The Invisible Woman

http://www.sonyclassics.com/theinvisiblewoman/

No preamble on this one folks, I'm going to get straight to the nitty gritty.

Ellen (Jones), or Nelly to her friends and family, and her mother and sister, travel to Manchester to perform in a play being directed by Charles Dickens (Fiennes). Nelly is only 17 and hopes to one day follow her mother and two other sisters into acting, this being her first performance. Charles sees something extraordinary in Nelly where others do not. He encourages her pursuits and the two of them become close, something Charles would like to take further once Nelly has turned 18. However, Mr Dickens has a wife and children at home, making it impossible for him to make an honest woman of Nelly. Will their love for one-another prove more powerful than the Dickens' marriage vows?

I must say that I am somewhat puzzled by the name of the film, as the trailer certainly implies that Nelly is the invisible woman of the title. In my eyes she is anything but invisible, in fact she is probably the one person that Charles sees the clearest, and really it is his wife who becomes the invisible woman. And it is in those scenes that Joanna Scanlan (who plays Catherine Dickens) absolutely shines. 

There is one scene in particular after Catherine becomes aware of Nelly's involvement with Charles, which is actually prior to anything happening between them. Catherine goes to see Nelly on her 18th birthday and you immediately get the most uneasy feeling that a horrendous scene is about to take place. You can't help but feel that Catherine has timed her visit in order to ruin Nelly's birthday, and that she is going to warn her off her husband, but what follows is much more heartbreaking, and I certainly won't spoil that for anyone looking to see the film. 

Having explained all that, I will also say that I have never seen a more delicate and considered performance from Felicity Jones. She is worthy of all the praise being heaped on her for this movie because she really puts her heart and soul into every scene. Seeming innocent and naive in the early scenes and yet so worldly wise and strong in the latter ones. My only nitpick here would be that they didn't age her enough for the later scenes, so it seems rather hard to grasp that she is THAT much older. My guess is that she should be at least 10 years older in the later scenes and she just doesn't look it. 

It's a small gripe with a truly wonderful film. Ralph Fiennes also puts in a solid double performance, acting as lead actor and director for the second time. His film feels perfectly at home amongst other recent period pieces and his cast of strong and ballsy women do him a great deed by all outshining him somewhat. The fact that he puts in a rather reserved performance and lets them shine, I think speaks volumes about his character, and as such, he has gone up a great deal in my estimations.

The Invisible Woman was only showing at my local independent cinema, if it's at one near you I urge you to catch it. 8.5 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 9th March 2014

UK Release Date - 21st February 2014

Cast Overview:

Charles Dickens ~ Ralph Fiennes

Nelly Ternan ~ Felicity Jones

Catherine Ternan ~ Kristin Scott Thomas

Wilkie Collins ~ Tom Hollander

Catherine Dickens ~ Joanna Scanlan

Caroline Graves ~ Michelle Fairley

Mr Arnott ~ Jonathan Harden

George Wharton Robinson ~ Tom Burke

Maria Ternan ~ Perdita Weeks

Reverend Benham ~ John Kavanagh

Director ~ Ralph Fiennes

Writer(s) ~ Abi Morgan (Screenplay) and Claire Tomalin (Book)

Like Crazy...Again

Loyal readers of my review blog may recall that I saw a film last year that I was enormously looking forward to, and which lived up to my very high expectations when I was lucky enough to see an advance screening of it at the BFI London Film Festival.

A film which I commented at the time would "no doubt get a lot of critical praise but which probably won't get a nationwide release in order to get the audience numbers that will make it a hit. If it comes to an independent cinema near you I urge you to seek it out and go see it."

It turns out I could not have been more right, as the film has been released this Friday 27th January, and while it is showing at mainstream cinemas across the country, it is only showing at a handful of them.

I therefore thought it prudent to remind my readers of my thoughts on the film and again urge you to see it, if you are lucky enough to live near (or even in) a town that is showing Like Crazy...

http://www.likecrazy.com/

The film starts off as your typical girl meets boy, the girl is british student Anna (Felicity Jones), who is studying at a college in Los Angeles. The boy is fellow student Jacob (Anton Yelchin). The pair fall so in love that Anna decides to stay in LA after student visa has expired. She returns to the UK a few months later but when she tries to re-enter the states she is denied entry because she violated her previous visa. And so follows a story of two people trying to make it work under the pressure of great distance. 

Having never been in a long distance relationship myself I can't comment on whether this is an accurate portrayal of one. But I can say that it seems more realistic than most I've seen. The performances from the two leads are mature (for such young actors) and thoughtful. I know from articles that I read (when I was trying to find out more information) that most of the dialogue was improvised which just speaks volumes about how they seem to have really taken the time to create these characters, rather than just taking their cue from the writer/director. I also thought Jennifer Lawrence's performance, although a much smaller role, was heartbreaking.

The only thing I would change is the very abrupt ending which left one person sitting near me to ask 'do you think there'll be a sequel?' The answer is no, I don't think there will. The message at the end was very clear to me. But that doesn't mean it had to end there. I could have happily watched for another 15-30 minutes as you get so wrapped up in these characters lives that you want nothing but things between them to work out. 

