Oscar Wilde’s witty comedy is brought entertainingly to life by Oliver Parker, who directed the rather poor St Trinian’s movies and the 2009 Dorian Gray adaptation. Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Frances O’Connor, Reese Witherspoon and Judi Dench all star in this tale of two bachelors (Firth and Everett) who get caught up with their own…
Although production on the film was notoriously difficult, The Others is one of the best ghost stories committed to screen. Set in a post-World War II Jersey, the film sees a mother (Nicole Children) trying to bring up her two light-sensitive children in an enormous mansion. The big twist in the story may be widely…
Stephen Frears has been responsible for some of the most interesting British films of the last half-century. Not all of his films have been successful (artistically and/or financially), but he never fails to offer the audience a range of interesting characters leading fascinating lives. This 2002 feature, co-funded by the BBC and Disney, is one…
Bram Stoker’s terrifying creation Dracula has appeared on screen many times, played by a vast range of actors. This enjoyably creepy Hammer horror from the 60s sees Christopher Lee in the role of the blood-sucking legend. Four British tourists stumble upon an eerily empty castle while on a travelling holiday. Because this is a horror…
The late Anthony Minghella directed many wonderful films, but this is probably my favourite. It’s based on a Patricia Highsmith novel – a cold, compelling book – and turns it into a sumptuously filmed and intelligent character study of a man with a talent for pretending to be people he is not. Matt Damon is…
Social realism is something British cinema does well, and Wreckers is another quality example of that genre (if one can call it a genre). It is the debut feature of Dictynna Hood, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, two superb young actors, as a newly married couple David and Dawn living in a rugged…
This is a rather sinister stalker story, exploring what a lonely man will do to feel wanted or significant in someone else’s life. Here this man is a photo developer named Sy Parrish, played creepily by Robin Williams, who develops an obsession with a middle class family who go to his photo developing department in…
Similar to many comedies currently pouring into cinemas at the moment, this is ridiculously crude and potentially offensive. Dissimilar to many comedies, it’s actually funny. Sean William Scott, an actor who has talent but rarely works with good material, is hilarious as Wheeler; a guy who advertises soft drinks to young children at school assemblies…
From watching the opening few minutes of “Jindabyne”, Ray Lawrence’s third directorial work, you could be forgiven for thinking that this is yet another serial killer movie. Fifteen minutes in, however, you would realise that this is far from the truth. This isn’t a film about a depraved killer’s sickening acts of sex and violence…
Capturing Mary was broadcast on BBC TWO during the Autumn of 2007, part of two new dramas written by Stephen Poliakoff. This film both works as the second part to Joe’s Palace, Poliakoff’s other 2007 drama, and as a standalone film. Joe, a young man paid to mind a grand old house in central London,…
Miranda Richardson seems to show off her considerably wide range of acting talents with every screen effort she makes. In Dance with a Stranger, a small little British independent from the 1980s, she plays the radiant but tough nightclub owner Ruth Ellis. Ellis is well known for being the last woman to be hanged in…
Adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s novel and directed by Tom Ford, this is about a British college lecturer in America who’s grieving after the death of his partner. On the day the film is set, he decides he is going to take his own life. The film is a delicate lament on age, beauty and love.…
Tim Burton’s masterpiece, ahead of Edward Scissorhands and Big Fish, is the hilarious and touching tale of Edward D Wood jr, the worst director in the history of film. Buoyed by an effervescently upbeat turn by Jonny Depp in the role that should have made him a megastar, the film is one of the best…
As I have been playing the cello for many years, the name Jacqueline Du Pre has always meant something to me, even if I didn’t really know that much about her. With Hilary and Jackie, a somewhat controversial biopic, adapted from the 1997 memoir A Genius in the Family, I was made wise to the…