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| TRUE ROMANCE:Saoirse Ronan as Eilis and Emory Cohen as Tony in Brooklyn |
Nothing is harder to resist than the call of home or the care of a loved one. In Brooklyn, Saoirse Ronan’s Eilis Lacey suffers homesickness and heartache on her journey towards making a life that she can call her own.
Brooklyn (Cert 12A; 112mins)
The screen version of Colm Tóibín’s exquisite novel is a lovely, tender-hearted exploration of the Irish immigrant experience, a coming-of-age period drama and a love letter to Ronan all wrapped into one irresistible tear-jerker of a tale. Nick Hornby’s skilful adaptation softens a few of the sharp, spiky edges of the original story but there are still plenty of vinegary moments to dispel the sweet scent of cosy nostalgia.
She may not be willing to admit it but Eilis is slowly suffocating in Enniscorthy in the early 1950s. It is a town where everyone knows everyone’s business and has a very firm opinion about it. Eilis lives with her widowed mother and her older sister Rose (Fiona Glascott), she studies bookkeeping, has a Sunday job in the corner grocer and a disdain for the local lads who act like big shots.
Then Father Flood (Jim Broadbent) writes to offer her work and lodgings in Brooklyn. It is a lifeline she accepts with reluctance as she bids her family farewell and sets sail for an unknown future in America. Brooklyn has a very clear-sighted vision of the bittersweet range of emotions that Eilis experiences from guilt to trepidation and the sense of being completely alone in the middle of life’s bustle. Brooklyn is overwhelming and the boarding house run by Julie Walters’ beady-eyed landlady Ma Kehoe offers scant comfort.
Eilis is a decent, hardworking girl and Ronan’s subtle, understated performance really makes us care about her. A first Christmas in America serving food and good cheer to the homeless brings a lump to the throat. The arrival of a potential boyfriend in soft-hearted Italian-American Tony (Emory Cohen) is like a burst of Technicolor sunshine after a long grey winter. One of the great pleasures of Brooklyn is the way it is perfectly cast throughout.
James DiGiacomo is a scene-stealing delight as Tony’s blunt-speaking, mischievous younger brother Frankie, Brid Brennan captures all the petty-minded malice of shopkeeper Miss Kelly and Domhnall Gleeson brings a wry, affable charm to the role of Jim Farrell, the man who might just persuade Eilis that her future lies in Ireland after all.
By then we have all become such devoted fans of cutie pie Tony that Jim presents no competition in the romantic stakes. It is a measure of how much the film has got under your skin that you are raging for Eilis to make the right decision.
Because the longer she prevaricates the more she risks becoming unsympathetic and the more the film’s second half falters. The talented Emory Cohen is a chameleon-like young actor who first caught the eye in The Place Beyond The Pines and subsequently starred in the television series Smash. He has the look and talent of a young Marlon Brando and is charm personified as the bashful, devoted Tony.
He makes the perfect match for Saoirse Ronan who really seems to come of age before our eyes in her perfectly judged performance as Eilis. The strength of emotion they bring to their roles ensures that Brooklyn is also a sweet, beguiling romance.
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| Nicholas Hoult in the screen version of John Niven’s novel, Kill Your Friends |
Kill Your Friends (Cert 18; 103mins)
If American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman had worked in the music industry he would be the main character in Kill Your Friends. The screen version of John Niven’s novel offers a monotonous, sour-tasting satire of a cut-throat business at the height of the Britpop era.
Nicholas Hoult throws himself wholeheartedly into the role of Steven Stelfox, an ambitious executive desperate to be the next head of A&R. There is a Shakespearean quality to his sly commentary delivered directly to the audience (very House Of Cards) and the way his endless betrayals are cloaked in a smile of encouragement or a meaningless gesture of solidarity.
As Stelfox kills, humiliates and destroys rivals the film feels like an endless wallow in men behaving badly. Ultimately everyone in Kill Your Friends is so unpleasant that you really don’t want to spend time in their company
VERDICT: 2/5
Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (Cert 15; 93mins)
The title is the best thing about this film, a highly resistible mixture of crass, misogynistic black comedy and gory blood-letting. Teenagers Ben (Tye Sheridan), Carter (Logan Miller) and Augie (Joey Morgan) are the only members of their local Scout troop and Ben and Carter are increasingly convinced that the time has come to grow up and move on. None of that matters once the undead start to walk the streets.
The actors, especially Tye Sheridan, deserve better than this. He Named Me Malala HHH (Cert PG; 87mins) It is three years since Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to suggest that all girls deserved an education.
She has subsequently become a global activist for the power of education to transform lives. Documentary He Named Me Malala celebrates her quiet determination and heroism as she has journeyed from defiant schoolgirl to a figure at ease sparring on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or meeting U2’s Bono. There is little doubt that Malala is a remarkable young woman but this admiring tribute feels a little too overawed by its subject.
VERDICT: 1/5
Ronaldo (Cert PG; 96mins)
Nobody would dispute that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the most gifted footballers in the world. This film follows the player over 14 months and captures an engaging portrait of a player focused on winning and on a man for whom family means everything.
Ronaldo would probably be the first to admit he is vain and arrogant but the affectionate relationship with his son reveals a very different figure in a documentary that should appeal to more than diehard football fans. The Closer We Get HHH (Cert PG; 91mins) Filmmaker Karen Guthrie always believed she had led a charmed life. But this autobiographical documentary shows the situation was far more complicated than she cared to admit.
When her mother Ann suffered a massive stroke, Karen returned home to care for her. It provided the opportunity to examine the scars of family traumas, most of them attributable to her errant, elusive father Ian. Trying to come to terms with what has happened is the basis of a modest but poignant family portrait.
VERDICT: 3/5
Burnt (Cert 15; 101mins)
There are elements of Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay and countless other notorious “bad boy” chefs in Burnt’s mean, moody perfectionist Adam Jones, played by Bradley Cooper. Once the scourge of the Paris culinary scene, drink, drugs and arrogance have brought Jones to his knees.
Then he hits the comeback trail determined to set London ablaze with his talent and earn a third Michelin star by creating the kind of food that haunts people’s dreams.
Can he stop being his own worst enemy? That’s the familiar question that steers a predictable film down the path of redemption. Jones gathers together his dream team in the manner of an Ocean’s Eleven caper. An underused international cast includes Daniel Bruhl as maître d’ Tony and Omar Sy as sous chef Michel.
Newcomer Helene (Sienna Miller) gives as good as she gets and it only seems a matter of time before romance is in the air. The tasty cast includes therapist Emma Thompson and food critic Uma Thurman but the breezy, lightweight story could have used a little more spice.
VERDICT: 3/5
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