QUARTET (Dustin Hoffman, 2012) viewed on 11/2/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

quartet

Starring: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly

You may like this if you liked: The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (John Madden, 2011), Calender Girls (Nigel Cole, 2003) anything light and fluffy.

Beecham House is a home for retired musicians where the residents put on an annual concert to raise money to keep the home open. Cecily (Pauline Collins), Wilfred (Connolly) and Reggie (Courtenay) plan to sing a piece by Verdi that they all sang together at the peak of their careers which they believe will raise enough money to keep Beecham House going for quite a few years. A new resident arrives in the form of Jean Horton (Smith), ex wife of Reggie and still acting like a diva who disrupts the harmony the group of three have. Jean was the other who sang on the Verdi piece as part of the quartet that was so successful at the time. They decide to try and persuade Jean to perform it once again with them at the annual concert, but Jean is extremely reluctant and it also means Jean and Reggie burying a few ghosts from the past.

Without even watching there are immediate and unavoidable comparisons here to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as Quartet is part of an increasingly frequently made group of films aimed at the so called ‘grey pound’. These are essentially films about old people for an old person that have a nice heartfelt story that is quite is quite easy going and has a nice balance of sincerity and comedy. That is essentially what Quartet is, I was also by far the youngest person in the sold out (!) cinema when I saw it. However, this is not to say it automatically alienates anyone under 60, there is plenty of enjoyment to be had here by all ages.

For all the stigmas attached to Marigold Hotel I actually found it perfectly enjoyable and Quartet is pretty much the same. With a concept like this and the menagerie of different characters the comedy pretty much writes itself and there are some very funny moments, I certainly never thought I would here Tom Courtenay call a woman a “skinny twat”. There is of course substance to the story and there are attempts to cover all the usual themes of getting old and the many emotions that comes with this. However to maintain a light hearted tone these are often broken up by comic lines are never dealt with in depth. The story is very predictable but this is forgivable due to the enjoyable nature of the story and the fact that the film is almost fully aware of its place in that is not going to change anyone’s outlook on life. The supporting cast who play the residents of the home are all retired musicians and performers which add a real sense of authenticity.

One of the major factors in Quartets favour is that is very well made, taking advantage of the film’s beautiful settings, both interior and exterior. It is very well directed and well shot; the cinematography is excellent giving a very autumnal feel. Though this is Dustin Hoffman’s first directorial offering, having worked with some of the greatest directors in his long career this is hardly the work of a film student having his first go at directing a feature. I have heard complaints about the ending, but for me personally it was fitting and made in the appropriate way.

In summary, Quartet is a very well made and genuinely entertaining film. Lacking in substance but a good light-hearted romp, and perfect if you fancy a light hearted viewing experience with plenty of laughs along the way.

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SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS (Martin McDonagh, 2012) viewed on 10/2/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

7 psychopaths

Starring: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken

You may like this if you liked: In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008), Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002) Burn after Reading (Joel & Ethan Coen, 2008)

Marty (Farrell) is an Irish screen writer living in LA suffering from a severe case of writers block while attempting to write his lasts screenplay. All he has is the title of Seven Psychopaths, meanwhile his oddball friend Billy (Rockwell) who steals dogs for a living and then his partner in crime Hans (Walken) returns them to claim the offered reward. Unfortunately things go a bit wrong when they steal the beloved Shih Tzu of a local psychopathic gangster (Woody Harrelson) and a war is started which Marty inadvertently becomes involved. While all this carnage goes on, Marty continues, with help from Billy and Hans, to try and write his script about these seven psychopaths and what actually happens to them often seems to parallel the script he is trying to write.

It is unavoidable to make a comparison between McDonagh and the protagonist here. In Bruges was an exceptional film that was incredibly well written and performed the miracle of combining extreme comedy and extreme violence perfectly. How the hell does he follow that up? Well it appears he has gone all Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation) and written a film about writing a film. This is very dangerous territory as there is a huge risk of appearing smug, pretentious, self-indulgent or all three. Thankfully, in my opinion McDonagh just about pulls it off and produces what is an extremely entertaining and funny film. Though Seven Psychopaths is certainly not perfect and maybe takes advantage of its unique premise to get out of certain plot situations and does not always get away with it.

