45 Years (Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay)

(Amazon UK link)

This isn’t a film I had heard of. But relatives had been given the DVD, so we decided to spend an evening watching ‘45 years’. The back of the box told us that it was about a couple in Norfolk who were preparing for a party to celebrate 45 years of marriage, when a letter arrives to disrupt the husband’s peace of mind…

The letter is from someone he loved and lost nearly 50 years previously. Inevitably it brings some poignant memories back to him. As he talks to his wife, she realises he hasn’t been entirely honest with her, and she becomes anxious and uncertain herself.

That’s really it, as far as the plot goes. This is not a fast-action film, nor is there  any mystery or even growth. The ending is positive, on the whole, but leaves the story open; it could go either way. The reason this film won awards is not the plot, but the way it’s made.

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling as the couple Geoff and Kate are superb. Initially shown as comfortably and contentedly married, walking their dog, going into town, doing errands, we gradually discover that there are many depths to their marriage and to Geoff’s past. The scenery is pleasant, the pace slow, but absolutely right for a character-based emotive story.

The film is divided into days, each introduced briefly, as we see Kate making preparations for the party. Sufficient is shown to see that this is going to be a big occasion, but never so much that it becomes dull. The problems inherent in growing older are shown without self-pity. Geoff had a serious medical problem four years earlier which is why they are celebrating 45 years rather than 40.

I was a little puzzled about when the film was supposed to be set. Made in 2015, it mentioned 1962 as the date when Geoff’s tragedy occurred, and that he was 25 at the time. Presumably he met Kate a few years later, and I thought at first that it must be fully contemporary. Much of it seems to be appropriate to current country life. Kate wears jeans, a travel agent uses a modern flat screen terminal. Yet neither of the pair have mobile phones and in the scenes showing them walking through crowds of people in the town, there was not a single person staring at or using a phone, which suggests perhaps the earlier part of the 21st century.

Rated 15 (R in the United States), presumably because there is one drawn-out intimate bedroom scene; nothing explicit as such but from the dialogue and implications it’s clear what is going on. There’s no violence or smoking or nudity, and only a few instances of bad language; however, I can’t imagine that the storyline would be of the slightest interest to children, or indeed anyone under the age of about forty.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

Children of a Lesser God (William Hurt, Marlee Matlin)

(Amazon UK link)

I doubt if I would ever have come across this film, which was made in the mid-1980s, had it not been for the recommendation of a friend. I put it on my wishlist and was given it some time ago. We finally decided to watch it at the weekend and found it mesmerising…

‘Children of a lesser god’ is set in a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in the United States. A new speech teacher, James (William Hurt) has just been appointed. His job is to encourage students, mostly teenagers, to be motivated to use language even though they cannot hear and to find reasons for doing so. His methods are somewhat unorthodox but he quickly becomes popular, at least with the teenagers he is working with.

It doesn’t take him long to notice Sarah (Marlee Matlin), a young woman in her twenties who is working as a cleaner. He learns that she was herself a pupil at the school some years previously, but that despite being highly intelligent she preferred to stay on to work at the school in a menial role rather than venture out elsewhere to study or work. He also discovers that she does not speak or lip-read, and is determined to find out why…

The story is essentially a love story between two very different people but it’s also, for the era, quite a thought-provoking and sensitive look into ways in which society looks askance at those who suffer from a disability. Sarah gradually reveals her rather sordid past, and her fear of failure, or of being considered stupid; James gradually realises that he needs to adjust to those whose needs are not the same as his.

The acting is excellent, the settings believable, the dialogue crisp, and the story moved at just the right pace for our tastes. I was a little surprised that there were no subtitles for some of the very rapid signing, although in most cases a ‘hearing’ person translates; but perhaps that was deliberate, to show a little of how deaf people feel when in the presence of those who are speaking rapidly without looking at them.

Marlee Matlin in particular was brilliant in the role of Sarah, with a very expressive face that communicated as much as words could have done. The actress is herself deaf, and this was her debut film role, for which she won a well-deserved Academy award for Best Actress.

