing at times with interesting glimpses into Soviet Latvian history.

But oi, oi, oi, it reminds me painfully of our three years living in rural Sweden in the 70s. I really really really hated living in rural Sweden in the 70s. And I really don’t like rural slapstick films. So it’s difficult to take this one to my heart. It also reminds me of Wes Anderson’s films, also not my favourites. Just not my cup of tea. I do like the cat, however, and the little kid in red. And the title.

2 * of 5

Molly's Game

Molly’s Game

• Director: Aaron Sorkin
• Based on the book by Molly Bloom
• Cast: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jessica Chastain – Snow White Huntsmen Winter’s War, The Martian, Interstellar, The Help, The Tree of Life, Coriolanus, Veronica Mars
• Idris Elba – The Mountain Between Us, Pacific Rim, Prometheus, Thor, 28 Weeks Later, The Wire, Crocodile Shoes, Absolutely Fabulous
• Kevin Costner – Man of Steel, Swing Vote, Rumour Has It, The Postman, A Perfect World, Bodyguard. JFK, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Dances with Wolves, Field of Dreams, Bull Durham, Silverado, Stacy’s Knights
• Michael Cera – Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Juno, Veronica Mars
• Why?  Idris Elba
• Seen:  8 November 2019 

Fourth place in the Olympics is the worst thing that can happen in the sports world, according to Molly Bloom, who at the age of twenty crashes to end her skiing career. Twelve years later she is awakened by the FBI who arrest her for running illegal gambling.

We follow her road to that point. Rich celebrities who gamble. Flash forward to her lawyer Charlie (Elba), who doesn’t want to take her on because of her connections to the Russian mafia. Which she denies. He takes her on anyway.

Sorry, boring subject. Gambling, Russian mafia, big money, courtroom trials. Boring. Can Chastain and Elba save it?

Well, no. Chastain’s character is completely unlikeable (though she does it well) and Elba’s role is far too small. It’s just barely interesting enough to keep watching. These are really dreadful rich people. Why should we care?

There are enough interesting aspects, Chastain is good, and Elba is always good, so it’s not a complete flop, though I had so much looked forward to a serious drama. Oh well,

2 ½ * of 5

Before You Go

Before You Go

• Director: Lewis Gilbert
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Julie Walters, Joanne Whalley, Victoria Hamilton, Patricia Hodge, John Hannah, Tom Wilkinson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julie Walters – Mamma Mia 1&2, The Hollow Crown Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Harry Potter 1-8, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Wah-Wah, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot, Titanic Tow, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita
• Joanne Whalley – Wolf Hall, Flood, Dance with a Stranger
• Victoria Hamilton – Babyfather, The Merchant of Venice, Pride and Prejudice
• Patrica Hodge – Hustle, Morse
• John Hannah – Sliding Doors, Four Weddings and a Funeral
• Tom Wilkinson– The Lone Ranger, Hotel Marigold, Valkyria, Michael Clayton, Batman Begins, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Shakespeare in Love, Wilde, The Full Monty, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Prince of Jylland
• Why?  Julie Walters
• Seen:  3 November 2019 

Theresa (Walters) is summoned to the hospital with her husband Frank (Wilkinson) to be told that her mother has died. Her two younger sisters Mary (Whalley) and Catherine (Hamilton) meet her at their childhood home, a stunning place on the Isle of Man.

‘Someone dies, people drink whisky. It’s normal,’ says Mary, a doctor. Catherine buys golden high heels and smokes pot to cope. Theresa vacuums obsessively. Mary has hallucinations of her mother’s ghost. Theresa does yoga chanting health food recipes. Catherine says, ‘I can’t cry. I didn’t like her.’

Three sisters. A dead mother. Conflicts and conflicting memories. They’re all a mess. That’s it.

It’s a bit funny, a lot weird, and not always as entertaining as I had expected. Mary, with her useless married lover (Hannah) and secret past, isn’t as interesting as she should be. Walters is, as always, amazing and Hamilton is a treat as the flaky youngest sister.

3 * of 5 (Hal gives it 4*)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

• Director: Mike Newell
• Based on the novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
• Cast: Lily James, Jessica Brown Findley, Tom Courtney, Michiel Huisman, Katherine Parkinson, Matthew Goode, Glen Powell, Penelope Wilton, Bronagh Gallagher
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Lily James – Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, Downton Abbey, Cinderella
• Jessica Brown Findley – Victor Frankenstein, Winter’s Tale, Downton Abbey
• Tom Courtney – Unforgotten, The Quartet, Last Orders, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?, The Dresser, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Doctor Zhivago, The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner
• Michiel Huisman – Orphan Black, Wild, World War Z, Young Victoria
• Katherine Parkinson – Humans, Sherlock, Kiss Ass Girls 2 St Trinian’s, The Boat that Rocked
• Matthew Goode – Downton Abbey, The Imitation Game, Dancing on the Edge, Brideshead Revisited, Copying Beethoven
• Penelope Wilton – Downton Abbey, Hotel Marigold 1&2, South Riding, Doctor Who, Shaun of the Dead, The Calendar Girls, Clockwise, King Lear, Othello
• Bronagh Gallagher – Sherlock Holmes, Tristram Shandy, Tara Road, Mary Reilly, Pulp Fiction, The Commitments
• Why? Love the book
• Seen: 2 November 2019 with Hal and YW in our read-book-see-film group      

       We all love the book. We’re worried the film won’t do it justice, but the cast bodes well.