What works in Seven Psychopaths is that this film never takes itself too seriously and always feels like it is mainly a comedy. The comedy does work extremely well and the laughs are constant throughout the entire narrative. There are some very funny swipes at the action film genre and the likes that any film fans will immensely enjoy. One of the main elements as to why this film is so enjoyable is that the cast are on tremendous goofy form. They have obviously been given freedom to really make their characters as mad as possible, it is quite clear they are having fun, and we certainly have fun watching them.

Maybe when McDonagh gets stuck somewhere it does feel sometimes a little too convenient that he can get out of that narrative situation by getting a character to then admit that is a ridiculous situation, we can then all laugh about it and somehow that is ok. It feels maybe that McDonagh takes advantage of this too many times. There is of course the famous line in the trailer that the female characters are awful, and they pretty much are in Seven Psychopaths, in moments like this it is hard to know if McDonagh is being satirical or just plain lazy. There are also some moments that don’t work for me, such as a subplot about Vietnamese priest feels like it just does not add anything.

In summary, Seven Psychopaths is one of the more enjoyable and genuinely funny comedies of recent time. However, though avoiding being pretentious there is an element of self indulgence and borderline laziness from the director which takes slight advantage of the viewer’s good nature. Do not take it too seriously, and it becomes tremendous fun.

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TED (Seth Macfarlane, 2012)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

ted

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Seth Macfarlane

You may like this if you liked: anything Family Guy related, Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980), The Hangover II (Todd Phillips, 2011)

John Bennett is a child with no friends, and one Christmas he makes a wish that his teddy bear, called Ted obviously, would come to life. He does and they vow to be best friends forever. However Ted grows up to be a pot-smoking, swearing sex obsessed layabout who basically always makes a grown up John (now Wahlberg) the same. However, John’s long term girlfriend Lori (Kunis) wants John to change his ways and make Ted get a job and his own place. This places severe strain on his relationship with her and his friendship with Ted.

Before I express any opinion on Ted, it is vitally important to state that I am not a fan of Seth Macfarlane. I liked family guy at first and I don’t mind his particular style of puerile humour. When studying screenwriting I was always reminded of the rule of three when it came to jokes, however Seth Macfarlane is obviously oblivious to this, and as Family Guy must be on its 2,000th season by now the jokes just haven’t changed and have just become extremely old and boring. I enjoyed his first Star Wars parody, but the other two were just exactly the same and in my humble opinion boring and not funny. Now here we have Ted, his first feature length film, as I am sure as anyone can guess, my expectations were low.

In this review it will be hard not to include spoilers, but as I am probably one of the last people to see it I guess that should not be a problem. Firstly, this is no change of style from Family Guy; the humour is exactly the same. That is fine, and I will confess there are some moments that did genuinely make me laugh. However, my main issue is that Ted simply does not work as a film. The last thirty minutes are embarrassingly cringe-worthy and almost undermine everything before it. Though I feel I must state right now this is not necessarily the fault of Seth Macfarlane, more due to fact that films of this style have to conform to a certain narrative structure.

This could have been a 40 minute family guy episode in which Chris Griffin gets a teddy Bear for Christmas and it comes to life and they worry about how he and the bear will grow up etc etc. However, when venturing into the realms of feature length films there are certain narrative rules that a commercial film like this has to conform to. The Inbetweeners Movie (Ben Plamer, 2011) had exactly the same problems. There has to be character arcs, a dramatic scene towards the end, a bad guy getting his redemption and a sense of catharsis at the very end. All this happens and just does not fit in with the tone of the film and feels very unnatural, almost like one of the producers sat Seth Macfarlane down and said “this is a feature length film Seth, the studio need this, this and this to happen”. Macfarlane included this but didn’t really want to and wasn’t really sure how to, and it shows. I personally found the last third of this film embarrassing to watch and very boring. I was however resigned to the fact (as it seems Macfarlane was) that it had to be there.

Now to the humour, it is basically puerile and immature, which I do not actually mind. Most of the jokes here appear many times in plenty of Family Guy episodes and are quite old now or anti Semitic, even if it is Patrick Stewart saying it. As I said before, there are moments I found genuinely funny.  The fact is the main basis of this humour, like so many Family Guy episodes, when not extremely crude and anti Semitic, is based on our personal nostalgia. Seth Macfarlane basically relies on having enough money to pay famous faces of the past that we all make fun of out of in conversations at the pub and getting them to make idiots of themselves on screen for him. In the case of Ted, it is mainly Sam Jones, Ted Danson and Tom Skerritt. Admittedly, these are very funny but can still work exactly the same in a film about two blokes, not necessarily a film about a man and a teddy bear. This ultimately leads to the question, what is the actual point of Ted existing as a film? It simply has nothing original to add.

