Postcards from the edge (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

I sometimes spend a few minutes browsing Amazon’s ‘recommendations’ to me, based on films I have bought. I always read the blurbs and usually one or two negative reviews before adding something to my wishlist. We have a lot of films, so I’m quite picky, now, about choosing any more. ‘Postcards from the edge’ stars Meryl Streep, and features several other well-known actors, and was mostly positively reviewed. I added it to my list, and was given it for my recent birthday. 

So last night we decided to watch it. The image on the front and general feeling suggest a comedy of some kind. But I didn’t look at the blurb on the back, and had forgotten what I read on Amazon. So I had no idea what to expect. 

The film opens with a dramatic scene. A helicopter descends, someone leaps out, then Meryl Streep and two friends are stopped at a border, and she is accused of something terrible. However, it would be a spoiler to say what happens next, as the surprise is cleverly done.

Streep’s character is called Suzanne, who must be in her late twenties, no more than thirty. She could easily have passed for twenty-four or twenty-five, despite the fact that Streep herself must have been over forty when this film was made in 1990. And once again, this versatile, brilliant actor becomes the character, in a way that few others manage. When we watch a film with Meryl Streep, we barely remember her in other roles, as each one is so different, and she manages them all to perfection.

Suzanne, we quickly learn, is a struggling actress who has a problem with drugs. After a nasty incident, she ends up in rehab and we meet her mother Doris, who is a perfectly made up Shirley MacLaine. It’s evident that the two have something of a difficult relationship; Doris tries hard to be loving and non-judgemental, but she can’t keep it up for long. And she is forever talking over her daughter, convinced she knows best what she should be doing. 

The subject matter is a serious issue, not one that would normally be turned into a light-hearted film. Apparently this is based on a true story, although it may well be quite loosely based. Suzanne works hard to be free of her habit, taking up smoking instead. Doris is an alcoholic, though she seems mostly to have her drinking under control. And Suzanne is chased rather determinedly by a somewhat pushy young man called Jack (Dennis Quaid).

Into the mix comes Doris’s own mother, whose name I didn’t learn, but she’s played by Mary Wickes: an overbearing, judgemental, loud and critical woman. I didn’t like ‘Grandma’ at all. Her husband has dementia and keeps complaining about her in a way that I thought was bittersweet: he is able to say what other people are thinking, in a somewhat amusing way; yet his condition is not one to take lightly or joke about. 

There are some insights into the stresses and pressures that go into making movies - or did, in the 1980s; I don’t know how much it has changed since then. It is perhaps caricatured, but almost certainly has some truth in the horrors and degradations, and the way some actors are (or were) treated. 

The acting is superbly done, the pace just right and the story well told. I didn’t know some of the actors, but I recognised Simon Callow’s distinctive voice before seeing his character. On the other hand I didn’t spot Richard Dreyfuss as a doctor. 

There’s some singing, too; Doris, in her younger days, was apparently a stage singer, and Suzanne has an amazing voice too, though she doesn’t want to give in to her mother’s pressure to be a singer rather than an actor. 

I wasn’t sure I was going to like the film in the first twenty minutes or so, but I quickly became absorbed and overall thought it excellent. The rating is 15 which reflects some ‘strong’ language and the drug theme, though by today’s more relaxed standards it might be reduced to 12. 

Recommended if you like quite hard-hitting dramas with some light-hearted moments, or if you’re a fan of Meryl Streep. 

x Review copyright 2025 Sue's DVD Reviews

Hope Springs (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We have two films called ‘Hope Springs’, with entirely different storylines. We decided to watch the one featuring Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a married couple, which we first saw in August 2014. We couldn’t remember much about it, although I had a vague recollection of the couple sitting on a couch in a therapist’s office.

It turns out that a significant part of the film includes this particular scene - or, rather, scenes - although the therapist is a marriage enrichment expert rather than a therapist as such. But the concept is similar.

Meryl Streep is, as one would expect, superb. Her character is the middle-aged Kay who is going through a bit of a mid-life crisis. That’s not to downplay it in any way. She and her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones) have a daily routine that involves her getting up early, making his breakfast, watching him eat it, then when he’s left for work she tidies up the kitchen and goes to her own work in a boutique.

In the evenings he usually watches TV and drops off to sleep… and then they go up to bed, in separate bedrooms. It’s clear that all intimacy and romance have gone from the marriage, although they coexist amicably enough. Kay decides that something needs to change, and Arnold is persuaded, entirely against his wishes, to attend a marriage enrichment seminar with Dr Feld (Steve Carell). It’s very well done, and the chemistry between the two main characters - both positive and negative - is realistic.

There’s not a great deal of plot, although the ending could have gone various ways: we weren’t sure if the ‘enrichment’ would help Kay and Arnold rekindle some of their earlier feelings, or whether it would drive them apart. Or, indeed, they could have returned home and continued their life as it was previously. But plot doesn’t matter; it’s character-based, exploring emotions and the reasons some marriages grow stale without any serious problems arising. There’s a great deal that’s thought-provoking, and also several humorous moments. Once or twice we even laughed aloud at the clever scripting or timing.

We had not remembered just how explicit some of the conversations are, as Dr Feld probes more deeply into what has gone wrong, and what used to be good about the marriage and the couple’s sex life. It’s well done; it could have felt intrusive but just manages to avoid that, while asking some decidedly pointed questions. There are no bedroom scenes or nudity, and not a great deal of bad language, which is probably why the film is given a 12A rating - but I would not be comfortable with a twelve-year-old seeing this film. We would have rated it at least 15. However, since the main characters are in their fifties, it’s unlikely to appeal to anyone under the age of at least thirty.

We enjoyed watching it again, and would recommend it to any couple who have been together for at least ten years or so, whether or not they are feeling any stress or monotony in their relationship.

There are quite a few 'extras' with our DVD; we watched most of them, including some repeated scenes, some background into the making of the film, and one deleted scene.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Evening (Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes)

(Amazon UK link)

We’re mostly re-watching films that we haven’t seen for eight or nine years, most of which we have almost entirely forgotten. One of the DVDs I moved to our ‘watch soon’ drawer is ‘Evening’. Neither of us had any memory of having seen it before, although we saw it in October 2014. So we decided to watch it last night. During the film some parts did come back to us, including the inevitable final outcome.

Vanessa Redgrave is perfect as Ann, the central character, drifting in and out of consciousness as she lies, dying, in her bedroom. We don’t learn what’s wrong with her, and it doesn’t much matter. She looks suitably old and frail, visited by her adult daughters Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette). It wasn’t until we saw the ‘extras’ that we discovered that Natasha Richardson is Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter in real life.

