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Reviews
My Son (2021)
Outstanding Acting & Scenery!
Great performance by James McAvoy and. Claire Foy. Very believable.
All in all we found this film entertaining. The tension builds throughout the film and has a lot of suspense and drama towards the end. It's well filmed, but as others have said, it is frustratingly rushed at the end and under developed. There were a few scenes that were begging to be made to give this film a decent conclusion and to answer some of the questions hanging in the air. It's like a book with a chapter missing at the end. However, you can forgive the plot failings on the strength of the entertainment value, outstanding acting, and stunning Scottish scenery.
I haven't been to Scotland for about 20 years and after watching this, I think its high time I went back!
The Woman in the Wall (2023)
Outstanding
Intriguing throughout and deeply thought provoking. The characters are so well developed and well written, the acting was incredible and the actors entirely believable. Ruth Wilson is a powerful actress who is always going to completely steal the show whenever she's in a scene and Daryl McCormack is very impressive as the young detective who helps her. The bond that develops between them is beautiful, especially the telephone conversation they have in the final episode - I felt that!
Our family erupted into a round of applause at the end of the last episode and felt we had truly watched something that had it all: powerful storyline, incredible acting, believable characters, mystery, intrigue, great filming, enough humour to balance the heavy topic and provide moments of light relief, and great writing. Loved this.
A Good Marriage (2014)
Seriously????? Are you kidding me?
Our family unanimously concluded that this was BY FAR the worst film we have ever seen. So many pointless scenes, so much useless dialogue, wooden acting that conjured absolute zero sympathy with any character in the film. Dreams are big in this film, and if you nod off you might think you're watching a grown up episode of Scooby Doo. It's a joke. I have read a couple of Stephen King books and I can imagine that he does a lot more to develop the characters, show the angst that the wife feels as she wrestles with the burden of her husband's secret while wanting to protect her children and not ruin their daughter's forthcoming wedding. I would imagine too that the decision to kill your husband would be wrestled with over the pages and not arrived at overnight, as it appears to be in the film. This loving wife, mother of adult children, pillar of the community, turns into the caricature of a female villain. Sorry, but this is nonsense. We actually watched because Stephen King is a phenomenal story teller, and because of the positive reviews. After the film we went back to look at the reviews again to try and work out what we missed.... I'm glad people enjoyed this movie, but I find it hard to work out why!
Marriage (2022)
Mixed feelings....
Like most people I started watching this because of the actors involved and I really can't decide if it was incredibly clever or completely daft!
As someone else said the only piece of music that was used was painfully jarring, I had to skip it every single time! It's stuck in my brain for all the wrong reasons! Perhaps it was supposed to add dissonance, or represent the lack of harmony, or the monotony? Maybe the lack of actual music (just voices) was perhaps symbolic of their marriage?
After episode 1 I was thinking 'what on earth was that?' The baked potato scene I understood, we often argue around the subject rather than getting to the point, but it seems this happens through the entire series.
The relationship between parents and daughter is quite bizarre; it's far too polite and doesn't really become believable until the last episode, which I have to say is a relief and quite touching. It is only in this episode that I believed that they were really a family.
There were lots of 'what was that all about?' moments...for example why do we see clips of the female gym worker in the pub with her friends. I thought she was going to become a part of the plot but she just disappears. I mean, I understood Ian's loneliness and why he was talking to her, but the pub scene had no relevance to anything.
I enjoyed Jessica meeting Mark but he also disappeared...I suppose her meeting him was meant to just hovering over her as a future 'possibility' and an indication to us that she is going to be free of Adam, but why build Mark up to such an extent and then have him disappear from the drama?
Let's not even start talking about Jamie...or Adam for that matter. I'll leave that there.
OK having got that moan out of the way, despite my complaints I actually found it compelling to watch - bizarrely. I think Sean Bean was just utterly real in this and I just felt for him over and over again. Outstanding acting. It also made me ache inside for how Ian was desperate for love and connection, but found it so hard to communicate.
Nicola's portrayal of deep grief over the loss of a child was very real and moving. Actually all of the crying scenes in this series were moving.
Did I hate it? No. Did I love it? No, there was too much in it that was annoying, but it was compelling watching!
I think ultimately there were flashes of genius in this. I began to feel for Nicola's character, I began to route for Ian and I began to really like Jessica. If they made a second series I would watch it. I wouldn't be able to stop myself.
Chloe (2022)
A good puzzle to unravel, but disappointing ending.
First of all Princess Anne was excellent in this (Erin Doherty), what they made her wear was a source of amusement. There are some very 'arty' outfits.
The storyline is good and does gather pace as it unfolds but theres too much bedroom action that is just unnecessary. To be honest the show is probably a couple of episodes too long - episodes 1 - 3 could have been condensed. The unraveling of the truth was moving towards being very satisfying until it just stopped dead in its tracks and what??? Really wanted Elliot to get his comeuppance, and for someone to wipe that smug look off his mother's face. This show does highlight how easy social media makes it to stalk people and how people are definitely not all they claim to be - I hated ALL of Chloe's so-called friends! Oh, and, what actually happened to Sasha?
Erin Doherty was the star of this show and that caravan at the end came second!
Undeniable (2014)
Watchable although nothing to write home about.
I can't help thinking the writers of this drama happened upon the interesting fact that gives the end its twist and decided to write a 'what if' story so that they could present us with said interesting fact. The plot and characters were hugely undeveloped. There is no reason given for the murder of Jane's mother. Everyone seems to have moved on with their lives and its hard to feel invested in any of the characters. Having said all that it is a pretty decent British drama with some wonderful actors in it so not a waste of time watching at all. I'm just disappointed that the story wasn't fleshed out more, that there wasn't some surprising twist uncovering the events surrounding the murder and telling us why it happened - It could have been gripping.
The Accident (2019)
The Accidental Comedy!
OK, here's the truth: this was meant to be a serious drama tackling a very tragic and sensitive topic, but it was so bad, that it was actually funny. So funny that my family was literally crying with laughter in some episodes. Honestly , Sarah Lancashire should not have been affiliated with this nonsense. We're on the last episode and will finish it only because its given us such a giggle! The acting and production is like something put together for a GCSE drama project with all its cringe worthy moments, including those who underact (very amusing) and those who suddenly burst into dramatic overacting (hysterical). The relationship between Sarah's character and her husband is BIZARRE to say the least and will leave you somewhat confused until the utter ridiculousness of it washes over you so that you end up giggling as soon as you see them together...before one of them has even uttered a word. Basically this is a disappointment, but the accidental comedy made it fun for us.