As for this humour, we of course find this funny because of the nostalgic element. However, the people laughing the most are these celebrities of yesteryear as they are getting the huge pay cheques. I remember Family Guy episodes that include James Woods and Molly Ringwald. This almost, God forbid, asks the question, is any of Seth Macfarlane’s comedy actually genuinely funny? Or is it just a combination of crude and taking advantage of our natural nostalgia? These famous faces will appear (in cartoon form – automatically cheaper) saying self referential but apparently comedic dialogue and Seth Macfarlane fills in the gaps with cheap fart jokes. Does that make it actually quite clever as he knows how to manipulate our ‘sense of humour’? I certainly do not have the answer to that one. I will of course be accused of over analysing here; however, Ted is a feature length film and so I am reviewing it as such. I know this film is very popular and I will concede that for a group of blokes staying in getting drunk on a Saturday night this is more than adequate.

In summary, fans of Family Guy will not be disappointed, and there are some very funny moments. However, as Ted is a feature length film it has to therefore confirm to the certain narrative rules as such, and this contributes so much to its downfall to produce an extremely average and surprisingly empty film experience.

4/10

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THE ANGELS’ SHARE (Ken Loach, 2012) viewed on 5/2/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

angels share

Starring: Paul Brannigan, John Henshaw, Gary Maitland

You may like this if you liked: Kes (Ken Loach, 1969), This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006), Trainspotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)

Robbie (Brannigan) is a young man who has always been in trouble with the law and narrowly avoids a jail sentence after committing a horrific unprovoked attack will under the influence of heavy drugs. After becoming a father he vows that his son will never have to have the kind of life he has. The terms of his sentence are that he has to do community service, and while doing that he makes friends with Rhino, Albert and Mo. The kind hearted officer in charge, Harry takes them to a whiskey distillery where they discover that Robbie has a fantastic nose when it comes to sniffing whiskey and knowing exactly what brand it is and its value. Upon hearing that an extremely rare barrel of whiskey worth over £1million is to be auctioned they hatch a plan, using Robbie’s excellent nose, to change all their lives forever.

Ken Loach is in my opinion, along with Mike Leigh, one of Britain’s best directors at making gritty social realist dramas that truly capture real life without bordering into excessive melodrama or cheesy clichés. When I saw The Angels’ Share released there was all these quotes on it as a ‘laugh out loud comedy’, and I thought to myself; Ken loach? Laugh out loud comedy? Is he going soft in his old age?

Thankfully he is not, the whole laugh out loud comedy quotes and the style of the front cover of the DVD appear to be more a marketing ploy, which annoys me but I understand why it is done. This will get more people to see it and after all films need to make as much money as possible, however some people may find this misleading. There are some great comedic moments in the second half of the film; however the first half of the film is vintage Ken Loach.

After all, our protagonist committed a nasty crime, and Loach does not shy away from this. At the start there are some uncomfortable and uncompromising scenes which show the darker side of real life which many of us prefer to not think about, and some scenes are extremely unlikely to make it into any Glasgow tourism campaign. Once the narrative enters its second half what develops is a very uplifting and extremely watchable (perhaps a little fantastical) story. However, in a less experienced director this could easily fall into the trap of cliché and predictable cheesiness, thankfully Loach is too old and wise to let this happen.

The main four characters are all played by unknowns and are all excellent and extremely likeable, which certainly plays a part as to why The Angels’ Share is so watchable. The protagonist Robbie is a potentially unlikeable character, but Paul Brannigan makes him likeable despite his obvious flaws, through his performance we despise his situation but not his character. Gary Maitland and William Ruane provide the excellent comic relief and John Henshaw provides genuine heart as the probation officer in charge. Despite the four main characters obvious flaws I did find myself routing for them, and this along with the films brutally honest depictions of their situations makes the film very engaging and involving. There is definitely a message here that there is good in everyone but they just need to be given the opportunity to prove it, but as I have already stated this is achieved by avoiding the usual clichés.

In summary, The Angels’ Share is an extremely honest, heartfelt and genuinely entertaining watch that manages to avoid the usual clichés and predictability if in the hands of lesser directors. Thoroughly recommended.

