The Holiday (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz)

(Amazon UK link)

According to the IMDb site, there are several films with this unremarkable title. The one which Amazon recommended to me a while ago, and which we recently enjoyed very much, is the 2006 film ‘The Holiday’, with quite a high profile cast.

Kate Winslet stars as Iris, a somewhat shy newspaper columnist in the UK who has a tremendous crush on one of her colleagues. He knows this, but plays around with her emotions until making a dramatic announcement that he is getting engaged to another of their colleagues shortly before Christmas.

Cameron Diaz also stars, as Amanda: an outgoing and highly emotional movie-trailer maker in Los Angeles. She has a huge fight with her boyfriend and throws him out of her luxurious mansion, then decides to take a complete break somewhere quiet. She discovers Iris’s cottage on a house-sharing website, and proposes a swap...

So the scene is set, and the two young women fly across the Atlantic to each other’s homes. Iris is overwhelmed by Amanda’s amazing home, while Amanda is decidedly underwhelmed by the cosiness of Iris’s cottage, and the extreme chilliness of a British winter. Amanda is on the verge of giving up and flying home when she meets Iris’s brother Graham (Jude Law), and they find themselves strongly attracted to each other... although it seems that Graham has several women in his life already.

Meanwhile Iris gets to know her 90-year-old neighbour Arthur (Eli Wallach) who is feeling rather useless despite having had an amazing career in the past. He helps her move beyond her loneliness and she helps him see that he still has a great deal to give. Iris also meets Miles (Jack Black) and they become good friends before - inevitably - deciding that they, too, are falling in love.

It’s typical rom-com, of course with some amusing moments and a predictable, somewhat slushy feel-good ending. There are some quite emotional scenes, too. My only slight niggle is that Cameron Diaz’s character is very over-acted and caricatured - perhaps it makes sense in the initial Hollywood scenes, but she seems to have little of substance or intelligence, and it’s hard to reconcile her with the quiet, loyal and very likeable Graham.

Still, overall we thought this was wonderful stuff, just what I like for a cosy evening in, even if it happens to be the end of July rather than the middle of Winter.

Rated 12 in the UK, PG-13 in the US, I think that’s about right. There are one or two instances of bad language and some significant talk about intimacies. It’s not the sort of film that would appeal to younger children anyway.

Definitely recommended for adults and older teens.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Nativity! (Martin Freeman, Marc Wootten, Jason Watkins)

(Amazon UK link)

Yes, it’s July.

But our son gets fed up of Christmas films and songs in December, so we decided to watch this highly rated movie last night. Perhaps, we thought, it might detract a little from the heat and humidity that plagued us...

It’s the story of a struggling Catholic school where Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is a frustrated and often irritable teacher of small children. Once upon a time he went through a drama course, appearing on stage as an elf, and in a serious relationship with the beautiful Jennifer (Ashley Jensen). But then she went to the US in the hope of becoming a Hollywood producer, and so Paul decided to become a teacher. He also determined that he would never enjoy Christmas again.

So he’s not at all happy when his school Head (Pam Ferris) decides that he will be in charge of the school Nativity play that term. To make it worse, Paul’s old college friend Gordon (Jason Watkins) is a teacher at a local private school, where he gets rave reviews each year for his Nativity plays. And while Gordon isn’t exactly a villain, he’s rather snooty about Paul’s school and his chances. So Paul, thoroughly provoked, pretends that Jennifer will be bringing a Hollywood crew to see his school play. he doesn’t mention that he lost touch with Jennifer some years previously.

He doesn’t really suppose that Gordon will believe him, or that anything will come of his remarks, but unfortunately they’re overheard by Mr Poppy (Marc Wootten) who is Paul’s new classroom assistant. Not a normal quiet helper, he’s like a big kid himself, joining in with the children with great enthusiasm, and trusting everything he’s told. So he passes on the ‘news’ to the school Head (his aunt)... and the press get involved... and the silly lie gets more and more out of hand.

Most of the play is about Paul’s attempts to produce a Nativity play - or, rather, a musical - using children with little or no experience. And it works remarkably well. I don’t mean that he eventually produces a wonderful extravaganza - that’s pretty much taken as read, with a family Christmas film. But the children themselves are an absolute delight.

We wondered how stage schools managed to produce such natural kiddies - and learned, when we watched one of the ‘extras’, that these were not stage school children, but ordinary ones, since the director wanted them to be natural. And that’s exactly what they are, although apparently the audition process took many months.

The film - as we also learned from the extras - was not closely scripted. Much of it was improvised, which probably explains why it really does feel like a typical British primary school, with a bunch of very ordinary children who, when gently pushed, do some fairly extraordinary things.

There are humorous scenes, one or two moving scenes, and a wonderfully schmaltzy ending which we had pretty much foreseen, although not entirely so. The whole is rated U (or G in the US), meaning that it’s entirely suitable for young children; certainly there’s no violence or bad language, and the romance, such as it is, consists of a few kisses and a little sliding about in snow.

There are some great performances by the children - they are all stars, and I hope that at least some of them have continued with their drama careers. The adults all play their parts well, with caricatures, admittedly - Paul Maddens is really very irritable, and Desmond Poppy so very boisterous - but it all works, and makes for a totally captivating hour and a half. Even if we did see it in July!

The extras - deleted scenes, interviews and ‘making of’ - are well worth seeing too.

Wonderful stuff. Don’t expect any depth of plot (although the point about a small lie growing out of control is well made) or character, or even any great surprises. Watch with your children or grandchildren, or perhaps your grandparents... and have a good clean laugh, and the satisfaction of a fairytale ending.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel)

(Amazon UK link)

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from this, but it came highly recommended by various people - and since it featured both Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, as well as some other top names, we thought it would be worth seeing. All I knew was that several people set off for a retirement home in India, and found that it wasn’t quite what they were expecting...

The start of the film introduces us to the seven people who all end up travelling to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Judi Dench plays Evelyn, who has recently been widowed and really doesn’t know what to do with her life, or how she can afford to keep going. Maggie Smith plays Muriel, a woman who urgently needs a hip transplant, but does not want to have to wait several months for the NHS. She is very bigoted, so is not at all impressed with the idea of travelling to India for a quicker operation, but reluctantly agrees to it.

Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton play Douglas and Jean, a married couple who are just retired, and really don’t know what they want. Jean is discontented, not wanting to settle down in a small flat, but not remotely interested in anything in India either. Douglas seems endlessly patient, but gets frustrated by her constant negativity.

More forgettable are Madge (Celia Imrie), Norman (Ronald Pickup) and Graham (Tom Wilkinson). Madge wants a wealthy husband, Norman wants a woman - any woman, but probably not Madge - and Graham is returning to India to catch up with his past; he lived there for a while as a young man.

We get to know each of these characters briefly in their homes and work environments; each of them finds the advert for the hotel, purporting to be a new and wonderful retirement home. Not all their travel arrangements go smoothly, but they eventually arrive... to find a young and cheerful host called Sonny (brilliantly played by Dev Patel) who somehow finds a reason - or excuse - for every one of the hotel’s deficiencies. And there are many... it needs major renovation and upgrading, and is a far remove from the wonderful, up-to-date residence that was advertised...

There’s a lot of humour in this film, and also some very moving moments. One or two parts are unexpectedly poignant, and much is thought-provoking. Criticisms have been made that the story is demeaning to India... yet the country is displayed in its colourful, chaotic glory; it’s the stuck-in-a-rut lifestyles and expectations of the Brits that are more caricatured.

There isn’t a great deal of plot, but we enjoyed it very much. Not that one necessarily wants to think about retirement or growing old, but somehow that isn’t the main focus. Some of the hotel’s residents gain a new lease of life as they discover something - or someone - new.

Judi Dench is excellent, as always, but in my view Maggie Smith is the real star, transforming from an irritable old lady to someone observing everything that goes on, eventually taking on a very important role and looking twenty years younger. Dev Patel is also superb - and the whole was a great family movie.

Rated 12, probably because of a few instances of minor bad language and the racist inferences made in the early part of the film. Unlikely to be of much interest to anyone under the age of about 12 anyway.

Definitely recommended.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who: The Complete Specials (David Tennant)

(Amazon UK link)

It was not until we reached the end of Doctor Who Series 4 (starring David Tennant) a few months ago that I realised that Series 5 opened with Matt Smith established as the famous time lord. We had expected him to regenerate at the end of Series 4, but he didn’t. Research led me to the revelation that series 4 was mostly broadcast in 2008; series 5 not until 2010.  In the intervening year, there was no full series; instead, fans were treated to five longer ‘special’ episodes, as found in this box set.

The first episode, 'The Next Doctor', is a ‘Christmas Special’ broadcast in December 2008. The Doctor is in England in the middle of the 19th century, and meets someone else claiming to the ‘the Doctor’.  He has a sonic screwdriver - of sorts - and even a tardis, though it looks a little different from the usual police box... Meanwhile, the Cybermen are kidnapping children, and the two Doctors - naturally - sort this out.

The second episode, ‘Planet of the Dead’, was shown as an Easter Special in 2009.  There’s a rather cool upper class jewel thief, Lady Christina, who joins the Doctor on a bus as it travels through a wormhole to a strangely deserted planet. They have to figure out what’s going on, while experts back on earth try to work out how to get the bus back again without killing all the passengers.

The third ‘special’, 'The Waters of Mars', is more violent than the earlier two, and has some rather scary implications. The Doctor finds himself on Mars, meeting people he knows about from archive news stories.  He also knows that something terrible is going to happen, but - he claims - cannot do anything to change the course of history. In the meantime, something terrifying is happening to members of the crew...

The ‘specials’ end with a two-part episode, 'The End of Time', in which we finally have to say goodbye to David Tenant. It’s fast-paced and exciting, with the background of a prophecy by the Ood (from a previous series), and the regeneration of the evil time lord known as The Master, in a scene oddly reminiscent of Lord Voldemort’s regeneration in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. While it was undoubtedly thrilling in places, and quite moving in others, I felt that this double episode was a bit over-long, and could probably have been condensed into just one episode.

David Tennant is excellent in this entire series, evidently determined to go out as one of the most memorable Doctors. His acting ability shines through, to the extent that the character even becomes a little scary at times with a tendency towards playing God which was a little at odds with the previous series.

In addition to the main episodes, each of the five DVDs in this box set comes with a ‘Doctor Who Confidential’, a documentary about the making of the episode; one that we very much enjoyed was about ‘Planet of the Dead’. It explained how the production team managed to transport a double decker London bus to a desert in Dubai... and the problems that hit unexpectedly! Well worth seeing.

Definitely recommended if you like Doctor Who (or, indeed, David Tennant), but I wouldn't necessarily suggest this box set as an introduction to the series if you are unfamiliar with it.

It's quite expensive for what it is in the UK - only a couple of pounds cheaper than the full 13-episode series box sets - and decidedly over-priced in the US (at the time of writing).

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

From Time to Time (Alex Etel, Maggie Smith)

(Amazon UK link)

The main character in this film is Tolly, a thirteen-year-old boy, played by Alex Etel. The story is set in 1944, at the end of World War II. Tolly’s father is ‘missing in action’, so his mother has gone to London to see if she can find out more information. The only place she can think of sending Tolly for the school holidays is to his grandmother, Mrs GreenKnowe (Maggie Smith).

Unfortunately there has been a rift in the family, so Tolly is a stranger both to his Granny, and to the house.

Mrs Greenknowe starts telling Tolly about previous inhabitants of the house. This is partly prompted by his interest in some of the portraits and other artefacts he spots. Her housekeeper and gardener also tell him snippets of history, about family members and also about a terrible fire that burned down an entire wing.

Then Tolly starts to see ghosts. At first terrified, he is reassured by his grandmother’s calm acknowledgement that the spirits of the former family members do appear - and then finds himself appearing to them. As he asks more questions, he is taken more often into the past ,where he gets caught up in racism, intolerance, and the unpleasantness of one of his ancestors as a young man.

This is actually a film for older children, an adaptation of a book called ‘The Chimneys of Green Knowe’. It is one of a series of books by Lucy M Boston based in the middle of the 20th century, featuring an old house with both current and past inhabitants.

I thought the film was cleverly done. With no preconceptions, and not having read the books, I was able to follow the story easily enough - which is not always a given for me. Tolly is a likeable boy, at first rather awkward and defensive, knowing that his grandmother did not approve of his parents’ marriage. Maggie Smith, of course, is brilliant. Gradually Tolly and his grandmother learn to respect and even love each other, and there are some positive themes about family ties and loyalty that shine through.

We watched this with an adult friend, and found it quite tense in places, moving in others. There are some moments of light humour too, particularly in the initial interactions between Tolly and his grandmother. Their slow acceptance of each other is done very well, as is the gradual unfolding of two stories alongside each other, both present and past.

There are, of course, plot holes from the time travel point of view. It would be difficult to avoid them. One such ‘problem’ is raised directly by Tolly, and cleverly answered by his grandmother in the sense of having to accept that something apparently illogical happened.  The ending of the film is perhaps a bit abrupt, and yet it works well without leaving too many questions open.

Apparently the setting and much of the story deviates quite sharply from the book, which naturally annoys those who are purists about such things. But this is explained in the one and only ‘Extra’ - a conversation with Julian Fellowes, who directed the film. He talks about wanting to make it for many years, and the way he had to make changes. These were based on the limitations of the media, and the need for images and drama that make a movie always somewhat different from a book.

All in all, we thought it well done and worth watching. The rating is PG in both the US and UK, which seems about right; some of the action is quite tense and even a little scary, and I doubt if it would be of much interest to anyone under the age of about ten or eleven.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Doctor Who, the complete Fourth series (David Tennant, Catherine Tate)

(Amazon UK link)

Long before we reached the end of Doctor Who series Three, I had put Series Four on my wishlist, and was given it for my birthday last year. So we were able to start watching Series Four almost immediately. But with lack of time and other commitments, it has taken us about six months to complete it.

Season Four is the last full season with David Tennant as the Doctor. There is a great first episode featuring Kylie Minogue, of all people, as a waitress called Astrid. She would have made a good companion to the Doctor - they got along extremely well - but alas, it was not to be.

Donna - Catherine Tate - appears in episode Two (out of fourteen in all), a quirky and somewhat amusing one featuring some weight loss pills, and the cute aliens known as adipose (which can now be bought as Doctor Who Adipose Plush). Donna had appeared briefly in the Christmas Special at the start of Series Three, but had been absent from the show since then.

I didn't much like Donna at first. She seemed a bit feeble and not particularly intelligent. However, her lack of romantic interest in the Doctor was quite refreshing, after Rose and Martha, and she grew in confidence as the series progressed. By the last few episodes she had become - as another companion put it - the most important person in creation. By the final exciting two-part episodes Donna had shown herself to be a loyal and brilliant companion... which made her eventual departure from the show, in the last episode, really rather sad in the way that it happened.

There are threads running through this whole series which make it more complicated than the old ones I used to watch from behind the sofa. Yet there are still quite a mixture - from the cuddly Adipose to the terrifying Vashta Nerada, not to mention the ancient daleks with their battle cry 'exterminate'. Daleks still make me shudder and want to hide, like I did as a child.

Lots of companions re-appear in this series, including one from the Doctor's future (should that be 'pre-appear?') in a spooky episode involving a vast library, some terrifyingly tiny aliens, and a small girl. Then there's a delightfully light-weight episode featuring Agatha Christie (at a house-party hosted by a society lady played by Felicity Kendall) and a script which includes a large number of titles of Agatha Christie's books. There's a giant wasp, too, which could have been terrifying but somehow didn't ever feel quite real.

David Tennant is brilliant throughout. It's hard to imagine how he can ever be bettered.

The final DVD - out of six - contains a wonderful documentary, seeing into the lives of those involved in the show, with script-reading, filming and post-production.

All in all, this is great stuff and we are now complete fans of Doctor Who. I just wish I had known sooner that there are some extra episode from 2009 which are chronologically between Series Four and Series Five. I was given Series Five for Christmas, but we need to get hold of these specials before we can move on to see Matt Smith as Doctor...

Definitely recommended. Rated 12, which seems about right, as the storylines are complex and some of the ideas are scary, even if the violence is relatively mild compared to much of what passes as entertainment these days. No nudity or sex, unsurprisingly, and only a few instances of minor bad language.

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews

Her Majesty Mrs Brown (Judi Dench, Billy Connolly)

(Amazon UK link)

I picked up the DVD of 'Her Majesty, Mrs Brown' at a charity shop. While we have enjoyed several historical dramas, including an excellent one involving a true story about royalty (The King's Speech) this is not really our preferred genre. However, when I noticed that the two main characters are Dame Judi Dench and Billy Connolly (better known as a stand-up comic) I thought it could be worth watching. 

It sat on our shelves for some months, however, until visiting friends opted to see it. At 103 minutes this is not a long film, and we were all mesmerised.

Judi Dench, as ever, is excellent. She plays a very upright, rather controlling Queen Victoria. She is initially portrayed as still in deep mourning, three years after the death of her beloved husband Albert. The public - and parliament - are trying to persuade her to return to public duties. But she refuses, insisting that she is Queen and can decide what she will and won't do.

John Brown (Billy Connolly) who was one of her husband's servants and confidants is sent for. He is not entirely happy about this, but has a long and loyal admiration for the Queen. This is not at first obvious, because he speaks his mind, and does not kowtow to his 'superiors'. Before long he starts to take the Queen out for rides, and with his sometimes brash, always honest approach begins to bring her out of her depression, something in which the rest of her staff failed dismally.

The Queen and John become very good friends despite their vast difference in status. She sees something of everyday life, and learns to relax a little in his company. Apparently historians cannot decide what exactly the relationship was, and whether there was anything more to it than friendship. This film does not in fact suggest anything more - there is not the smallest hint of impropriety, despite the title. But the amount of time the two spend together still gives rise to more gossip.

There is some lovely photography, with gorgeous scenery in Scotland when the Queen and company go to stay in Balmoral. The two main characters are excellent and entirely believable; Victoria in particular ages gracefully and perfectly, as the story progresses.

There isn't really much plot to this film, but we didn't notice that while watching. It's almost entirely character-driven, and that works extremely well. While far from gripping, it was very watchable by four of us with rather different tastes in general. There is some deep emotion, and also a few moments of light humour to lift the mood.

I'm not sure I would want to see this again, but it was certainly eye-opening in introducing a story I knew little about, and also seeing a rather different side of Billy Connolly.

(At the time of writing, the UK Amazon price is showing as almost £25 new - I would not buy any DVD at this price, and certainly not this one! But at a few pounds from a charity shop, I think it is worth having).

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews