Film Recommendations

[Sweder]

I agree about Clooney. He was always that bloke in ER who my wife drooled over every Thursday night, and like Andy I cursed him for being a ‘lucky looker’ and little else. How wrong we were. My conversion to Clooney as a serious entity started when I saw Oh Brother Where Art Thou , a hugely entertaining and well presented piece about, er, a period of American history. Recently I had the pleasure of watching Solaris, a thoughtful SciFi flick which Clooney directed and starred in. He has, it appears, talent in abundance to go along with a healthy appetite for tackling difficult subjects and a wonderful disregard for the establishment.

Now, let’s take this down a notch or two.
I do most of my movie-watching on aircraft. I can't sleep on the bloody things and my first action on boarding is to grab the in-flight rag and plot my route via the cinema. I take Andy's point about the wonder of the full cinematic experience, but I can't read on flights so this is my lot. The reading on flights thing is most upsetting. A ten hour plus journey is an excellent opportunity to get stuck into a book, yet I seem to have been fitted with an inhibitor chip that, ten minutes after I start reading, invokes shut down. I don't sleep (see above), rather I get the 'noddies', drifting around on the edges of consciousness unable to focus on the page.

On Friday I faced a stark choice. There was no way on earth - or above it - that I was going to sacrifice 2 hours of my day to Antonio Banderas sleep-walking through another awful Zorro movie, so it was a straight shoot-out between The Weather Man, North County, The Island and The 40 Year Old Virgin.

Having scanned the summaries I immediately de-selected The Weather Man. I enjoy Nicholas Cage's early work, Wild at Heart being a long time favourite (Laura Dern! That leather skirt!!), Raising Arizona another sometime top twenty performer. However, the subject matter, that of a successful TV weather man enjoying a meteoric career ascension whilst his family life falls into ruin and despair, didn't float my boat. It is wise to avoid back to back heartbreakers, and there was no way I was going to miss out on Charlese Theron's stellar performance in North County. Having watched the BAFTAs, Stephen Fry disappointingly phoning in his performance as MC, I knew this to be a hard-hitting drama based on real-life events in a northern US mining town. More American historical drama, vicar?

Theron delivers in spades, playing an abused, down trodden single mother fighting for her right to work in a man's world. The film is truly gritty; I felt the need to wash thoroughly afterwards so pervasive was the atmosphere. It's hard to say which stains were harder to remove; the perpetual choking grime of the coal mine or the equally debilitating and offensive filth dished out by the mining misogynists and their moral-free employers. I suspect Ms Theron may have attracted the attention of the Academy, as may the evergreen Frances McDormand in the Best Supporting Actress category. A moving experience.

I was also moved to the washroom by my next selection, although washing my hands was a secondary requirement. The Island is appalling, trashy nonsense. I knew this from the outset, yet I couldn't resist some light relief after 2 hours down t'pit. Critics have been wrong before; sadly not in this case. The film and all who had a part in making it should be despatched to a most unpleasant and distant part of the galaxy.

And speaking of films not expected to trouble the Academy, we come (no Fry-esque pun intended) to The 40 Year Old Virgin. You don't have to be Barry Norman to see what's coming [smug public school voice]gosh, I am sorry[/smug public school voice] with this one. But following a positive experience with the Wedding Crashers I did not let fear of the inevitable stifle my curiosity. This was good, ribald entertainment, rich with pathos and warmth as well as excellent gags and real laugh-out-loud moments. The characters are well drawn, the script is witty and, schmaltzy ending aside, I was pleased I'd managed to overcome my prejudices and bothered to watch it.

Right, that's enough film talk. I'm off to write my 10k report.