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Reviews
The Bookshop (2017)
Too many weak links
I really wanted to like this film but it seemed to be lacking in a number of areas and left me disappointed. Bill Nighy and Emily Mortimer gave excellent performance, but I thought the supporting cast were really dire with stilted conversations and awkward pauses in many scenes. I'm not sure whether this was the fault of the actors or the director.
There were also gaffs with the costumes which were often over the top for the situations portrayed. The film was enhanced by some pretty locations, but I noted one scene set in a street of double glazed doors and windows - hardly suitable for a 1950s set. The pace was slow, but this was not a problem for me. It's a pleasant enough film but I felt myself cringing far to often.
Fighting Stock (1935)
Wonderful English farce
I saw Fighting Stock again recently and I had forgotten just what a little gem this film is. English farce at its best. The story unfolds rapidly and this, combined with the fast pace of the dialogue means that the viewer never has a moment in which to lose interest. The cast has no weak link - most of these actors cut their teeth in rep and farce and the three male leads Tom Walls, Ralph Lynn, and Robertson Hare all worked together many times in theatre before collaborating for the cinema and they have a terrific comedic chemistry together. I was struck by the amount of smut and innuendo in the dialogue considering the date of this film. Some lines could be straight out of the Carry On films that came some 30 or 40 years later. Often a film has a certain amount of padding, by which I mean unnecessary scenes that are placed there to try and turn a short story into a feature film. This is not the case with Fighting Stock - every scene is carefully crafted and serves to introduce a new character or further the plot. There is no dead wood at all. Despite now being more than 75 years old there is so much to recommend this fantastic little comedy which deserves to be more widely known.
Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)
Mildly amusing
I have just returned from seeing "Did you hear about the Morgans?" at my local cinema and feel that it was not really as bad as many of the other comments here would have you believe. My companion and I found it a pleasant diversion for a couple of hours, but admittedly it is not a must-see film by any stretch of the imagination. Hugh Grant plays his usual bumbling English guy trying to patch things up with his high-flying wife (Sarah Jessica Parker), when both are forced into hiding after witnessing a murder. Sam Elliot and Mary Steenbeck offer excellent supporting roles and bring some welcome warmth to the film. I thought the plot original at first (I was taken by surprise by the murder scene), but things became much more predictable later on. The film had some amusing scenes but I don't remember any laugh-out-loud moments. The final and most implausible scene, where the hit-man was disarmed with the throw of a horseshoe (!) could have come straight out of some 50's kids serial like "Champion the wonder horse" (remember that?) All in all not a great deal of cinematic sophistication here, but a pleasant evening's entertainment none the less.