 

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SHADOW DANCER (James Marsh, 2012) viewed on 3/2/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

shadow dancer 2

Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson

You may like this if you liked: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Thomas Alfredson, 2011), Farewell (Christian Carion, 2009), The Good Shepherd (Robert De Niro, 2006)

Colette McVeigh (Riseborough) is an active IRA operative who while attempting to plant a bomb on the London underground is caught by MI5. She is taken into a room and told by an MI5 agent called Mac (Owen) she has a simple choice: Spend a very long time in prison not seeing her beloved daughter ever again, or become an informant for MI5 and spy on her IRA member brothers and be given a new life once they are arrested. Colette chooses to become in MI5 informant and goes back to living with her family who she has to spy on and report to Mac once a week.

Shadow Dancer has a great premise and I am intrigued as to what the book is like, as I found the film to be very disappointing. What starts as a very interesting and potentially gripping story just descends into a total anticlimax. The situation that Colette finds herself in is the classic catch 22 situation of a tragic hero in a Greek tragedy. She is damned if she does or damned if she does not.

However, the whole situation appears to be dealt with in an extremely casual manner and there is a total lack of any real intensity or danger. This had the potential to be an edgy, gritty slow burning espionage thriller and it certainly wants to be with its very grey cinematography. However the plot plods along in an extremely predictable way and it becomes extremely hard to care about any of the two characters, despite the fact that all the characters involved are potentially very interesting. This is a shame as Andrea Riseborough is an excellent actress and gives a very committed performance and Clive Owen gives his usual unique brand of Clive Owen earthy charisma. The film itself certainly looks the part and is very well made, but by the time Shadow Dancer reaches its extremely predictable and flat ending, it is extremely hard to care anymore.

In summary, Shadow Dancer has to be described as a huge failure as despite having compelling characters, solid performances and an interesting story, it simply gradually descends into a totally predictable anti climax.

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GRABBERS (John Wright, 2012) viewed on 2/2/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

grabbers

Starring: Richard Coyle, Ruth Bradley, Russell Tovey

You may like this if you liked: Slither (James Gunn, 2006), Severance (Christopher Smith, 2006), Cockneys Vs Zombies (Matthias Hoene, 2012)

Lisa (Bradley) is a young police officer from Dublin who has been sent to a small island called Erin Island to cover the holiday of the chief constable. She has to work with the local police officer called Ciaran (Coyle) who warns her that the island is extremely dull and the only thing all the islanders have to do is to get extremely drunk every night. Suddenly the island is attacked by monsters from out of space that suck the blood out of their victims and slowly villagers are killed. However both Ciaran and Paddy (a local alcoholic fisherman) are attacked but survive. They then discover that these ‘grabbers’ are allergic to alcohol, and that the only way to defend themselves against these creatures is to be extremely drunk, so they organise an all night lock in at the village pub.

The horror comedy genre is an extremely bloated one and it is hard to bring anything new to it, and so I watched this with low expectations. However, Grabbers was a pleasant surprise as it is very watchable and has the right balance of gore and humour. This film knows it place and doesn’t ever try to be something it is not. This is however to its credit and while certainly no exceptional masterpiece, Grabbers is a very entertaining 90 minutes and if you are looking for something easy to watch, this would certainly fit that bill.

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AMOUR (Michael Haneke, 2012)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

amour

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert

You may like this if you liked: The Return (Andrey Z vyaginstev, 2003) Keane (Lodge Kerrigan, 2004) Hidden (Michael Haneke, 2005)

Georges (Trintignant) and Anne (Riva) are a couple both in their 80s; they are both ex music teachers and lead a very cultured life. One morning Anne has an attack and completely blanks out and it turns out she has to have an operation. This operation is a failure and Anne’s condition gradually deteriorates. Anne made Georges promise to never take her to a hospital again, and Georges has to look after her by himself which severely tests their relationship.

Anyone who has seen Haneke’s previous films would probably expect ‘love’ to be the last possible title of his latest work. However, this is a story about love Haneke style. What this produces is a brutally honest depiction of true love and what that entails. This is partly achieved through Haneke’s usual long takes which often lead to the viewer feeling uncomfortable, but all these shots are portraying is an honest account of what would actually happen in this situation.