As Ann thinks about her life, which she feels hasn’t been all that worthwhile, she recalls vividly a weekend about fifty years earlier when she was chief bridesmaid at her friend Lila’s wedding. The young Ann is played by Claire Danes, and Lila by Mamie Gummer. Lila is from a wealthy family, and Ann apparently hasn’t visited their huge house before. She arrives with Lila’s younger brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) whom she clearly knows well, and who shows her around. Buddy, we quickly learn, is not happy - he drinks far too much and tries to turn everything into a joke.

Then there’s Harris (Patrick Wilson) who grew up as the son of one of the family servants. But Buddy treated him like a brother, and Harris has long left home and is qualified as a doctor. Lila was in love with Harris as a teenager, and Buddy thinks she still is… so he pleads with Ann to stop her getting married to someone whom she likes and respects very much, but isn’t in love with.

I found the storyline a bit confusing at first, switching as it does between the present Ann on her deathbed and the young, vivacious Ann who’s a little awkward as a person, but a beautiful singer. I couldn’t remember whether the wedding went ahead or not, or what happened with Harris, or Buddy, though there are hints quite early in the book suggesting that not everything is going to turn out well during the wedding weekend.

By the time I’d been watching for about ten minutes, I was completely hooked by this film which is beautifully made. It could have been morose or depressing, but instead it’s encouraging and ultimately quite uplifting. There’s a little bit of low-key humour - the elderly Ann, a couple of times, sees her staid night-nurse (Eileen Atkins) as someone angelic - or perhaps a fairy - although even these scenes are laced with poignancy.

The sisters Constance and Nina seem to squabble unpleasantly in a way I found unbelievable when we first saw this. But now, realising that it stemmed partly from their grief, and partly their unusual and sometimes stressful upbringing (as well as quite stark personality differences) it felt realistic, albeit sad; yet even these acrimonious interchanges are alternated with evidence of deep connection between the two.

Meryl Streep makes a brief appearance towards the end, as the adult Lila - and, as I had recalled, Streep is the actual mother of Mamie Gummer who plays young Lila, so that worked exceptionally well.  Lila and Ann share a moving scene that mirrors a similar one from the morning of Lila’s wedding day.

All in all, we thought it a lovely film despite the subject matter, and appreciated the extras - a few deleted scenes that were well worth seeing, and a good ‘making of’ documentary that wasn’t too long.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) which seems about right; there’s nothing explicit and only one instance of ‘strong’ language, but there are a couple of quite disturbing scenes and the subject matter isn’t appropriate for children.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews

Music of the Heart (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We saw the 1999 film ‘Music of the Heart’ back in 2009, and watched it again only four years later. But it was definitely time to re-watch. I recalled finding it a moving and extremely well-done film, and that it was based on a true story. But, as ever, we had both forgotten most of the detail.  We watched it again last night, and enjoyed it just as much - possibly even more, as we had at least a general idea of how it would end.

Meryl Streep stars, brilliantly as ever, as a young woman called Roberta. We meet her when she’s in tears, beginning to realise that her straying husband is not going to return. She has two sons, Nick and Lexy, and they are staying with her mother (Cloris Leachman) temporarily. But that really isn’t working out. Roberta manages to find a job in a shop, and there she meets Brian (Aidan Quinn) an old school-friend, who says he always liked her but she was never attainable.

They have coffee together, and talk about what they have been doing. Brian remembers Roberta as an excellent musician, and comes up with the idea of her going to teach violin at a struggling primary school in Harlem. She has to push quite hard to be offered a temporary post, but although the music coordinator is not sympathetic, the school Head (Angela Bassett) is.

It’s a struggle at first, trying to find the right way to relate to a very mixed group of children, many of whom have no knowledge of music, and little interest in playing. Roberta comes up against the prejudice of not just the music coordinator but others of the staff, and some of the parents, too. But gradually she eases her way into the hearts of her students, and even convinces some of the parents of the value of music to their children. There’s a very moving scene when they give their first concert: just simple renditions of well-known pieces, but played beautifully.

The action then moves forwards ten years. Roberta’s programme has become so popular that there’s a lottery for children who hope to be part of it. And then the school district decides to cut out extra music, to save money. But she’s determined to fight this, and comes up with the idea of a fund-raising concert…

The ending is quite exciting; less stressful than it was for me the first time around, since I knew what was coming, but still I was gripped, caught up in the action, rooting for Roberta and her students, thrilled by the conclusion - and the brief text at the end that explains how the film was based on a true story.

Meryl Streep is the main reason we were so drawn into this film: she doesn’t just act, she becomes the characters she plays, to the extent that we quite forget about the actress during her films. Apparently she spent two months learning to play the violin to this level, working six hours per day, as she did all the playing herself.

But she’s not the only one: her sons, both as their younger selves and their older teenage selves, played by a different pair of actors, are believable, talented and with great chemistry. And the children Roberta teaches are also excellent. I don’t know where they came from - perhaps some of them were children taught by the real Roberta, or maybe they came from another music school. Wherever they were found, they were superb, not just at playing (initially badly, eventually extremely well) but also in their characterisation and interactions with each other and Roberta.

We thought it a wonderful film, all the more so for seeing it again, and I hope we’ll watch it again in another five or six years. The rating is PG, which seems about right; only mild bad language, only mild violence, and the only implied scene of intimacy shows nothing other than Roberta covered with a sheet in the morning, concerned that her boys might have heard something.

The romantic threads are very low-key, and there are some light-hearted touches here and there which made us smile. But overall it’s an uplifting, moving and ultimately encouraging film about the power of music in children’s lives, and one ordinary, but determined woman who inspired so many.

Very highly recommended.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

One True Thing (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We had no idea what to expect when we decided to watch ‘One True Thing’. I had bought it used from a church sale because Meryl Streep was listed as one of the main characters and she’s always excellent value. But we had never heard of the film - it was made in 1998, apparently.

Ellen (Renée Zellweger) is in fact the first person we meet; she’s being interviewed, probably by a policeman or other official, and it’s clear that she realises she could be in trouble. Her mother has died, after a long illness, and it appears that there were suspicious circumstances. But we only get hints of what happened at the start. The story immediately flashes back to a surprise party given for her father George (William Hurt).

Kate (Meryl Streep) is an outgoing, organised kind of person and we meet her dressed as ‘Dorothy’ from ‘Wizard of Oz’, since the party is a fancy dress one. Ellen and the friend she’s travelled with are not dressed up; it’s immediately clear that she’s a very different personality from her mother. She’s career-minded and intelligent, and she’s also an aspiring writer who works in a news agency.

When George arrives home, he’s quite surprised; I wondered if he was going to object to the party, but it’s clear that he adores his wife even though he does very little around the house. He’s an academic who has published a book, and Ellen clearly wants his approval, seeing her mother as rather irritating and not particularly intelligent.