The film is rated R in the United States, for several instances of ‘strong’ language, and implied nudity and intimacies; however it’s rated 15 in the UK and as young as 12 in some other countries. It’s not the kind of story that’s likely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about 14 or 15 anyway, in my view, but is certainly worth watching by anyone wanting to know a little more about attitudes to those with hearing difficulties.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

Dinner with Friends (Andie MacDowell, Dennis Quaid)

(Amazon UK link)

I’m not entirely sure why this DVD was recommended to me by Amazon. However, the blurb and reviews made it sound interesting, so it went on my wishlist, and I was given it for my birthday a few months ago. Last night we decided, along with an adult son, to watch it. I chose it out of the selection he was looking at because it was the shortest, and I was tired…

‘Dinner with Friends’ is apparently based on a play of the same name. This makes a great deal of sense in retrospect. It was originally made for TV, back in 2001. There are only four significant characters, which is quite unusual in a film. Karen (Andie MacDowell) and Gabe (Dennis Quaid) are the main pair. They’ve been married for about twelve years, and work together as food photographers and reporters. They have recently returned from a trip abroad, and we meet them when they, and their young sons, are expecting their closest friends to dinner.

Beth (Toni Collette) arrives in pouring rain, along with her two children. But her husband Tom (Greg Kinnear) is not with her. She makes an excuse but it’s clear that there’s a problem. Gabe and Karen seem remarkably unobservant and tactless, and she eventually breaks down and admits that he’s left her, after falling in love with a travel agent called Nancy….

The rest of the story is about Gabe and Karen coming to terms with this shock, and re-evaluating their own relationship. We hear Tom’s side of the story, and then there’s a lengthy flashback to the time when Gabe and Karen were newly married, and looking forward to their two close friends getting to know each other….

The first half hour or so was really quite depressing, full of angst, and not at all the kind of light-hearted story I was expecting. Perhaps I should have read the blurb on the back rather than merely the length. But as it progressed, I found myself caught up in the lives of these two couples. There’s not a great deal of plot; it’s an exploration of character and relationships. I found it to be realistic, on the whole. Neither couple is portrayed as ideal, and even the best of marriages is shown to have tensions, misunderstandings and some anger.

While Karen’s strongly Southern accent is a little difficult to understand at times, she gives a great performance. The chemistry between her and Gabe works extremely well. Tom, too, is mostly convincing, but we found Beth a little fake at times. As a young bohemian artist she is believable; towards the end, having lunch with Karen, she is also authentic. But we couldn’t quite believe in her grief-stricken and angry phase, which is the main part of the movie.

The children have occasional bit parts which are realistic, and they all did well in a film which, presumably, they weren’t able to see in its entirety as it’s not intended for children. I didn’t find any of it humorous, though there were odd mildly amusing moments, mostly connected with the children.

I didn’t like the amount of bad language, which is probably what gives this a 15 rating in the UK, and R in the stricter United States. There’s a fair amount of discussion about sexual issues too, which would also make this unsuitable for children or younger teens, but there’s nothing explicit, nor any nudity, and the one mildly violent scene is not particularly disturbing.

I can’t imagine that the content would be of interest to anyone younger than about twenty or so anyway as it’s essentially all about marriage, long-term friendship, and growing older.

I found the ending encouraging and positive, and by that stage was completely engrossed in it.

No extras.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Rewrite (Hugh Grant)

(Amazon UK link)

I like browsing Amazon’s recommendations now and again, looking for things to add to my wishlist. I assume that they offered this suggestion because it’s a light romantic film with some humour, and also because it stars Hugh Grant, and I have given high ratings to some of his other films.

So I was pleased to be given ‘The Re-write’ for my birthday, and last night we watched it with an adult son. Hugh Grant, as our son commented afterwards, almost always plays similar parts, and this one suits him perfectly. He plays a washed-up British screenwriter in his late forties called Keith. He had one major success some years previously, but is now struggling financially. He is offered a temporary job teaching screenwriting at a small American university, and while he doesn’t think writing can be taught, he sees no alternative…

Keith is rather naive, unsure of what he’s supposed to do in his class, overwhelmed by the seventy scripts he has to read within two days, and nervous about his new role. It’s ideal for the slightly bumbling Englishman that Hugh Grant is used to playing, surrounded by women who evidently find him attractive.