This is a film which will no doubt get a lot of critical praise but which probably won't get a nationwide release in order to get the audience numbers that will make it a hit. If it comes to an independent cinema near you I urge you to seek it out and go see it. 9 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 15th October 2011

UK Release Date - 27th January 2012

Cast Overview:

Anton Yelchin ~ Jacob

Felicity Jones ~ Anna

Jennifer Lawrence ~ Sam

Charlie Bewley ~ Simon

Alex Kingston ~ Jackie

Oliver Muirhead ~ Bernard

Director ~ Drake Doremus

Writer(s) ~ Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones

Like Crazy

http://www.likecrazy.com/

It seems unreal to me that I'm writing this review. I first found the trailer for Like Crazy last month and instantly wanted to watch the film. I went to IMDb for more information and it said it had already been released in the UK in February this year. Counting the months off on my fingers I decided it therefore must be available on DVD but scouring Amazon, Play.com and Ebay and finding nothing soon made me very confused. I tried to find information anywhere I could. Pretty much all I could see was that it had won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Great. Further proof that this film was amazing but where could I see it??

Eventually I checked back with IMDb and it had changed its story. It was now saying the film was coming out on 3rd Feb 2012 over here. Maybe I mis-read it the first time but I was sure it had said it'd already come out. Anyway, a couple of weeks later a booklet was dropped on my desk at work advertising the BFI London Film Festival and low and behold, they were showing Like Crazy. One frantic visit to the website later revealed that both showings were sold out. 

I rang them a week later and managed to get one solitary ticket. But I wanted to go with my best friend and explained this to the nice man. He told me they almost always have tickets on the day so we went to London on the off chance that we would be able to get her a ticket. And we did! Hurrah! 

The film starts off as your typical girl meets boy, the girl is british student Anna (Felicity Jones), who is studying at a college in Los Angeles. The boy is fellow student Jacob (Anton Yelchin). The pair fall so in love that Anna decides to stay in LA after student visa has expired. She returns to the UK a few months later but when she tries to re-enter the states she is denied entry because she violated her previous visa. And so follows a story of two people trying to make it work under the pressure of great distance. 

Having never been in a long distance relationship myself I can't comment on whether this is an accurate portrayal of one. But I can say that it seems more realistic than most I've seen. The performances from the two leads are mature (for such young actors) and thoughtful. I know from articles that I read (when I was trying to find out more information) that most of the dialogue was improvised which just speaks volumes about how they seem to have really taken the time to create these characters, rather than just taking their cue from the writer/director. I also thought Jennifer Lawrence's performance, although a much smaller role, was heartbreaking.

The only thing I would change is the very abrupt ending which left one person sitting near me to ask 'do you think there'll be a sequel?' The answer is no, I don't think there will. The message at the end was very clear to me. But that doesn't mean it had to end there. I could have happily watched for another 15-30 minutes as you get so wrapped up in these characters lives that you want nothing but things between them to work out. 

This is a film which will no doubt get a lot of critical praise but which probably won't get a nationwide release in order to get the audience numbers that will make it a hit. If it comes to an independent cinema near you I urge you to seek it out and go see it. 9 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 15th October 2011

UK Release Date - 3rd February 2012 (subject to change!)

Cast Overview:

Anton Yelchin ~ Jacob

Felicity Jones ~ Anna

Jennifer Lawrence ~ Sam

Charlie Bewley ~ Simon

Alex Kingston ~ Jackie

Oliver Muirhead ~ Bernard

Director ~ Drake Doremus

Writer(s) ~ Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones

Chalet Girl *Exclusive Preview*

http://chaletgirlfilm.wordpress.com/

I signed up to SeeFilmFirst some time ago but always seemed to miss out on the exclusive previews they did in Brighton. Not so with today's screening of Chalet Girl. What with it's uninspiring concept and trailer I was very glad I was seeing this film for free. But unlike my other recent free film The Kids Are Alright, I would have happily paid to see this.

Chalet Girl tells the story of Kim (Felicity Jones), an up-and-coming talent in the world of pro skateboarding. She quits when a car accident causes the untimely death of her mother. With her skateboarding career set aside, she takes on a job at a local burger bar which allows her to financially take care of her father, Bill (Bill Bailey). With a shot at earning more money, Kim decides to take a job as a chalet girl. At expected, she finds the move to Austria and her new job to be quite an adjustment from her old life. Kim is now working for the rich family who own a large part of the ski-resort (if not the whole resort), and in her spare time she is making new friends and learning to snowboard. One of Kim's new friends Mikki (Ken Duken) convinces her to enter the up coming snowboarding competition, in which she could win $25,000, which would dramatically help her situation at home. In the midst of all this she grows ever closer to the son of the rich family, Jonny (Ed Westwick), who is hiding the fact that he is engaged to a girl his family deems much more 'suitable' for him than Kim.

Chalet Girl could have been very contrived and annoying but I am very happy to say that it wasn't, on either count. Admittedly this is because it appealed to my inner 12 year old girl. But I'm not saying it will only appeal to 12 year old girls, or older women who still have an inner 12 year old, as I went to see this with a man in his late 30's who also enjoyed the film immensely. It is obvious what will happen in the movie from the outset but I didn't feel as though this detracted from the enjoyment of watching it all unfurl and getting to know these characters in the process.

Chalet Girl is a feel good film, it's not too taxing, it doesn't really make you think, but it is well acted, bringing a warmth to the characters which wouldn't have necessarily been there on paper. 7.5 out of 10.

Viewing Date - 12th February 2011

UK Release Date - 16th March 2011

Cast Overview:

Kim ~ Felicity Jones

Jonny ~ Ed Westwick

Richard (Jonny's Father) ~ Bill Nighy

Caroline (Jonny's Mother) ~ Brooke Shields

Chloe ~ Sophia Bush

Nigel ~ Nicholas Braun

Georgie ~ Tamsin Egerton

Jules ~ Georgia King

Bill (Kim's Father ~ Bill Bailey

Mikki ~ Ken Duken

Willy ~ Adam Bousdoukos


Director ~ Phil Traill
Writer ~ Tom Williams