The party sets the scene skilfully for the different relationships within the family. Ellen has a very nice brother (Tom Everett Scott) who won’t admit to their father that he has failed an exam. He’s more like their mother in personality, but gets along well with his sister. And George is really not a good father, although his relationship with his wife seems to be a good one…

The bulk of the film takes place a while later when it’s clear that Kate has a terminal illness, and needs full-time care. George is not willing to take a sabbatical from his work, so Ellen is guilt-tripped into taking a break from her own career, despite being on the verge of a very good story. As Ellen spends more time with her mother, they finally start to acknowledge each other’s strengths, and Ellen begins to understand her a bit better…

It was quite a long film by today’s standards (over two hours) but right from the start we were mesmerised. Renée Zellweger is excellent as Ellen, and William Hurt is very good as the dislikable George. But - as is usually the case - it’s Meryl Streep who steals the show, in almost every respect. She must have been about fifty when this film was made, but could have passed for not much more than forty at the start. Her descent into serious illness, making her look twice that age by the end, is brilliantly done. I’m sure a lot of the credit must go to her make-up artiste, but as a sick woman she is entirely believable, brilliant throughout.

It’s a moving story; there are a few light-hearted moments to lift the mood a little, but although the party at the start is a little over-the-top, it manages to be believable, as does Kate despite the garish costume and extraverted cheerfulness even in the face of her somewhat condescending daughter.

It’s the kind of story that will stay with us, something we might watch again in another eight or nine years. It’s rated 15 (R in the United States!) despite no nudity, nothing explicit and no violence. Admittedly the subject matter is unsuitable for younger children, and there’s some bad language (though not excessive). The descent into agonising illness is quite disturbing too. But I don’t think there’s anything unsuitable for younger teens with reasonable maturity, and would have expected it to be rated 12 or PG-13 (as it is in some other countries).

Definitely recommended, if you like a drama with sensitive and potentially disturbing subject matter. The pace is excellent, the people so believable that we were totally caught up in the storyline. And it's quite thought-provoking too. The ending is bittersweet but overall positive, if a tad shocking.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Mamma Mia (Amanda Seyfried)

(Amazon UK link)

It’s ten years - almost to the day! - since my younger son and some of his friends introduced me to the musical film ‘Mamma Mia’. Set on a Greek island, liberally peppered with Abba songs, I liked it very much. So when I saw the DVD inexpensively at a sale, I thought it a good idea to buy a copy.  However I wasn’t sure if my husband would like it; he’s not a fan of musicals, in general.

Last night he suggested we watch it, thinking it could be light and relaxing. He does like Abba songs, so I mentioned that the story is essentially written around them, with not a huge amount of plot. Indeed, I hadn’t remembered much of the story at all, other than that it involved a wedding, and Meryl Streep.

Amanda Seyfried is the real star of this, however. She plays Sophie, a young woman of twenty who is about to get married. Her mother - Meryl Streep - runs a guesthouse in a Greek island, although it’s rather run-down. She and her staff are preparing a huge feast for the wedding, and rooms for guests, and there’s clearly a lot to be done.

Sophie tells her two closest friends (and bridesmaids) that she has invited three men to the party, one of whom must be her father. Her mother never told her his name, but Sophie has found her journal from twenty years earlier, and it’s clear that there are three possible candidates. Sophia wrote to them, and they have all said they’re coming… but her mother doesn’t know.

We then meet these three very different guys: Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård). Bill is a laid-back kind of guy who owns a boat. Harry is quite uptight, and Sam is a wealthy businessman. There are some deleted scenes - which we saw afterwards - that introduce them properly in context; these scenes probably wouldn’t have added much to the story but were very interesting to see later.

The three end up arriving together in Bill’s boat, and being led to a very dilapidated room by Sophie… who hasn’t told any of them that they might be her father. She thought she would just know when she met them, but this isn’t the case…

So there’s quite a comedy of errors, punctuated with musical numbers (sung by the cast, although in most cases they sound very Abba-like). There are huge crowds involved, and some amazing choreography. There’s humour (Colin Firth’s comic timing is superb) and some poignancy, too.  And of course there’s Meryl Streep, looking so like her film daughter that I wondered if the actress was her real mother. Apparently Streep was 59 when she did this role, in which she dances and leaps about like someone at least twenty years younger.

Of course it’s all rather silly, in the way that musicals are, where everyone dances and sings while the rest of the action stops. But it looked as if everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves, and it’s so well done that I was quite caught up in the story (such as it was). My husband had spotted that some of the scenery was set in a studio, but I hadn’t noticed; it was explained in the ‘making of’ extra which we saw later.

The one person we felt didn’t quite fit the role (and really didn’t sound at all Abba-like when singing) was Pierce Brosnan as Sam. We couldn’t quite believe in him as Sam, and would have preferred him to have rather fewer solo roles. All of the actors apparently did their own singing (in a studio) and in most cases it was excellent.

Although the UK rating is PG, and there’s nothing explicit, nor any violence, there are a lot of innuendoes. There's also quite a seductive scene part-way through, although nothing comes of it. And of course the entire storyline revolves around three different people having slept with Sophie’s mother twenty years earlier. So I wouldn't recommended it for children or any younger teens who might find this shocking or embarrassing.

But with that proviso, I would definitely recommend this for a light evening’s viewing even if you don’t like musicals in general (unless you also don’t like Abba songs - there are a lot of them!).

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Little Women (Saoirse Ronan)

(Amazon UK link)

When the 2019 version of ‘Little Women’ was released, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see it. I have loved the books on which it was based for many years, and thoroughly enjoyed an earlier film adaptation. However it’s many years since I last saw that. The new one, I was told, was updated for a modern audience, and had a somewhat confusing time switch, as well as some scenes that were not in Louisa May Alcott’s original.

However my son gave me the DVD of this film for my birthday a few months ago. It’s quite a long film - over two hours - so we had to find an evening when we had more than ninety minutes available. We finally sat down to watch it last night, and were hooked almost from the start.

Saoirse Ronan is excellent as Jo March. Having said that, it took me a couple of scenes to accept her as Jo. I had somehow always thought of her as having very dark hair. But she has just the right personality. The film starts with Jo nervously knocking on the door of an editor, submitting a short story for newspaper publication. She’s told to write something more gothic and dramatic, and returns to the boarding house where she’s living.

This part of the story is in the book ‘Good Wives’, the second volume of (or sequel to) ‘Little Women’, and as the film moves forward it is interspersed with flashback scenes from seven years earlier. In the earlier scenes, Jo is just fifteen. Her older sister Meg (Emma Watson) is sixteen; their younger sisters Beth (Eliza Scanlen) and Amy (Florence Pugh) respectively thirteen and twelve.

I was a tad confused at first about which scenes were which. Had I not been familiar with the story, I think I might have got lost. I realised quickly that the hairstyles changed between the two eras, and that some characters looked older. Jo succeeds, more-or-less, in demonstrating the difference between fifteen and twenty-two, although she doesn’t change all that much. That’s not a problem, as it fits with her character.

Emma Watson is, in our opinion, the most skilled at this.  She plays Meg as both a young married woman of twenty-three, alternated with a sixteen-year-old girl who dreamed of romance. Both are believable. We were less impressed with Amy who never looks twelve, although Florence Pugh plays the character of Amy well.

Meryl Streep has a lesser part as Aunt March, and does it brilliantly, as one would expect. She manages to look really very old in the later scenes. And we were extremely impressed, too, with Laura Dern, who plays ‘Marmee’. I had never had much of an image of this unusual American women; I think this portrayal is exactly right.

The story is of the girls’ growing up, of Meg’s falling in love; of Laurie - their neighbour - being their best friend and thinking himself in love with Jo. It’s also about Jo’s literary struggles and successes, and about general family life. There’s quite a bit of squabbling, and the rivalry between Jo and Amy more marked than I recall from the book. But it works extremely well.

My husband has not read the books and didn’t remember having seen an earlier version of the film, but he had no trouble understanding the story, and also liked it very much. The pace was good, the scenery and costumes excellent, and despite veering significantly from the books in places, I thought it an excellent adaptation.

There are some very interesting extras, too, including a ‘making of’ documentary, where we were surprised as just how many of the cast were not American.

Very highly recommended, so long as you don’t mind when a film version of a classic book takes several deviations from the original.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Julie and Julia (Amy Adams, Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

We watched the film ‘Julie and Julia’ nearly nine years ago, and liked it very much. So we decided to watch it again last night. I had forgotten the plot, but did recall that it was based on a true story, and also that it was about cooking.

What we had not remembered, until it got going, is that it’s actually based on two true stories. One is that of Julia Child, who was an American living in France in the 1940s. In the film, played brilliantly by the wonderful Meryl Streep, she is quite an outspoken woman who adores French cooking.

Julia's husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) is a diplomat who is regularly posted in different places, but Julia doesn’t like to be inactive. So she decides to take cookery classes, and ends up amongst a group of men training in Cordon Bleu. And when - eventually - she finishes, she determines to write a book that will help American women learn to cook in the French way.

It’s a long and complex journey to publication, but the end of the film sees her holding in her hands a copy of ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’. It’s not a spoiler to say this because the other storyline, running concurrently through the film, is that of a young woman called Julie (Amy Adams), in 2002, who is persuaded by her husband Eric (Chris Messina) to start a blog. For her theme, she determines to work her way through every one of the recipes in Julia’s book in the course of a year.

In a sense there isn’t much plot. We know that Julia’s book is eventually going to be published, and we assume that Julie is going to succeed in her challenge. But there’s a great deal of characterisation, and many little subplots, laced with some humour and also some poignancy. Julia’s relationship with Paul is contrasted subtly with Julie’s relationship with Eric. Both are strong, loving marriages, but Julie’s inevitably has a different kind of balance; for one thing she’s working full-time as well as learning to cook.

There’s also a huge contrast in the large house where Julia and Paul live, versus the small flat with a tiny kitchen where Julie and Eric find themselves. And Julia is a much stronger personality, while Julie is sensitive and easily upset. They have friends; Julie does a lot of entertaining with the dishes she produces, and Julia collaborates with various people over her book.

But the four main characters carry most of the story.  And they’re all excellent, but of course Meryl Streep still stands out; she IS Julia. Stanley Tucci is great as her husband, and the two have quite a believable chemistry. But he’s still Stanley Tucci, and I was reminded, several times, of other roles I’ve seen him in. I didn’t recognise the younger couple at all, so they were easy enough to believe in. But Meryl Streep is unique. We’ve seen her in many, many roles but each one is entirely different. Other than a few facial expressions and a characteristic eye roll, we kept forgetting that it was an actress, let alone one we’ve seen in many other parts.

The ending is a little strange and abrupt, but generally encouraging. And there’s a ‘making of’ documentary with our DVD which was watched, and found very interesting. 

Rated 12A, which seems a little high; there's some bad language but it's not excessive, and nothing explicit. The only bit I really didn't like in the film was a scene involving a live lobster (shudder). Overall, I would recommend this to anyone with any interest in cooking, or who would like to see something rather different from most films. 

 However it's not likely to be of interest to children anyway.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews

Falling in Love (Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro)

(Amazon UK link)

In between seeing new films we have been given, we’re watching some we liked and enjoyed about nine or ten years ago. One of these is ‘Falling in Love’, which we first saw in September 2010. I remembered finding it somewhat bittersweet, but had no real memory of the storyline; my husband didn’t remember it at all.

Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro star as Molly and Frank, two happily married people who happen to live not far away from each other. Molly is married to a doctor, and there’s evidently some tension in their relationship; but they seem mostly to be happy. Frank is married to Ann, and they also seem to be well-suited, on the whole, with two delightful sons.

Frank and Molly bump into each other while doing some last-minute Christmas shopping in a bookshop. They drop some gift-wrapped parcels and manage to get two of them mixed, leading to some surprises on Christmas morning. The film follows them separately in their different lives. They both come across as likeable people of integrity; there’s a rather sad subplot involving Molly’s elderly father.

A few months later they happen to be on the same train… and they start chatting. Neither is considering any form of relationship outside of their marriages, but there’s evidently an attraction. At first it seems as if this will be satisfied in a platonic friendship, but as they meet more often it gradually becomes clear that there’s more involved in their mutual feelings.

It’s the two main actors who make this into an excellent film. There’s not a whole lot of plot, and the coincidences are a tad unbelievable. But Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro have excellent on-screen chemistry. Both are somewhat quiet, neither has any intention of cheating on their spouses. But their sense of kinship comes across powerfully, and the growing physical attraction too, something that - it would appear - cannot be ignored.

The first time I saw the film, I hoped that it would go one way, and it didn’t. This time I remembered the outcome, though not exactly why it happened. Either possible ending would have led to heartbreak one way or another, and while I would have preferred my choice, what happened in the film worked extremely well - and showed clearly what difficult choices sometimes have to be made.

We found it poignant, even sad, but it was so well done, with such brilliant acting that we both found it almost mesmerising and were totally drawn into the story as we watched.

