The Wackness

Words can barely express how much I hated this film. Everything about it. The awful rap soundtrack (what a blessing when a reggae track appeared!); the slack-jawed expression of the main character (really, could a boy look any more stupid if he actually tried?); the lurking misogyny (oh, the women just *don't* understand the poor put-upon men!); the terrifying indulgence extended to the psychiatrist (as far as I can tell, he must break every code of conduct in the profession and that's only in the sessions we see); the fact that the film made me start to react like a neocon while watching it. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Another of those rare creatures: a sequel that is far better than the original. Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed Hellboy but it was badly let down by it's finale and didn't make the best use of it's villains. This time, Guillermo Del Toro has imported the emotional heft of his Spanish language films into the mix and packed the screen with so many creatures and ingenious gadgets that only freeze framing on DVD will ever enable a person to see everything. The other good news is that Abe Sapien gets more screen time, not to mention a wistful romance with a fairy princess and a drunken singalong with Hellboy to Barry Manilow. Del Toro's imagination seems to know no bounds. The troll market, the tooth fairies, the Golden Army and the Elemental are all breathtaking (and in the case of the tooth fairies thoroughly vicious little beasties). In fact, the culmination of the scene with the Elemental produced the same heartclenching reaction as the snow sequence in Edward Scissorhands. It sums up the dilemma facing Hellboy and his colleagues. Do they belong with the (mostly ungrateful) humans or should they be on the side of the elves, fighting to keep their world alive? There are moments when you wish Hellboy would switch sides. In fact, the appearance of another of Del Toro's wonderful creations, the very unnerving Angel of Death, hints at a much darker fate for Hellboy. After the loss and self sacrifice at the end of this film, it wouldn't be surprising.

Un Secret

This is one of those films that feels much longer than it is. Part of the problem is the tortuously complicated use of different time frames. Once the main flashback gets under way it's a gripping watch, but the build up involves jumping between the 1950s, 1960s, present day and an idealised child's-eye view of his parents' experience of the war. All of this can actually be justified as spaces reverberate with different meanings across the decades (the swimming pool, the shop, the courtyard) but it makes for an unwieldy structure. Having said that, the film does have an impressive emotional impact. The sickly young boy who always disappoints his athletic father imagines an elder brother who is everythig he isn't. Poignantly it turns out such a brother existed but that part of the family history has been kept a secret by everyone for reasons that are never quite clear. It could be guilt for a not-quite adulterous relationship during the war which caused the breakdown of the first wife and led, in a shocking moment, to her condemning both herself and the much-loved son to the death camps. The terrible irony is that nothing had actually happened. It's only the subsequent terrible grief that finally throws the couple into each other's arms. Likewise it's only the two women travelling with the wife and child who witness her betrayal of the boy to the police and who decide to keep this from everybody else. The real war experienced by his parents is totally different from that idyllic courtship imagined by the protagonist, and it reverberates for decades afterwards.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

It's always a delight to watch Frances McDormand, especially in a lead role where she gets to play both dowdy and glamourous, repressed and exuberent, and generally show off her wonderful comic timing. The film is a frothy confection, with a hint of melancholy set as it is on the eve of WWII. Guinevere and Joe both remember the Great War with its high cost and this sets them apart from the frivolous party set. It's a slight story with a clutch of happy ever afters. True love triumphs over fakery and commerce. People drop the masks they wear: Delysia reverts to being Sarah Grubb once more and chooses an impoverished pianist over her wealthy lovers; Joe no longer wants to design the women's lingerie for which he's famous and goes back to designing the humble sock; and Guinevere, having spent a day living with the rich and famous, reverts to her lowly status only to find her own white knight has hunted her down. If this feel does't make you feel good, nothing will.

Elegy

There are several close-up shots in this film of Ben Kingsley, staring intensely, teary-eyed, silent. Presumably these are meant to convey some deep-seated emotion that he can't experess. However, what they conjure up for me is his psychotic gangster from Sexy Beast. This slightly unnerving sensation is only exacerbated by the presence of Dennis Hopper. On the whole, he's very restrained, and rather good, as the poet friend of the main character - until he laughs, at which point he reminds you of every psycho that he's ever played. On such unintentional associations do films head off the rails. The male characters in this film are a pathetic bunch, verging on the totally dislikable: middle aged men trying to hang on to their youth by sleeping with as many young women as possible, and to hell with their families. Even the main character's son finds himself following in his loathed father's footsteps by having an affair. If it wasn't for the presence of two such strong actresses as Penelope Cruz and Patricia Clarkson this would have been an unbearably macho film.