Saskia Reeves
Following the fact-based historical book of the same name, this drama follows the rise of Cromwell as he becomes Henry the VIII’s closest advisor.
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the King dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer, and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
This quick-witted spy drama follows a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents—and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb—as they navigate the espionage world’s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.
David Hare concludes his trilogy of films about MI5 renegade Johnny Worricker with another fugue on power, secrets and the British establishment. Johnny Worricker goes on the run with Margot Tyrell across Europe, and with the net closing in, the former MI5 man knows his only chance of resolving his problems is to return home and confront prime minister Alec Beasley.
Page Eight is lovingly turned, with elegant writing, a flawless cast and a heartfelt message from writer/director David Hare about the danger zone where spies and politicians meet. The tension builds gently as we follow the fortunes of Johnny Worricker, a jazz-loving charmer who works high up at MI5 as an intelligence analyst. It’s a part made for Bill Nighy and he purrs out bon mots with a weary panache that women 20 years younger find irresistible. One such is his neighbour, Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz), in a Battersea mansion block. The question for Johnny is whether her interest in him is genuine or hides something darker. As his boss (Michael Gambon) puts it: “Distrust is a terrible habit.” Questions of trust, honour and friendship rumble through the play. The characters exchange oblique repartee as a plot about a damning dossier unwinds. It’s not to be missed.
Four policemen go undercover and infiltrate a gang of football hooligans hoping to route out their leaders. For one of the four, the line between ‘job’ and ‘yob’ becomes more unclear as time passes . . .
Scrooge is a miserly old businessman in 1840’s London. One Christmas Eve he is visited by the ghost of Marley, his dead business partner. Marley foretells that Scrooge will be visited by three spirits, each of whom will attempt to show Scrooge the error of his ways. Will Scrooge reform his ways in time to celebrate Christmas?
Set two years after his daughter went missing, The Child In Time follows Stephen Lewis, a children’s author, as he struggles to find purpose in his life without her. His wife Julie has left him, and his best friends Charles and Thelma have retired to the countryside, battling demons of their own. With tenderness and insight, the movie explores the dark territory of a marriage devastated, the loss of childhood, the fluidity of time, grief, hope, and acceptance. The Child In Time is a lyrical and heart-breaking exploration of love, loss, and the power of things unseen.
Eunice is walking along the highways of northern England from one filling station to another. She is searching for Judith, the woman, she says to be in love with. It’s bad luck for the women at the cash desk not to be Judith, because Eunice is eccentric, angry and extreme dangerous. One day she meets Miriam, hard of hearing and a little ingenuous, who feels sympathy for Eunice and takes her home. Miriam is very impressed by Eunice’s fierceness and willfulness and follows her on the search for Judith. Shocked by Eunice’s cruelty she tries to make her a better person, but she looses ground herself.
