Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson)

(Amazon UK link)

'Nanny McPhee' is one of those films that's highly rated on Amazon, and, for some reason, was recommended to me. Possibly it's because I was looking for 'Mary Poppins', the classic that seems to remain highly priced. Or perhaps it's because I had rated films with Colin Firth or Emma Thompson.

Either way, I thought it looked interesting so added it to my wishlist, and received it for Christmas. We thought we would watch it as a family, despite not having any young children at home any more.

And, yes, it is a children's film. The beginning of the story is a bit like an updated version of Mary Poppins. Colin Firth is a rather bemused father of a large family, who has lost his wife. He employs nannies to look after the children while he is at work, but the children are so horrible that they manage to drive them all away.

Then the agency sends Nanny McPhee, played brilliantly by Emma Thompson, looking as she has never looked before - she is dressed as an ugly witch, covered in warts, speaking in a harsh, disciplinarian voice.

I'm not sure I liked her methods much, but then again, nothing else seemed to help. It becomes a bit predictable plot-wise, but the children are delightfully horrible, with some excellent acting by the younger ones in particular.

Brain-dead fun, nicely done, and entirely suitable for all the family. Recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Terminal (starring Tom Hanks)

(Amazon UK link)

I'm not sure that 'The Terminal' would really have appealed to me based on the reviews, which were decidedly mixed. Indeed, I'm not sure that I would even have heard of it, were it not for my older son - who was working abroad on a ship at the time - happened to see it, and told us it was brilliant.

So I put it on my wishlist, and received it for Christmas.

And yes, if you happen to spot the date of this review, we did indeed watch it on Christmas Day. Not that we were absolutely raring to take the film out of its wrapper and put it in the DVD player - it was more to give us something to do. We were all feeling a bit low, on our first Christmas without our older so at home.

What a wonderful movie it was, too. Tom Hanks is brilliant as Victor, the lost foreigner stuck in JFK airport. Due to a complex political situation that erupted after he left his home country, he is unable to enter the USA, but also is unable to fly back. So he is stuck in the airport for an unspecified length of time...

I have to admit that the plot is minimal, and becomes increasingly unlikely during the latter part of the film. But the humour is wonderful - much of it subtle, most of it very cleverly done. We all found ourselves enjoying it very much; I would recommend it to anyone.

I'm not usually a huge fan of extras, but we were all interested to know whether the real JFK airport was used for the filming... and found ourselves fascinated by the explanations, and other extras. If you like this kind of thing, make sure that you get an edition with extras on it.

'The Terminal' is rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the USA, due to some moderate bad language - though not inappropriate, given the situation - and some implied sexual references. Nothing extreme, however.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Barchester Chronicles (Donald Pleasence, Janet Maw, Alan Rickman, Nigel Hawthorne)

(Amazon UK link)

Some friends recommended the BBC drama series 'The Barchester Chronicles' highly. It was based on the Barchester novels by Anthony Trollope, but I could never quite get into his writing. So I was rather dubious. But our friends lent us the DVDs, and we decided to watch them over a couple of weeks.

The BBC is almost always good at period drama, and this is no exception. It's slightly galling to admit that a screen adaptation of the six Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope was a great deal more appealing than the books - but there it is. I can only say that about a handful of films or TV series based on books. 

Once we had started watching, we felt that it was very well done indeed. The story - complex in print, easier in movie form - is of intrigue and jealousies amongst the clergyman of a fictional city. And there's a bit of love interest along the way. We did a double-take at seeing the late Nigel Hawthorne playing a somewhat smarmy clergyman. He is so well-known as 'Humphrey' in 'Yes, Minister' that it was hard to see him as anyone else!

The main character is the excellent and almost-too-good-to-be-true Mr Harding (nicely done by Donald Pleasence). But in the latter episodes we all agreed that the villainous Mr Slope rather stole the show, played brilliantly by Alan Rickman. We wondered if this was the inspiration that gave him, later on, the part of Snape in the Harry Potter movies.

Unsurprisingly, some of the episodes were a little long-winded in places and rather slow-moving. But basically we thought 'The Barchester Chronicles' was very enjoyable indeed. Recommended if you like this kind of period drama series. 

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Parent Trap (Hayley Mills)

(Amazon UK link)

Now that I'm well into middle age, at least in theory, I want to relive some of my childhood and introduce young friends to classic films and stories. However, this is not a film that I could remember seeing, or even hearing about.  The reason we ended up with 'The Parent Trap' on our shelves is that it was on special offer in a double-pack with 'Pollyanna'. 

But when I suggested watching 'Pollyanna', it didn't much appeal to my husband. Then he decided that 'The Parent Trap' sounded much more interesting. So we watched it.

First the negative side of this film. It's rather twee, and feels extremely dated. It was actually made in 1961, so it was not quite as old as we thought. We would not have been surprised if it had been ten years earlier. Moreover, the plot is - in the end - rather predictable. Not to mention unlikely, relying as it does on an amazing coincidence following bizarre circumstances...

To say any more would be a spoiler, although I imagine that most people interested in this movie will know at least the outline of the plot.

