The Adjustment Bureau

SIMPLE choices can have dramatic consequences.
Just getting on a bus could mean you meet someone that changes your life.
But if you miss that bus you might never see that person again.
Some of our most intimate connections with other people are formed purely by chance.
But what if all our ‘choices’ were pre-determined?
That’s the central premise of this intriguing Philip K. Dick story.
Matt Damon plays David Norris who is running for Senate in New York when he meets the feisty Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt).
But David was ‘not meant’ to fall in love with Elise and so the ‘Adjustment Bureau’ sets out to change his fate.
This is where rom com turns sci-fi and to a certain extent it works quite well.
The Adjustment Bureau’s agents are the all-seeing watchmen of the world led by a unnamed and unseen ‘chairman’ (God?)
The Bureau has altered mankind’s path to ensure we avoid destruction after two World Wars, the Holocaust and being on the brink of nuclear war.
But, as you might expect, David chooses free will and fights the odds to find Elise.
Given the impression that the Bureau’s agents are omnipotent, it is quite frustrating then that David and Elise are able to make a fool of them at almost every turn.
But Damon and Blunt almost save the day with great performances and chemistry.
If you can stomach the film’s dreadful and painfully Hollywood-style ending, The Adjustment Bureau has a really interesting concept that will appeal to a wide audience.

Black Swan

PRESSURE and the pursuit of perfection reveal the darker side of the human condition in the intoxicating Black Swan.
Director Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream) continues in his tradition of making disturbing yet hypnotic films with this story of the competitive world of professional ballet.
On paper it may not sound appealing but this is essentially a psychological horror which builds with fiery intensity.
Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) is delighted when she is chosen for the lead role in a production of Swan Lake in New York.
She is told she is perfect as the innocent, fragile White Swan but needs to get in touch with her dark side to also master the Black Swan.

Vincent Cassel is excellent as the seductive, manipulative teacher Thomas Leroy.
It is through his sorded demands, the claustrophobic pressure applied by Nina’s has-been mother and the blood thirsty competition that Nina begins to snap.
Through Aronofsky’s masterful direction, you see Nina’s slow and at first subtle descent into madness as her mind unravels.
Prepare to be haunted as the ‘Black Swan’ begins to take over Nina’s life both on and off the stage and in both the literal and metaphorical sense.
Portman, who was taught to ballet dance when she was four, is excellent as a troubled star who succinctly shows the human toll of ‘perfection’.
Obviously it’s not for everyone and you can’t help but feel sorry for anyone who walked into the cinema expecting a film just about the ballet.
But if you like your films with a real dark edge, some great performances and will leave an impression for days then this is for you.

127 Hours

IN 2003, Aron Ralston was literally stuck between a rock and a hard place.
While hiking in Blue John Canyon in Utah a boulder dislodged, crushing his right arm and pinning him to a canyon wall for more than five days.
Ralston’s amazing story of survival has finally reached the cinemas seven years later with Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle behind the camera.
James Franco, from the Spiderman films, is excellent as experienced adventurer Ralston who heads out to canyon without telling anyone where he is going.
In the film, you get a sense of what a character Ralston before the fateful incident.
He acts as a guide while flirting with two female hikers and sliding into a pool of water.

But then disaster strikes. Boyle, as always, is on top form with the sense of dread and claustrophobia from being trapped translated well on screen.
For much of the rest of the film it is just Ralston - his panic, his fear, his exasperation and finally acceptance of his hopeless situation.
Credit goes to Boyle for making a film work with just one leading role with the gaps filled with flashbacks, delirious daydreams and even Ralston’s premonition that he would become a father - one that came true in February 2010.
Ralston eventually escaped after 127 Hours (which gives the film its name) by amputating his arm with a blunt penknife.
This scene isn’t for the faint-hearted but if you can stomach it, this is a inspirational story of a man’s fight to survive against the odds.

Public Enemies

WHEN director Michael Mann made Robert De Niro and Al Pacino clash in the 1995 crime film Heat, it was a seminal moment in cinema history.
These two renowned actors had never appeared in the same movie until then...and the result was electric.
Now Mann has done the same thing for two of the biggest stars of the current generation with Public Enemies, a similar style film to Heat but set in the 1930s.
Johnny Depp, one of the best loved actors of his generation, plays John Dillinger, a murderous criminal who was idolised as a modern day Robin Hood.
While Christian Bale, who has never been more famous since putting on the black mask and cowl as Batman, plays Melvin Purvis, the FBI agent in hot pursuit.

To see these two great performers in the same film is a joy – but it is Depp who will win the battle for your attention in this one.
Mann paints a vivid picture of 1930s America and the crime that surrounded it with panache.
Where Public Enemies succeeds is in the scenes where Mann is in his comfort zone – the cat and mouse pursuit, the hail of bullets from countless tommy guns, the sense of place.
But the film would have benefited from more time devoted to character development, especially since Mann had two leads behind his camera capable of so much more.
Nevertheless, for a slick crime thriller, it won’t fail to entertain and has the charm of Dillinger himself.

Looking For Eric

IRONICALLY enough, the most striking thing about Looking For Eric is how real it feels.
The comedy drama may be about a postman who has a breakdown and imagines he can see Cantona.
But this illusion only strengthens the gritty reality elsewhere in the film.
It is the story of Eric Bishop, a troubled man whose failed marriage is still hitting him hard decades on and whose stepkids don’t respect him.
Things come to a head when he is in a car crash after deliberately driving the wrong way on a roundabout.
And when an intervention by his friends fails to hit the mark, the football fanatic’s icon comes to life to offer life coaching.

It’s a thoroughly charming story for film fanatics and football fans alike with Cantona playing himself.
What works so well about this film is how director British Ken Loach manages to effortlessly weave together the deeply tragic with the humourous.
It flicks between Eric’s conversations with famously philosophical former player and events in his life which are always out of his control – from making polite conversation with his ex-wife to finding a gun in his stepson’s room.
From football to relationships, many of the film’s scenarios are things that everyone can relate to.
It is a rollercoaster of the highs and lows of life stamped with charming British style and culminates in a fantastic final scene beaming with comradeship and redemption.

The Boat That Rocked

SIXTIES style sizzles with rock and roll in this instantly lovable film by Richard Curtis.
The director of Love Actually brings an artistic flair to this tribute to the British era of pirate radio making it impossible to take your eyes – and ears – off.
Loosely based on real events, The Boat That Rocked is the story of a band of pirate DJs in the middle of the North Sea.
They play rock and roll 24 hours a day to defy the BBC at a time when it played just two hours of rock and pop a week.
The boat, Radio Rock, is reminiscent of Radio Caroline that broadcasted between 1983 to 1990 and will be a nod to the past for many people.

But for younger viewers there is still much to admire here, most notably the fantastic emsemble cast.
British legends like Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost, to name but a few, perform alongside the likes of American star Philip Seymour Hoffman.
Flight of the Conchords fans will also be delighted to see Rhys Darby in a prominent role. The chemistry and the comedy is crackling.
It may be a very light weight film but where The Boat That Rocked mostly succeeds is in its feel and look.
The villains in the piece, the BBC, are painted as bleak and calculating while every time the DJs are on screen you feel like you are there with them having the time of your life.

Bronson

IN an explosion of violence, theatrics...and 80s music, the notorious story of 'Britain's most violent prisoner' is brought to the screen.
Bronson tells the true story of Michael Peterson, who was initially caged for seven years for robbing loose change from a post office but is still locked up to this very day.
Without tangling itself in over-analysis, the film tells the tale of man who has defined himself with a heady cocktail of violence and a quest for fame.
In prison, he was the star of the show and in his heyday he was determined to stay whatever the costs to himself and those around him.

Acting to an unseen audience, some metaphoric scenes of the film see Peterson speaking in a theatre room with the crowd applauding his unspeakable antics.
It gives you an idea what his state of mind must have been like at the time and it’s quite unsettling.
This was to such an extent that part of his sentence was spent in a mental institution...until he was certified sane and spewed back out into society.
It isn’t long before he’s back in jail but this time, he uses his ‘fighting name’ Charles Bronson and the chaos continues.
Bronson caused controversy on its release as many think the life of a criminal should not be celebrated.
Perhaps they are right, and at times it was hard to see the film’s point, but for a portrait of troubled man, Bronson succeeds.