Definitely recommended. The rating is PG, which I suppose is about right since the bad language is mostly anatomical, and the one scene of intimacy doesn’t show any detail. But the subject matter isn’t really appropriate to children, and I doubt if anyone under the age of about fifteen or sixteen would find it interesting.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

First Do No Harm (Meryl Streep, Seth Adkins)

(Amazon UK link)

We have planned to re-watch some of the DVDs that we last saw around ten years ago. Last night we decided to see ‘First Do No Harm’, which we first saw in May 2009. Meryl Streep stars, so we knew the first time around that it would be worth watching, despite being a free DVD from a relative’s weekend paper.

We remembered, when we put the film on last night, that it was based on a true story. It was made for TV in 1997 as a drama documentary, but it’s so well made, and so moving, that we were totally caught up in the story.

Meryl Streep is Lori, a mother of three children, and happily married to Dave (Fred Ward). They have a teenage daughter, a son of about twelve, and a younger son, Robbie (brilliantly portrayed by Seth Adkins). We see them as a normal, happy American family who have just acquired a horse.

Then Robbie has an unexpected fall at school. Nobody worries too much, but later that day he has a kind of seizure. He’s taken to hospital, and diagnosed with epilepsy. Apparently there was quite a stigma attached to this illness - I still don’t know why - but he is in a private hospital, at first, with helpful doctors who discuss the options with his parents.

Initially Robbie is put on the most commonly used drug but the side effects are terrible, so the hospital switches to something else. Then the parents discover that there’s a problem with the medical insurance; Robbie is moved to a state hospital, where the doctor in charge is not at all warm or friendly.

It’s a terrible indictment on US medical care, and we weren’t very impressed with what we saw in either of the hospitals, although the nurses were all excellent. We were shocked at the way the doctors seemed to be in charge, not giving Robbie’s parents all the relevant information, and expecting them to sign forms for quite dangerous treatment.

Lori is convinced there must be another way… and after extensive reading, she finds anecdotal evidence of the ketogenic diet. This was known as early as the 1920s but was not widely acknowledged. The last part of the film involves Lori’s fight against the medical authorities, trying to take Robbie to this treatment rather than agreeing to brain surgery.

It’s a powerful film, partly due to the subject matter, but also because the main actors are excellent. Seth Adkins was only ten when this film was made but already a professional and competent actor. Robbie is supposed to be younger than that (perhaps six) and changes from being a lively, friendly boy to an angry and boisterous one. He has increasing seizures of different kinds, and at times is shown as unable to do anything much, due to the cocktail of drugs. At no point did the acting seem forced or unrealistic.

It’s a very intense story; I didn’t watch some of the rapid action in the hospital scenes, but for most of the film I was almost glued to the screen, unaware of time and rooting for Robbie.

The only jarring note - so to speak - is a screechy rendition of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ while Lori is researching epilepsy, day after day, in the library. While the sentiments of the song work well, and a musical interlude makes sense to cover the time spent, where there is no dialogue and no action, the later part of the song was quite painful and distracting.

However it’s a minor gripe in an excellent, thought-provoking and educational film.

The UK rating is PG, which seems right to me; other than mild innuendoes there's nothing that would cause the most prudish to cringe. However it's rated PG-13 in the US, probably due to the intense and possibly disturbing nature of the story. I would not want to show it to anyone under the age of about eleven or twelve for that reason.

Highly recommended, particularly to anyone with any experience of epilepsy, or who would like to know more about the ketogenic diet as a possible treatment.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Marvin's Room (Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

It's been ten years since we watched the film ‘Marvin’s Room’. Although I recalled very little about the story, I knew we had liked it when we first saw it. It has rather an all-star cast: Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton play two sisters who have not been in touch for close to twenty years. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the moody teenage Hank, and Robert De Niro is Dr Wally. Even I have heard of these four actors.

We meet the sisters separately; indeed it’s not obvious at first that they are sisters. Diane Keaton is Bessie, who has devoted the last twenty years of her life to looking after her invalid father, Marvin (Hume Cronyn). He had a stroke which left him bedridden and unable to speak, and nobody expected him to stay alive all this time.

Marvin’s sister Ruth (Gwen Verdon) lives with them, and helps with his care, but she’s becoming elderly and absent-minded, and is also seriously addicted to soap operas on television. Ruth provides some gentle humour, which works very well alongside the more poignant and darker main storyline. But Bessie has been getting very tired recently. She assumes she has a vitamin deficiency, but Dr Wally wants to run some tests. And the news is not good…

Meanwhile Lee (Meryl Streep) has been training as a beautician while raising her two sons as a single mother. Charlie, the younger son (Hal Scardino) is a likeable nerdy type, but his older brother Hank is very angry, and we meet him when he tears up some family photos and sets light to them…

When Bessie gets in touch with Lee, she and the boys embark on the long journey to visit her, to see if they are able to help with her treatment. Lee and Hank keep aggravating each other; she seems to have little idea how to communicate with a teenager.

The bulk of the story, then, is about what happens when the sisters are reunited, with Bessie meeting her nephews for the first time. This visit is the catalyst for many things, and we found it a gripping film. The acting is excellent - as one would expect with such a talented cast. The pace just right, and the story heart-wrenching in places. I felt the ending was a tad too abrupt; there are hints at what is going to happen in the future, but it’s not as clear as I would have liked.

The rating is 12; I can’t imagine anyone younger would be interested anyway. There’s no serious violence, no nudity or intimacies, and not a lot of bad language, although there is some (including one or two 'strong' words).  However some of the plot and a few of the scenes could be very disturbing to a sensitive child.

All in all, it was a thought-provoking, very well made film and I would recommend it highly.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Ricki and the Flash (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

This film was recommended to me by Amazon, I assume, because I have very much liked other films with Meryl Streep. She is an outstanding actress, in my view. She 'becomes' the characters she plays in a way that’s rare. The variety of roles she has undertaken is astonishing - and ‘Ricki and the Flash’ is no exception.

Streep, who was over 65 when this film was shot, plays Ricki, a rock singer who hasn’t hit the big time, but plays regularly in a somewhat sleazy bar. During the week she works in a supermarket on the tills, with the aim of making ends meet; but she struggles to do so. Ricki could have passed for forty when we first see her singing and playing with her band, ‘The Flash’; as events turn out we realised that she was probably supposed to be in her fifties.

Early in the film we learned that Ricki’s real name is Linda, and she used to be married to the respectable, well-off Pete (Kevin Kline). They have mostly been out of touch for years, since she abandoned him and their three young children to follow her dreams of becoming a star. But a crisis has hit: their daughter Julie’s husband has left her, and Julie is seriously depressed. Julie is played by Meryl Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer.

So Ricki flies to Indianapolis to spend a few days with her ex-husband and daughter, greeted at first with animosity, but surprisingly quickly she finds that she can help. Her sons are less keen to see her when they have dinner together: one of them has just got engaged, but doesn’t plan to invite his mother to the wedding….