Just like in his other films, he is showing us things that we sometimes do not want to see, but this is actually what happens in real life. There are of course many intimate and sentimental moments between the couple too, but that is what any relationship of this length will go through, particularly in the situation faced by this couple. What makes this film stands out as a vastly superior ‘love story’ is the consistent tone of the film. All the ups and downs are portrayed in a matter-of-fact way, nothing is ever over sentimental or melancholy, and no character is ever judged for their actions. What this produces is a thoroughly engaging and rewarding film. This is also a film that will be likely to strike different emotional chords with different viewers. For anyone that has personally experienced what happens will probably get something different from it than I personally did, but due to the brutally honest portrayal of this story it does not alienate anyone.

The two veteran actors Trintignant and Riva provide incredible and heartfelt performances. As we watch, we truly feel their suffering. Also, Haneke regular Isabelle Huppert is excellent in a supporting role as the couple’s daughter.

In summary, not an easy watch but a very rewarding viewing experience, Amour is an absolute masterpiece with a genuinely honest depiction of what love actually is, and one of the best of 2012 and thoroughly deserving of the Oscar nominations.

9/10

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CASA DE MI PADRE (Matt Piedmont, 2012) viewed on 29/1/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

casa de mi padre

Starring: Will Ferrell, Geal Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna

You may like this if you liked: Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009), Grind House (Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, 2007), anything with Will Ferrell being over the top.

Casa De Mi Padre tells the story of Armando Alvarez (Ferrell) a simple Mexican rancher. When his father’s ranch comes into financial trouble his older and successful brother, Raul comes to save it. However, Armando falls in love with Raul’s girlfriend and discovers that the reason why Raul is so wealthy is that his dealings are in selling drugs. This then leads to a war with a powerful gangster (Bernal) as Alvarez vows to defend his family and for once make his father proud.

This was a film that absolutely plummeted at the box office, and had a similar performance on DVD. This is unusual as Will Ferrell films are usually a guaranteed success, even if he does have a tendency just to play the same character, with the notable exception of Stranger than Fiction (Marc Forster, 2006). Will Ferrell’s character here is the same as all of his others; the only exception is that pretty much the entire film is in Spanish, this automatically alienates a huge part of his usual audience.

When I say it is in Spanish, it is some kind of overdubbed gibberish Spanish and this is one of the few jokes that last for the entire 88minutes. That is the major problem of this film; it should not be a feature length film. The concept of spoofing just how bad certain film genres of the 70s were is nothing new, and trying to keep that joke lasting that long just doesn’t work and gets very boring very quickly. Expect poor editing, terrible production values, appalling camera work and over dubbed dialogue. Unfortunately, this has been done before that now the joke that old films were rubbish is now itself an old joke. There are a couple of moments which did bring some laughs, notably the sex scene which was also very disturbing and still haunts me.

Casa De Mi Padre’s few jokes get very boring very quickly and this film is best avoided, for vastly superior genre parodies I would recommend Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009) or Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace (2004).

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SIGHTSEERS (Ben Wheatley, 2012) viewed on 27/1/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

sightseers

Starring: Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Sara Stewart

You may like this if you like: Shaun of the Dead (Edgar Wright, 2004). Four Lions (Chris Morris, 2010), In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)

Sightseers tells the story of Tina (Lowe) a repressed midlander who still lives with her mum and has never come to terms for her part in the accidental death of her mum’s dog, Poppy. Her new boyfriend Chris (Oram) has decided to take her away on a caravan holiday tour of the north of England on what he describes as ‘an erotic odyssey’. However, due to other tourists acting in ways to annoy them, events take a slightly dark and murderous route.

Ben Wheatley’s previous film Kill List got consistently really good reviews, but I was not to keen on it myself. Sightseers received very similar applause so I was very sceptical but decided I should see it, and I must confess I was pleasantly surprised. Firstly it is nothing like Kill List (thank God!), the only similarity is in only that the occasional gore is very realistic and unashamedly brutal, but that is to its credit. This is most definitely one of the most strikingly original films I have seen for a while; also I must confess that I am finding it very hard to review.

This is a frequent issue I have, but on all the posters are quotes claiming that this film is ‘laugh out loud’ funny, though there are indeed some very funny moments. I personally felt that the humour was much more subtle and quintessentially British, but to be described as ‘laugh out loud’ may be a little misleading. This is probably more down to those clever people in marketing whose job it is to get bums on seats. I get that, but this may lead to some feeling disappointed as it can be misleading and lead to false expectations. A classic example of this is the American DVD cover of the Cuban film Strawberries and Chocolate (Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1993) but trust me, you do not want to get me started on that!