       It must be said. The changes made are not good ones. Why couldn’t they have followed the book more closely?

       With that said, does it hold up as a film? Yes, well enough. The cast is as could as expected, though the lead (James) is more or less interchangeable with any number of pretty young women like Carey Mulligan, Jenna Coleman, Alicia Vikander – good actors all but their looks are more a disadvantage than an advantage. Wilton and Courtney are especially good. The basic story follows the book – the literary society and the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Germans during WWII. The beauty of Guernsey is a main character but, in the credits, we are told that it was ‘filmed on location in England’. England???

  

3 ½ * of 5 (We agree that we might like it more next time when the book isn’t so fresh in our memories.)

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead 2004

• Director: Edgar Wright
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy David, Dylan Moran, Rafe Spall, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton, Jessica Hynes, Martin Freeman, Tamsin Grieg, Matt Lucas (the last three about 2 seconds each)
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Simon Pegg – Star Wars the Force Awakens, Absolutely Anything, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz, Doctor Who, Black Books, 24 Hour Party People
• Nick Frost – Doctor Who, The World’s End, Attack the Block, The Boat that Rocked, Hot Fuzz, Kinky Boots, Black Books
• Kate Ashfield – United, The Kid, Late Night Shopping
• Lucy Davis – Wonder Woman, Black Books, The Office
• Dylan Moran – Good Vibrations, The Decoy Bride, Tristram Shandy, Black Books, Notting Hill
• Rafe Spall – What If, The World’s End, The Life of Pi, Prometheus, Hot Fuzz, A Good Year
• Bill Nighy – Their Finest, Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, About Time, The World’s End, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rock, Valkyrie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, Gideon’s Daughter, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, , Love Actually, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate
• Penelope Wilton – Downton Abbey, Hotel Marigold 1&2, South Riding, Doctor Who, The Calendar Girls, Clockwise, King Lear, Othello
• Jessica Hynes – Doctor Who, Learners, Son of Rambow, Black Books, Born Romantic, Swing Kids
• Martin Freeman – Black Panther, Shylock, Fargo, The Hobbit etc, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz, Breaking and Entering, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Office, Love Actually, Black Books
• Tamsin Grieg – Friday Night Dinner, Hotel Marigold 2, Black Books, Neverwhere
• Matt Lucas – Doctor Who, Little Britain
• Why?  Surprisingly good film
• Seen:  Once or twice before. Now the day after Halloween 2019 

Shaun (Pegg) and Liz (Ashfield) are having relationship problems and their friends David (Moran) and Di (Davis) aren’t really helping. Nor is Ed (Frost) who lives with Shaun and is an obnoxious, messy slob. Everyone hates him but Shaun, who has a dreadful job as TV shop manager, a troublesome stepdad (Nighy) and doting mother (Wilton).

Life is not great.

Meanwhile London is having a zombie epidemic.

It’s exciting, scary, laugh-out-loud funny, gory, sad, sweet, poignant and it has an amazing cast, a dozen or so of my favourite actors. Good music, too.

Don’t tell anybody but my secret ambition is to play a zombie in a zombie film. So, anyone out there planning one, contact me ASAP.

5* of 5

Journeyman

Journeyman 2017

• Director: Paddy Considine
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Paddy Considine, Jodie Whittaker, Paul Popplewell, Tony Pitts, Anthony Welsh
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Paddy Considine – The Girl with All the Gifts, Macbeth, Pride, The World’s End, Hot Fuzz, My Summer of Love, In America, 24 Hour Party People, Born Romantic
• Jodie Whittaker – Doctor Who, Broadchurch, Adult Life Skills, Black Sea, Good Vibrations, Attack the Block, The Kid, Kick Ass Girls St Trinian’s 2
• Paul Popplewell – Tyrannosaur, Bright Young Things, Morvern Callar, 24 Hour Party People
• Tony Pitts – Rogue One
• Anthony Walsh – The Girl with All the Gifts, Life’s Too Short
• Why?  Considine and Whittaker
• Seen:  26 October 2019 

Matty (Considine) is a world champion boxer. He’s getting old and promises his wife Emma (Whittaker) that his next bout will be his last. He wins on points, but he later collapses with severe brain damage. He doesn’t remember their baby daughter. His mind doesn’t work right, he can’t speak clearly, he can’t walk well.