On the plus side, it's really a delightful feel-good story, once one accepts the 1960s twee American style of acting. The young Hayley Mills does a wonderful job, acting two girls brought up in different environments. She even manages two distinct American accents. That this was done before the modern days of easy special effects is in itself a triumph of production.

So I would recommend 'The Parent Trap' as a warm family film that doesn't require much thought. There is, apparently, a 1998 remake of this film which modernises the names and situations. But many people who have seen both prefer this original. There's something special about watching a classic.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore)

(Amazon UK link)

Many, many years ago I saw the 1970s film 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory', which I remember enjoying. So I was a bit surprised when there was a remake in 2005, retitled 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' like the children's book by Roald Dahl which it is based on.

I don't suppose we would have bothered to see this film, but our teenage son was interested. So he put it on his wishlist, and received it for his 17th birthday. Then we decided to watch it as a family.

I was a bit surprised at first to find that Willy Wonka, brilliantly played by Johnny Depp, is really nothing like the more cuddly Wonka of the 1971 adaptation. He is truly bizarre. But I had to admit that he was a lot closer to the eccentric, show-host-like Willy Wonka of Dahl's creation.

Freddie Highmore co-stars as Charlie. He is a very poor boy who lives with his parents and bedridden grandparents. He is kind and likeable and - amazingly - manages to find a golden ticket that will allow him to spend a day in the world famous chocolate factory. The other children who win tickets are spoilt rich kids, all unpleasant in different ways, and delightfully caricatured.

The special effects in this film are stunning, particularly the oompa-loompas. We were amazed at what we thought was the brilliant choreography, too, until we saw the 'extras' and learned that they were played by just one person.

The only odd thing about this adaptation is that there is a whole extra storyline about Willy Wonka's father. It does not appear to have anything to do with the Roald Dahl book, and, in our opinion, did not add anything much to the film, other than some length. Moreover, it didn't seem as if it would be of any interest to children, who should be the primary audience.

Nonetheless, overall we thought it a very good film and would recommend it.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Winter Solstice (Sinéad Cusack, Jan Niklas)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m a huge fan of Rosamunde Pilcher’s novels, and have recently started collecting some of the films based on them. My husband is unlikely ever to read books of this kind, but enjoys movies and adaptations of books - and in general, they make pleasant viewing.

'Winter Solstice' is the last saga novel Pilcher wrote, and, in my view, her very best. It's a poignant story about an elderly woman's friendship with a local family, which is shattered when tragedy strikes. She then goes away for a while for some space... only to be joined by more and more needy people in various circumstances, who find themselves stranded over Christmas, due to the weather.

There isn't really a great deal of plot as such, but many intertwining sub-plots, and some totally delightful people of all ages. It would, I thought, make a wonderful film. This adaptation was made for television, which - I assumed - would allow the director to meander through the story, keeping relatively close to Pilcher's original.

I was wrong.

I suppose that 'based on’ the book is an accurate description, since there were indeed the same major characters, and the same overall idea of diverse people gathering together in the winter.

But that's where the resemblance stops. Well, to be fair, I did recognise some of the storylines as one might recognise a long-lost friend after many cosmetic changes. But it wasn't the book by Rosamunde Pilcher. I really do prefer movies to stick more closely to the original. I understand that some parts must be left out, and other sections have to be shown differently for good drama. But I don’t much like extra sub-plots and characters being introduced.

Having said that, this was an excellent romantic family-type film. Once I had decided to forget about the book and concentrate on enjoying what I was watching, I found that I did - very much - despite its variances from the book. So although purists would probably be disappointed, I would recommend this to anyone. My husband loved it, and I did too. Even though I'd like to see a real adaptation of Pilcher's 'Winter Solstice' one day!

(Note that 'Winter Solstice' alone is not always available at Amazon in the UK; it's packaged with a movie called 'Summer Solstice' which is apparently loosely based on some of the same characters but bears no relation at all to Pilcher's writings).

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

September (Jacqueline Bisset, Michael York)

(Amazon UK link)

Realising that my husband is unlikely ever to read Rosamunde Pilcher's wonderful novels, I have started collecting adaptations of some of them on DVD.

I have to admit that I've been a little disappointed in some of the others that I've seen, which seem to stray fairly far from the originals. But ‘September’, one of my favourite of her books, was done as for television in the 1990s, and on the whole I felt it was faithfully adapted in movie format – even if the end of the story was foreshadowed in the opening of the film, making something of a spoiler.

The story basically revolves around someone organising a special party for her daughter - and then spiders out to various interwoven subplots featuring the various guests.

We thought there were very believable characters, and a good script which was well acted. It didn't matter that my husband had not read the book, and it didn't matter that I had; somehow the inevitable changes did not seem to be a problem, and I enjoyed seeing the various people - and there are quite a lot of them - come to life in some gorgeous settings.

We thought it a delightful romantic movie overall, despite the bittersweet ending, and look forward to watching it again in a few years.

Note: You can also read my longer review of the film 'September', written when we did indeed rewatch it, over eleven years later.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews