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Charles Darwin may be revered in the UK as the father of the theory of evolution, but for many in America he is nothing more than spawn of the devil.

Unfortunately, this means Creation struggled to secure a distribution deal in the US; a great pity, for this shows us the human – and troubled – side of the man.

Paul Bettany plays Darwin as a measured scientist, willing to wait years, even decades, to perfect his theories through experimentation and observation before publishing them. Even when other scientists (including an excellent Toby Young as Thomas Huxley) urge him to publish, he holds back. However, his caution is also due to outside factors including his wife’s (Jennifer Connelly) religious beliefs, the disapproval of the local vicar (Jeremy Northam), and the untimely death of Darwin’s beloved daughter (Martha West). Continue reading “CINEMA: Creation” »

With a heart warming true story like the one featured in this film it was likely that Universal thought they had a possible Oscar winner on their hands.

With a heart warming true story like the one featured in this film it was likely that Universal thought they had a possible Oscar winner on their hands.

It tells the story of LA Times journalist Steve Lopez (Robert Downey Jr) who, looking for something to write about in his weekly column, discovers a mentally ill homeless guy named Nathaniel Ayers (Jamie Foxx) who play beautiful classical music in the city streets on the two strings of his tatty violin. Continue reading “CINEMA: The Soloist” »

If you’re not into fashion then this documentary about the putting together of American Vogue’s biggest ever issue will probably not be of much interest, however, there is plenty here to amuse and entertain.

Ostensibly, the film concentrates on Vogue’s British-born editor Anna Wintour, she of the steel curtain fringe who must be obeyed (and the template for Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada). But Wintour, with her withering looks and stick-insect frame, proves to be far less interesting than the main creative force behind Vogue, Grace Codrington.

The scenes which follow ex-model Grace from her initial ideas for photoshoots through to the studio or location shots where her visions are captured are truly inspiring. At one point she faces the movie’s cameraman and tells him she has had an idea that includes him; when we duly see him taking part in a shoot that makes the September issue it’s almost a eureka moment – aha, so that’s what she was thinking!

Also highly entertaining is a passage of scenes following photographer Mario Testino shooting Sienna Miller in Rome for Vogue’s front cover, and not coming up with the shot Wintour specifically asked for.

You couldn’t make it up.

Dee Pilgrim

Anybody filming Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray faces a real dilemma; should they show the portrait of Gray as his debauched ways change it into a hellish monstrosity, or should they not show it and leave it up to the audience’s own imagination as to what it looks like?

Either way they’re damned because if they do show it it can’t possibly live up to everyone’s expectations and if they don’t the audience are bound to be disappointed they didn’t get a look see. In fact, it is the portrait of Dorian that proves to be the disappointing note in director Oliver Parker’s handsomely-made production.

Rising star Ben Barnes plays the beautiful Dorian, an unspoiled young man who inherits a vast fortune. Unused to the ways of society, he is taken under the wing of bored social mover and shaker Lord Henry Wotton (Colin Firth) whose interest is piqued. Can he mould Dorian into the morally corrupt, debauched libertine he himself would like to be – if only he had the courage?

He decides to give it a try and soon has Dorian believing that ‘the only two things worth having are “youth and beauty”. So Dorian makes a pact with the devil; he will sell his soul to the dark side, but only if he can retain his looks and never age. Dorian embarks on a life of orgies, trips to opium dens and even murder, and indeed never ages. However, up in the attic, something awful is happening to the beautiful portrait of him, painted by Basil Hallward (Ben Chaplin).

Although Oliver Parker has over-emphasised the homoerotic charge of the book, it looks extremely elegant and there are some lovely performances, especially from Firth who has never been better than as louche Lord Wotton.

However, the portrait slowly morphs into a decidedly porcine caricature, more comic than scary, and maybe it really would have been better to never see it in its final incarnation.

Dee Pilgrim

After her very impressive debut with Red Road, Andrea Arnold impresses once again with a slice of teenage life viewed under a powerful microscope. On a rundown Essex council estate Mia (Katie Jarvis) lives with her single mum (Kierston Wareing) and gobby younger sister (Rebecca Griffiths).

Excluded from school and unable to contain her frustration and anger at everything and everyone, Mia seems to be slipping close and closer to ASBO hell. She has no friends, nowhere to go and nothing to do, although she dreams of being a dancer. When mum starts seeing a new boyfriend Connor (Michael Fassbender) Mia feigns disinterest in him, but secretly she is intrigued and is soon casting him as the father figure she has never known. But with teenage hormones rampaging, the relationship between Mia and Connor changes into something less innocent and positive, with Mia developing a dangerous crush that will tear her family apart.

Although there is an element of inevitability about the story arc of Fish Tank, Arnold directs with flashes of pure genius and beauty. In the midst of the concrete gloom of the estate, dark orange sunbeams will dance through windows, the image of a vast wind turbine slowly turning is used throughout the film, while the scene of the mother and her two daughters dancing silently together in the front room of their flat speaks of ties of love that can never be articulated in words.

Katie Jarvis, who had never acted before, has to carry the bulk of the movie and does so with an assurance that is almost scary. One to watch and savour.

Dee Pilgrim