There’s a storyline involving a seductive girl in his class and a pleasanter one involving an older student who has daughters of his own. And there are some gems about writing in general, as well as insights into university life. As Keith gets to know his class, he discovers that teaching isn’t such a bad career after all, and that he can learn to care about each individual and help them in different ways.

Most of the film is predictable, and I don’t recall any particularly humorous sections, but it’s light-hearted and fun, relationship-based rather than with any great plot. I liked the way that, although most of Keith’s students are attractive girls, the two rather unattractive nerdy boys play significant positive parts in his class, and in the story as a whole.

The rating is 12 which I think is right, though it wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone under the age of about sixteen. There are implied intimacies but nothing overt; some bad language, and a great deal of drinking, but no violence.

Recommended for a light and pleasant evening’s undemanding viewing.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who series 8 (Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman)

(Amazon UK link)

Although I have enjoyed some of the ‘new’ Doctor Who series in recent years, I wasn’t too certain whether to continue acquiring and watching the DVDs after yet another time lord regeneration. I very much appreciated David Tennant as the tenth doctor, but never quite believed in Matt Smith as the eleventh. The story-lines, too, became more and more complex with a lot of fast action, and although I enjoyed series 7, it was stressful to watch, in places.

We then managed to see the TV specials ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’ via someone’s i-player system. I thought them clever and well done, but was a little dubious about Peter Capaldi becoming the twelfth doctor. He was excellent as a Roman citizen in Season Four, but I couldn’t quite envisage him as The Doctor.

Still, those who watched it in the UK said that Season Eight was excellent. So once the DVDs were available as a boxed set at not too great a price, I put it on my wishlist, and was pleased to be given it for Christmas six months ago. We’ve just finished watching it, an episode or two at a time, with our son. And I’m a convert. Peter Capaldi is excellent as The Doctor.

Clara (Jenna Coleman) remains as the assistant in this series, and does so extremely well. There’s an ongoing story arc involving her working as a teacher and falling in love with another teacher, called Danny Pink (Samuel Anderson).  Danny and The Doctor don’t trust or like each other, and the tensions play out in many of the episodes giving a nicely human and ‘real world’ touch.

There’s also a story-arc concerning a mysterious woman called ‘Missy’, who seems to welcome people into an afterlife. This seemed to be an addendum to just a few episodes and I kept forgetting about it, until all was revealed in the finale…

While it’s hard to recall every episode in this series, watched sporadically over six months, I particularly liked the one called ‘Robot of Sherwood’. The Doctor is determined to prove to Clara that Robin Hood never existed, only to find themselves caught up in the band of ‘Merry Men’ and an archery contest. I liked ‘The Mummy on the Orient Express’ too, a clear nod to Agatha Christie, with quite a spine-chilling storyline. My favourite, though, was the gentler ‘In the forest of the night’, which involves a party of school children, led by Danny Pink, and some huge foliage that starts to spring up all over London, causing chaos.

The finale, in two parts, involves some of the Doctor’s classic arch-enemies, but once again with a new twist and a storyline which was clearer and less rapid than some of the other season finales. I thought it was very well done, with a bittersweet ending as the Doctor and Clara each try to hide something from the other, leading - one presumes - to their not travelling together in future.

There are of course plot holes, inevitable in time travel stories, and some bizarre ideas that seem contradictory to some of what went before (a 'good' dalek? Cybermen with emotions...?) but all in all, we thought it an excellent season, one that I can envisage seeing again in a few years.

I’m looking forward very much to seeing Series Nine at some point!

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

Liberal Arts (Josh Radnor and Elizabeth Olsen)

(Amazon UK link)

I don’t think I had come across any of the actors in this film. So I think it must have been one of the many that Amazon recommended to me, based on my previous wishlist and reviewed DVDs. The blurb sounded interesting, so I put it on my list, and was delighted to be given it for my recent birthday. Last night our twenty-something son suggested that the three of us watch it together.

‘Liberal Arts’ is mostly based in a university campus in the United States. We first meet the newly-single Jesse (Josh Radnor) who is in his mid-thirties, and evidently an academic type. He doesn’t do well with practical details, as is amply demonstrated in the first scene. He seems to find books more interesting than people.

Jesse is wondering what to do with the rest of his life, and why everything goes wrong when he gets an unexpected phone call from Peter (Richard Jenkins). Peter is one of the professors he particularly admired when he was an undergraduate. He asks Josh if he would say a few words at his retiring banquet.