Sightseers is very much a black comedy in that both the violence is brutal and the actual story itself is very dark. I do not want to give too much away, but apart from the very first killing, all others are not accidents. I must confess that at first I struggled to figure out where the film was going and actually understand the two protagonist’s mindsets. After a while, the film does become very watchable and strangely compelling.

One of the reasons that this is very watchable is that of the performances of Lowe and Oram (who also wrote the script), their deadpan style and natural chemistry is very effective and their characters are very compelling to watch. Though there are some very dark and deluded thoughts and ideologies inside their minds, they are very likeable (the midlands accents are a very effective part of this).

A lot of credit here has to go to Ben Wheatley; he somehow manages to juggle the funny with the sinister in a very effective way. It is clear he is always very much in control of his film and he uses some very effective cinematic techniques without there ever being a feeling of style over substance. The film itself does feel very cinematic with very effective use of British scenery as well as non-diagetic music in the right places.

In summary, Sightseers is an extremely original and entertaining experience. Not as funny as the marketing people try to let on, but the mixture of sinister and funny is handled expertly and effectively by Wheatley and there will not be another film like this for a while.

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ELENA (Andrey Z vyaginstev, 2011) viewed on 27/1/13

Posted on March 1, 2013 by MoodyB

elena

Starring: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov, Elena Lyadova

You may like this if you liked: The Banishment (Andrey Zvyaginstev, 2007) A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011), Biutiful (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 2010)

Elena and Vladimir are an older couple who come from different backgrounds. Vladimir is a wealthy and cold man; Elena comes from a modest milieu and is a docile wife. Elena has a son who is unemployed, unable to support his own family and he is constantly asking Elena for money. Vladimir has a daughter who is a careless young woman and has a distant relationship with her father. A heart attack puts Vladimir in hospital, where he realizes that his remaining time is limited. A brief but somehow tender reunion with his daughter leads him to make an important decision: she will be the only heiress of his wealth. Back home he announces it to Elena and her hopes to financially help her son suddenly vanish. This usually shy and submissive housewife then comes up with a plan to give her son and grandchildren a real chance in life.

For anyone who has seen Zvyaginstev’s previous two films The Return (2003) and The Banishment (2007) will know what to expect here. Elena contains essentially a very simple and basic plot, which could actually be quite easily covered in no more than twenty minutes. That is the beauty of film, the same story can be presented in so many different ways, and it is very often the director in charge of the audience and what route their emotional ‘journey’ takes.

What separates a film like this from so many others and makes it so much more engaging is that the audience is treated with the upmost respect and trust. Instead of being constantly told exactly how to feel to certain situations and characters, everything is presented in a consistently neutral and very matter-of-fact tone. There are no ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’, just realistic characters facing realistic everyday situations. Vladimir’s actions, though, not in Elena’s best interest perhaps, are completely justified. Likewise, Elena’s behaviour some would argue is irrational, but there is complete justification for it. What happens to this character in the grand scheme of everything may not be huge, but to the individuals involved it is massive and potentially life changing.

We are then left to make up our own minds on justifying character’s actions or not and ultimately ask ourselves “what would we do in this situation?” We then may question are own morality and then become instantly more engaged with the character’s situation and how they deal with it and the potential results. When eventually our protagonist faces a huge moral dilemma which is essentially the main plot piece of the film, it is portrayed in such a slow realistic way that we really start to rack our brains about what we would actually do and all the potential results of all potential actions.

By the time Elena reaches the end, there is no real ending or narrative closure and it leaves more questions than answers, but that is the point as that is exactly what life is like. This questions the actions of the characters, but we are engaged as we may well have originally come up with the conclusion that we would have done the same thing. What happens to the characters within the film could easily happen to us. Though, in my opinion this is not as good as the amazing and emotionally satisfying The Return, this is a definite improvement on the sometimes brilliant but sometimes infuriating The Banishment which was for me thirty minutes too long. Elena however is only 109 minutes and this feels just right.

I know for a fact that this film will not appeal to everyone, it is very slow and watching does require effort. However, if you fancy watching something that challenges and questions your morality and perspective on life then is a very rewarding viewing experience.

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