There are several themes in this story. The main one is about what real motherhood means, and how being with children as they grow up matters more than giving birth to them. It’s about following dreams, about family relationships in general, about the contrast between material wealth and talent. There are one or two mildly amusing moments and a great deal that’s poignant and thought-provoking.

Having said that, it’s not the greatest script, and I didn’t much like the music; rock of that nature isn’t my style, and I found it rather too loud at times. Inevitably there’s quite a lot of music, as we see Ricki on stage; in one of the extras we learned that all the music is performed by the characters live to camera, and that Meryl Streep had to learn how to play a guitar in order to take this part.

Greg (Rick Springfield), Ricki’s lead guitarist and boyfriend, is excellent in his role too as a caring and understanding - as well as extremely talented - man. I was surprised to read that the actor is the same age as Streep; he, too, could easily have passed for forty or fifty.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) and that seems about right to me. There’s one implied intimate scene but we don’t see anything other than a few clothes being discarded in advance. There is some bad language but not the worst words, and there’s no violence at all. The content wouldn’t be of much interest to children or younger teens anyway.

It was rather different from anything we had seen for a while, and we thought it very well made. Recommended, if you are a fan of Meryl Streep and would like to see her in something entirely different. Or if you like films based around rock music.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doubt (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

I had not previously heard of the film ‘Doubt’, which I spotted in a box of second-hand DVDs next to a church book sale. Since it featured Meryl Streep, and indeed three other well-known actors, I thought it was probably well worth the euro it cost me. A few days later we decided to see it.

I knew from the blurb on the back of the box that there was a disturbing theme to the story, and I began to regret having picked the DVD up at first. But it didn’t take long to get into the story. Meryl Streep is a nun, Sister Aloysius, who is headmistress of a Catholic school in New York in the early 1960s. As in every part I have seen her, Streep is superb, becoming the character in a way that most actors cannot do. Sister Aloysius is rigid in her outlook, quick to pass judgement, stern in her punishments of every infraction amongst the children.

One of the staff, Sister James (Amy Adams), is young and enthusiastic, and wants to inspire the children in her class rather than rule them by coercion. However she is quite concerned about Desmond (Joseph Foster), the only black child in the school, who is also an altar boy at the connected church. Desmond is quite a loner, and it seems that the priest, Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), is taking rather too much interest in him…

Sister James reports her concerns to Sister Aloysius. Then much of the film involves verbal battles between her and Father Flynn, who comes across as a caring, gentle person on the whole. We hear parts of some of his sermons, which are quite thought-provoking. Indeed, the contrast between this gentle priest and the rigid nun is quite marked. Their dialogues are extremely well done, the timing perfect, and the on-screen chemistry, albeit of a rather different variety from many movies, works superbly.

There is also an extremely moving scene involving Desmond’s mother, beautifully portrayed by Viola Davis. She and Sister Aloysius have a lengthy dialogue about Desmond; it’s a pivotal scene, and I found myself drawn into it, suddenly realising that the situation being discussed was far less cut-and-dried than it might appear.

As well as these interactions the film covers quite a bit of the life of the school, too. There’s some music sung by choirboys and girls too - the school is a mixed one. A particularly poignant moment includes the singing of ‘Deus Caritas…’ - of which the translated words are, ‘Where there is love and care, there God is’. All in all, we thought it beautifully made, and were totally caught up in the story.

Never at any point is it determined whether or not Sister Aloysius’s convictions about Father Flynn are true or not. In one of the extras, we learned that this story was based on play which involved just the four main characters. As Meryl Streep points out in an interview, live theatre often leaves questions and storylines open for the viewers’ own interpretations. This is less common in films, and this one was quite controversial in following the storyline of the play, and leaving the main plot unresolved.

Made in 2008, allegations such as those in this film were all too common, even though the story was set forty or more years earlier. I found it a very powerful film, leaving open many questions, not just whether or not the priest was innocent of the allegations made.

It’s rated 15 in the UK, which I think is about right given the nature of the story, although there is nothing overt that could cause the censors to give it a strict rating. There is no nudity or anything explicit, almost no bad language, and only mild violence.

Perhaps this is why the US rating, which is often higher than that in the UK, is a milder PG-13. I would not want a young child to see this, but reasonably mature teenagers might find it thought-provoking. I would recommend it highly to anyone wanting a well-made film with a somewhat unusual storyline.

Review copyright 2018 Sue's DVD Reviews

Florence Foster Jenkins (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing Amazon a while ago, I saw this DVD recommended to me. Reviews, for the most part, were good; in my experience anything starring Meryl Streep is likely to be excellent, and there was the bonus of Hugh Grant. So I put it on my wish-list, and was delighted to receive it (actually the Blu-ray edition) for a recent birthday.

‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ is about a late middle-aged woman - played by Streep - who is clearly not in the best of health. She is loved and protected by her husband who gives monologues in music halls… although we quickly learn that theirs is a rather strange relationship.

The story begins when Florence decides that she wants to take singing lessons again. There are some light-hearted scenes where they interview various applicants for the job of accompanist. The successful candidate, Cosmé McMoon (Simon Helburg), is young and dedicated, and can’t quite believe his good fortune. At least, until the first lesson, when he discovers that Florence’s singing leaves much to be desired…

I had read on the back of the blu-ray that the film is based on a true story. In a way, i wish I hadn’t known that. Part of the bittersweet humour of the film is about the way that everyone conspires to avoid letting Florence know that she really can’t sing. In a fictional setting, with reality suspended, I could have relaxed and probably enjoyed it. As it was, I kept thinking of how awful it would be if - or when - she eventually learned that her loved ones had been deceiving her.

It’s not a film for those with perfect pitch, or who find it painful to hear bad singing. I’m no musician, and I cringed at times. Meryl Streep does a wonderful job portraying Florence; as ever, she takes on the part fully, and the character felt all too flamboyantly real. Hugh Grant, too, while somewhat typecast as her husband, does very well, and Simon Helburg’s expressions as the accompanist are also a delight.

As a film, I’d give it five stars. The pace is good, the story sparkles, and the acting is excellent. But the story itself made me feel uncomfortable, hitting just a tad too close to real situations I’ve come across.

Rated PG in the UK, PG-13 in the US. Some of the implications and conversations are somewhat ‘adult’ although there is nothing explicit. Bad language is minimal and there is no violence; drinking and smoking are commonplace. Based on the content I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone under the age of at least twelve.

Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Devil Wears Prada (Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway)

(Amazon UK link)

Although I’ve seen this film recommended to me several times, probably because I enjoy Meryl Streep’s acting so much, it had somehow never appealed. The title is rather off-putting, and the theme, I gathered, was related to high fashion, a topic which does not interest me in the slightest. But when I saw the DVD for a pound at a UK charity shop, in excellent condition, I couldn’t resist.

I’m glad I went ahead and bought ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, because it was a surprisingly enjoyable, if undemanding film. Anne Hathaway co-stars as the somewhat hapless Andrea who wants to be a journalist but manages to walk into a job she knows almost nothing about, working as a personal assistant in an exclusive fashion magazine office.

While Anne Hathaway is great in the role, it reminded me forcibly, more than once, of some of her other roles; in particular as the frumpish princess in the ‘Princess Diaries’, and also as Cinderella in ‘Ella Enchanted’. She’s grown up a bit in this movie, but looked fine to me at the point where the entire staff of the fashion store were laughing at her and calling her ‘fat’. Her eventual transformation is rather inevitable.

Meryl Streep, however, shows, once again, her amazing versatility, in a role unlike anything I have seen her in before. She plays Miranda, the owner of the fashion magazine, a snobbish, bullying and frankly nasty person who seems to care little about anyone other than her spoilt twin daughters.

While much of the fashion discussion left me mystified, the storyline is essentially character-based, charting Andrea’s gradual successes which are only in part due to her make-over, and contrasting them with what - and who - she begins to lose. She has to make a lot of difficult decisions, and I didn’t know how the film would end; it could have gone either way.

I didn’t find the film particularly amusing, although there were some light-hearted parts, and it didn’t need a great deal of thought. But I liked the theme of making conscious choices about careers and relationships, and the way the film clearly shows - without being too overt about it - how easy it can be to become unpleasant, even vicious to one’s colleagues and friends when ambition is too strong.

Overall, it made a pleasant evening’s viewing. Rated 12, presumably for the relatively mild bad language. But as far as I recall there’s no violence, and no overt scenes of intimacy or anything else that would warrant a rating above PG. Not that I would expect it to appeal to children or younger teenagers, particularly.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

It's Complicated (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

I happened to spot this DVD in a charity shop when I was in the UK. Meryl Streep is always good value. Moreover, I was intrigued at the idea of her working with Steve Martin, who is listed as one of the co-stars. The plot sounded like a typical light romance, so I forked out a pound and brought it back to Cyprus.

We thought it would make ideal viewing for an afternoon when we were both somewhat tired but wanted to snuggle up on the sofa together. I hoped it would be uplifting. But I hadn’t expected it to be such a thoroughly enjoyable film, if perhaps a tad slow to get started.

Meryl Streep stars as Jane Adler, a contentedly divorced woman who has three young adult children, and is about to experience an empty nest. Her ex-husband Jake (Alex Baldwin) is rather irritating, although smooth-talking, and is now married to a much younger woman, who has a rather hyperactive small son.

Jake and Jane find themselves meeting at mutual friends’ parties, and then at the graduation of one of their sons Jane is priding herself on being relaxed and polite around him, when circumstances throw them together one night, and they wonder whether there’s still a spark of attraction….

Steve Martin, meanwhile, plays an architect who is designing and overseeing a major extension to Jane’s house. His character is very like most other parts he has played: charming, a little shy, and prone to clumsiness. That was fine in this film, as he provided a very likeable contrast to the somewhat bumptious and jealous Jake. But of course Meryl Streep’s part is the most complex and also the most interesting; as ever, she plays it to perfection, utterly believable in the role of a middle-aged, attractive woman who is a great cook and slightly over-protective mother, but rather insecure about relationships.

There were a couple of places (involving Steve Martin) where we laughed out loud; his timing is excellent, and he worked well with Streep. Jake and Jane’s future son-in-law Harley (John Krasinski) was a surprising hit too, a likeable young man who saw things he shouldn’t have done, and if a little exaggerated in his role, did it very well. I found myself warming to him rather more than their three children, who never really developed characters of their own.

The pace wasn’t rapid, and there wasn’t a whole lot of plot, but until the end I wasn’t certain where it was going to go. It was quite emotive at times, and we were both totally absorbed in the film. Bad language was pretty mild and although there are several intimate bedroom scenes, they are tastefully done, with implications rather than anything explicit.

I was surprised that it had a 15 rating (R in the US): there’s no violence at all, nor anything remotely frightening. I suppose it’s due to there being a fair amount of drinking and some use of soft drugs, although mainly for comic effect. However as the plot features a middle-aged romance, it’s unlikely to appeal to teenagers.

All in all this made a nicely made and enjoyable ‘rom com’ - recommended to anyone who likes this genre.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

Evening (Vanessa Redgrave, Clare Danes, Mamie Gummer)

(Amazon UK link)

I assume that Amazon recommended this DVD to me because it features Meryl Streep, whom I consider one of the greatest living actresses. I have enjoyed many of her films, and the reviews of this were generally good, so I put it on my wishlist.

‘Evening’ was something I received for my birthday earlier in the year and which we watched last night. The blurb didn’t say much, other than that it was a heart-rending tear-jerker, but the cover looked appealing. We weren’t too sure what to expect, and wondered if it was going to be rather morbid at first, since the main character, brilliantly portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave, is an elderly woman called Ann who is evidently at the last stage of a serious illness. She has two daughters who seem to spend their time arguing; one is a traditional family woman with a career, the other has floated around between different jobs and boyfriends, and admits to being phobic about commitment.

Ann’s mind is evidently wandering somewhat, and when she mentions the name ‘Harris’ as a great mistake of her youth, her daughters wonder if she’s becoming delirious. But we’re then transported back to the 1950s, with Ann as a young woman (Clare Danes) going to her best friend’s wedding. Her friend Lila (Mamie Gummer) lives in a huge house, and is quite conventional; but her brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) is convinced that she’s about to make a terrible mistake in marrying the upright (and dull) Karl.

Buddy then introduces Ann to Harris, a doctor who is the son of the former family housekeeper. Everybody, it seems, is in love with Harris - and Ann quickly falls under his spell.

To say much more would be to give spoilers of a film that owes more to characterisation and scenery than plot. The action (such as it is) switches between the present and the past almost at random, as we gradually see events unfold during the weekend of Lila’s wedding, culminating in a tragedy which is not unexpected (since present-day Ann has mentioned it) but still shocking.

It was quite mesmerising at times, though neither of us found it heart-rending or even tear-jerking. However it was certainly thought-provoking and somewhat moving, although the tearful scenes were just a touch too melodramatic. Themes were about love, and choices; whether or not a life was wasted or fulfilled; the value of friendship, the dangers of jealousy. It was cleverly put together although towards the end there were some decidedly surreal scenes that were amusing rather than poignant, as it became clear that Ann had one foot in the next world already.