The story moves quite slowly at first, but that sets the pace nicely for a character-based story which doesn’t have a great deal of plot. That suited us ideally; we wanted something undemanding and light, and this more than adequately served its purpose. Jesse spends time chatting with Peter and some friends of his, including their 19-year-old daughter Zibby (Elizabeth Coleman). She is mature for her years, and finds herself very much attracted to Jesse. She persuades him to start listening to classical music, and then they begin a correspondence using pen and paper…

It could have been a predictable rom-com so we were pleased that in fact it wasn’t. Unusually for modern films, moral issues were considered, and the romance as such is quite low-key. It’s a pity there had to be an intimate bedroom scene (nothing overt, though, and with a couple of unexpected great lines) but there are many subplots. Jesse finds himself mentor to a geeky intellectual, and befriended by a red-hatted bohemian, as well as having lengthy discussions with both Zibby and Peter.

Our favourite scene was the one where Jesse tells Zibby exactly what he had thought of the first of the Twilight series of books, after being persuaded that it was unfair to judge without reading it himself. We loved the way that most of the characters, one way or another, were readers and related through books.

Recommended to anyone who likes gentle, mildly intellectual character-based stories with great acting. Much of it felt so real that I sometimes forgot that it was entirely fictional. But if your taste runs towards thrillers or fast action films, then you might find this slow-moving and possibly even a bit dull.

The rating is 12 which seems fair; it wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone under the age of about fifteen or sixteen anyway. There are plenty of suggestive comments but no nudity; minor bad language, but nothing major; no violence at all.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews

The Lady in the Van (starring Maggie Smith and Alex Jennings)

(Amazon UK link)

I had seen mixed reviews on this film, and the DVD price was such that I didn’t want to add it to my wishlist yet, not sure if I would like it. On the other hand, anything that stars Maggie Smith is likely to be worth seeing, and my father has a copy, so when I was staying with him for a few days, he suggested we see it.

The ‘mostly true’ story is about the writer Alan Bennett, played as two separate halves of his character, by Alex Jennings. He lives in a quiet street in London, and meets the eccentric, elderly Miss Shepherd who lives in a van. She smells bad, she is ungrateful and rude, and she is clearly saddled with enormous guilt for something in her past.

Alan invites her to park her van on his driveway for a month or two, until she has decided where to live next… and stays there for fifteen years. During that time he becomes more and more frustrated with her, but can’t bring himself to turn her out. The film is about their relationship with its ups and downs, and while there are parts that are fictionalised, the basic plot is true.

I haven’t read the book, and am not sure I want to: while I usually like books better than films, I can’t believe that any prose could match up to Maggie Smith’s flawless performance. The direction, too, was excellent. Having two Alan Bennetts - one who writes, one who lives - works brilliantly. We gradually learn more and more about Miss Shepherd’s varied life and career - she is not a school drop-out or from an impoverished family, but once had a stunning career, and then spent some time as a nun, attempting to quell her personal ambitions and loves.

While the story itself is not all that riveting, Maggie Smith is wonderful and Alex Jennings makes an excellent foil. There were a few places when I almost laughed aloud, but most of the story is bittersweet, portraying realistically the oddly liberal attitudes of the 1970s, the harshness of some Catholic institutions, and the plight of the homeless.

Alongside the main story is a subplot about the tragedy of dementia. This is not related to Miss Shepherd, despite being bizarrely eccentric with some delusions of grandeur, but in the author’s own mother.

The ending could have been depressing, although inevitable, but reveals the last of the puzzles in the story, and ends in a surreal scene that, somehow, despite the ‘mostly true’ story, seems appropriate in its oddity.

Rated 12 (PG-13 in the US) and I think that’s about right. There are a couple of instances of ‘strong’ language, and several mild ones, and one unpleasantly gory (albeit brief) scene at the end, but nothing else that would be unsuitable for children, although I can’t imagine it would hold the interest of anyone under the age of about 15 or so. There are implications about Alan's lifestyle, but it took me about half the film to realise what was going on; there's nothing explicit, and nothing that most children would notice.

Review copyright 2016 Sue's DVD Reviews