Reviews

Everybody who was sold a horse that bolted would have been into the store demanding their money back after Quick gives the lady her $30 refund. Mr V would not have been happy with that. Many have rightly criticised the poor script and its rushed ending but it is a colourful and enjoyable film.

I really did not expect this - the first half was excellent - gritty, bleak and conveying a real sense of the horror and mud slogging awfulness of trench warfare. Then it descended into ridiculous melodrama spliced with mawkish sentimentality. The sense of an urgent mission sang away in the wind and when a pristine letter was finally handed over after a torrential river scene all credibility was shredded. Photos perfectly preserved in a tin box too. Mark Strong's was the only outstanding performance which was also a sad surprise.

This is exceptional film making. A clever depiction of a terrifying consequence of growing old. The acting, directing, script writing, editing, attention to detail - all added up to a gripping tale of what is likely to befall many of us if we are lucky enough to make it into our eighties.

This is multi layered writing at its best. The frustration we felt for the character so brilliantly performed by Glenda Jackson gives a sense of what it is like to actually have Alzheimer's. She felt she was the only one not to have lost her marbles when all along she really was just blanking out all the important information.

The fragmented nature of memory was perfectly caught here - the blurred images behind glass you couldn't quite see through contrasted with the vivid recall of times from 70 years ago was dramatically depicted in a gloriously unsentimental script. The British excel at this - and having a plot that spliced together a real murder mystery with an imagined one was inspired.

Jackson provides a heart wrenching performance that in my experience captures exactly what old age is like for many - determined to remain on the surface entirely presentable and yet being forced into a decline which it's impossible to resist. As we enter an era in which we all grow older this is the best version of what's ahead that I have ever seen. Thank you for providing such a thought provoking slice of life and for not air brushing the reality.

Anyone who is decent and good will be exploited by manipulative oppressors is the core message of this film - but it is so fantastic and magical in its fabled telling that it's simple to miss the point being made here. It is an angry and disturbing look at life - but it goes a long way to explaining Trump and Brexit. It's a lot more subtle than Ken Loach's political films but the themes are the same - those in power will always seek to keep you ignorant and use you for their own ends... what it does not do is suggest a communist utopia as the answer which would be Loach's solution. This offers no solutions - only despair and magical realism so beautifully wrought that it can feel strangely uplifting. Requires some thought - it's clever stuff.

So why not simply have A wait until he inhabits the body of some unfortunate tall soul with nice shoulders and a skinny frame but without a close family or friends? Then he'd be ethically sound saving that person and able to be with the one he loves...forever. The choosing to leave for a fragmented existence made no sense.