Meryl Streep’s cameo role did not appear until near the end, when she played the part of the now elderly Lila; perfectly cast, as the young Lila was played by her daughter. Indeed, most of the acting was very good, although I never quite believed in the drunken, confused Buddy, and I found Ann’s daughters’ bickering to be unrealistic and inappropriate on the whole.

It could perhaps have been cut from 112 minutes to 90 without any real loss, but I didn’t find it dull at all despite being somewhat slow-moving; the ending was less morbid and more upbeat than we had feared and overall I enjoyed it.

The rating is 12 which I think is about right; there’s no real violence, just a few instances of bad language, implied intimacy but no details. The subject matter is unlikely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about 15 in any case.

Recommended if you don’t mind a bit of melodrama, and enjoy meandering character-based thematic dramas.

Review copyright 2014 Sue's DVD Reviews

Hope Springs (Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones)

(Amazon UK link)

Browsing through Amazon, as I do from time to time, I was given several recommendations for films starring Meryl Streep. I very much enjoy her versatility as an actress, and the blurb for this sounded good: a lighthearted rom-com about a middle-aged couple who want to put a bit of sparkle back in their relationship. So it went on my wishlist, and I was given it for my birthday a few months ago.

It starts well: Kay (Meryl Streep) is getting fed up with her structured but humdrum life, waiting hand and foot on her husband Arnold (Tommy Lee Jones). They sleep in separate bedrooms, and their physical contact consists of a quick peck on the cheek when he leaves for the office each morning, after being served a perfectly timed cooked breakfast.

Kay finds a book about marriage, and decides to sign up for a week of intensive counselling for couples - a brave move, since Arnold does not think they have any problems, and considers Kay is just being hormonally emotional...

There are some amusing asides amidst the bittersweet start to this film, and some great one-liners scattered (albeit sparsely) throughout. The characters of Arnold and Kay seemed all too realistic; one of the extras stated that probably every long-married couple can relate to at least some parts of their relationship, and I suspect that’s partly why some people find this uncomfortable viewing.

What did surprise me were the frequent references to intimacy, not just in general terms (clearly important) but in specifics, which I would have expected to give this at least a 15 rating. Even more so once Arnold and Kay start doing the ‘exercises’ they are set by Dr Feld (Steve Carell); while there’s no nudity, very little bad language and nothing overtly explicit, there’s a great deal that’s implied, which I would not want a 12-year-old seeing.

Having said that, we did like the film very much; Meryl Streep is brilliant as a repressed, bored middle-aged woman, as different from her other roles as ever. Tommy Lee Jones has just the right amount of curmudgeonly grumpiness to make him realistic, and while at first we see him as the cause of the marriage problems, it becomes clear in the counselling sessions that their difficulties have crept up on them slowly with both bearing some responsibility.

There are several extras, mostly variations on the making of the film, including some different takes that were not used, one amusing deleted scene, and a lot of commentary.

I’d recommend this, in a guarded way, to couples who have been together for a while, whether or not they have any problems; it’s a thought-provoking script and a very different kind of film. However I would not really recommend it to anyone under the age of about 30, as I suspect younger people would find it unbelievable, perhaps even a bit gross.

Review copyright 2014 Sue's DVD Reviews

Music of the Heart (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

It's nearly four years since we first saw the film 'Music of the Heart', which we liked very much indeed. So when some friends said they would like to watch it, we were more than happy to see it again.

Meryl Streep stars in this very moving film as Roberta, a newly separated mother of two. Needing to support her sons Nick and Lexi, and also needing something to live for, se applies for a job teaching violin at an inner city school.

This film is based on a true story, as is briefly explained in an epilogue. Much of the film follows Roberta's early attempts to help impoverished, struggling students to care about music, to work at their playing, and often to achieve something beyond their wildest dreams.

Roberta has an abrasive style which offends some parents, but which the students find refreshing and oddly helpful. She comes across prejudice, aggression, and sometimes laziness; at first she finds it difficult to adjust to the very different lifestyle and families that she meets. But gradually, over the years, many students find her classes inspirational and fulfilling.

Ten years after Roberta is first accepted as a substitute teacher, a blow falls: her music class no longer has funding. In the exciting final part of the story, Roberta - aided by many devoted friends - decides to fight this decision and raise funds herself.

It's a mesmerising story, extremely well done (no surprise there, with Meryl Streep starring, but the whole cast is brilliant), and really quite moving in places. Even knowing what was coming, I enjoyed it very much indeed.

PG rated in both the US and UK, due to a little bad language, and some sexual implications, although nothing explicit is shown. Probably not very interesting to anyone under the age of about 10 or 11 unless they happen to be interested in violins.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Julie and Julia (Meryl Streep, Amy Adams)

(Amazon UK link)

Julie and Julia is a film based on a book, which itself is a true story written by Julie Powell. Julie is a bored and rather flighty young American woman who needs some kind of focus to her life. She decides to cook her way through a French recipe book written by Julia Child a few decades earlier. She determines to cook every single recipe, and to complete them within the next year. Her husband persuades her to blog about the experience... and the blog takes off in unexpected ways.

I had never heard of Julia Child, but apparently her book - for Americans to learn how to cook in the French style, written some decades earlier - is quite well-known in the USA. The movie cleverly switches between Julie's story in the 1990s to that of Julia herself, as an American living in Paris trying to find ways to occupy herself.

Meryl Streep is brilliant in the role of Julia; she seems able to turn her abilities to just about any character, and I found her entirely believable - larger than life (both literally and metaphorically), a mixture of confidence and insecurity. Amy Adams as Julie was lovable, too, and quite believable if a bit annoying and over-emotional at times. Their husbands - played by Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina respectively - were likeable too, their interactions with their wives realistic and engaging.

As much as anything the film is about food, and the art of cooking, with some wonderful looking dishes being prepared. The amount of butter and cream used seems a little unreal in today's low-fat climate, and I did have to close my eyes at the scenes using live lobsters. But I was rooting for Julie to get through her challenge - and also for Julia, even while knowing that her book must have been published at some point!

The ending was perhaps a little sudden with no real explanation about what was going on; I wondered if it would be clearer in the book, but most of the reviews I have seen rate the film as rather better than the book. Having enjoyed the movie so much, I don't want to spoil it by having negative impressions of Julie, nor am I interested in a book full of bad language.

'Julie and Julia' is rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the USA, probably due to a few instances of bad language - however they were rare and mostly in context. There are several implied bedroom scenes but no nudity or anything unsuitable for children is actually shown.

Definitely recommended. There's an interesting 'extra' with the director and cast talking about the film and their roles in making it, which was enjoyable to watch afterwards.

review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews 4th September 2011