Emma is left with the burden of taking care of him and dealing with his violent outbursts. She has lost the man she loves and feels desperately alone. When he shuts the baby in the washing machine because her crying disturbed him, Emma takes her and leaves.

It’s the story of Matty’s struggle to recover and it turns into a tear jerker. That is its weakness. It’s too much of a disease-of-the-week film, Emma is given the superficial role of caring supportive wife with no depth of her own and there is the moral dilemma of boxing itself. Considine and Whittaker are as outstanding as always but

3 * of 5

PS Believe it or not I’m a boxer myself. I train boxing every week with the fabulous Hilda down at the local pensioners’ gym. It’s great fun, great exercise and we don’t hit each other’s heads.

Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express 2017

• Director: Kenneth Branagh
• Based on the book by Agatha Christie
• Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Daisy Ridley, Leslie Odom Jr, Tom Bateman, Penelope Cruz, Josh Gad, Johnny Depp, Derek Jacobi, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Willem Dafoe
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kenneth Branagh – Dunkirk, Wallander, My Week with Marilyn, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Warm Springs, Shackleton, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rabbit-Proof Fence, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Wild Wild West, Hamlet, Othello, Frankenstein, Much Ado about Nothing, Swing Kids, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V, Fortunes of War
• Daisy Ridley – Star Wars the Last Jedi, Star Wars the Force Awakens
• Penelope Cruz – Pirates of the Caribbean, Elegy, Blow, All about My Mother,
• Johnny Depp – Transcendence, Mortdecai, The Lone Ranger, Dark Shadows, Life’s Too Short, The Rum Diary, Pirates of the Caribbean 1-4, Rango, The Tourist, Alice in Wonderland, Public Enemies, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, Sweeney Todd, Corpse Bride, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Libertine, Finding Neverland, Secret Window, Once upon a Time in Mexico, From Hell, Blow, Chocolat, Before Night Falls, The Man Who Cried, Sleepy Hollow, The Astronaut’s Wife, The Ninth Gate, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brave, Donnie Brasco, Nick of Time, Dead Man, Don Juan DeMarco, Ed Wood, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Benny and Joon, Arizona Dream, Edward Scissorhands, Cry Baby, Platoon, Slow Burn, Nightmare on Elm Street  
• Derek Jacobi – Last Tango in Halifax, Vicious, Cinderella, My Week with Marilyn, The King’s Speech, Doctor Who, Nanny McPhee, Gladiator, Gosford Park, Hamlet, Dead Again, Henry V, Hamlet, Richard II, I Claudius
• Michelle Pfeiffer – Stardust, Dark Shadows, White Oleander, I Am Sam, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Thousand Acres, To Gillian on Her 37^th Birthday, Dangerous Minds, Love Field, Batman Returns, Frankie and Johnny, Married to the Mob, The Witches of Eastwick, Scarface
• Judi Dench – Victoria and Abdul, The Hollow Crown, Spectre, Hotel Marigold 2, Vicious, Philomena, Hotel Marigold, My Week with Marilyn, Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides, Jane Eyre, Cranford, Nine, Quantum of Silence, Notes on a Scandal, Casino Royale, Mrs Henderson Presents, Ladies in Lavender, Die Another Day, The Shipping News, Chocolat, The World is Not Enough, Tea with Mussolini, Shakespeare in Love, Tomorrow Never Dies, Mrs Brown, Hamlet, Golden Eye, Middlemarch, Henry V, A Handful of Dust, A Room with a View, Macbeth
• Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur, Broadchurch, The Night Manager, Doctor Who, Hot Fuzz, Much Ado about Nothing Re-told, Black Books, The Office
• Willem Dafoe – John Wick, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Paris je t’aime, American Dreamz, Manderlay, The Aviator, Once upon a Time in Mexico, American Psycho, eXistenZ, Lulu on the Bridge, The English Patient, Wild at Heart, Cry-Baby, Born on the Fourth of July, Mississippi Is Burning, The Last Temptation of Christ, Platoon, Streets of Fire
• Why? Branagh, Depp and Dench
• Seen:  20 October 2019      

       Agatha Christie is not one of my favourites but Branagh, Depp and Dench are, and I love trains so here we sit.

       M Poirot (Branagh with a French accent) is renowned for his pedantry and eye for the minutest detail and his resultant solving of tricky crimes and mysteries. Fate puts him on the Orient Express from Istanbul.

       I’m not even going to try to summarise the story. That’s why I don’t like Christie – convoluted, silly stories with endless whodunnit stuff.

       The film is of course crawling with famous faces, meticulous detail and spectacular scenery. But is it a good film?

       Yes, in fact it is. Not brilliant but good. It definitely has the Branagh touch. But, really, he should do Shakespeare. He can do so much more than create merely enjoyable entertainment.

3 ½ * of 5 (Hal gives it 4 because it’s Agatha Christie so you can’t blame the film for its faults.)