The beginning of events on screen are the peace terms laid down by the victorious Nesib on the defeated Amar, following a war between the two kingdoms over the Yellow Belt – a desolate place that, unbeknown to the men at the time, is rich in oil. The terms of peace are that Nesib will “adopt” Amar’s two sons, thus guaranteeing that no man will invade the other, and that the Yellow Belt will belong to neither of the two kingdoms. The future discovery of oil in the Yellow Belt reveals that the two men’s visions of the future are irreconcilable and sets in motion the path of one of Amar’s sons, the timid and studious Auda (played by Tahar Rahim), who must choose his place between the two warring factions.

The film is directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, whose fascination of eastern ways pours all over the look and feel of every scene. At a time when our senses are inundated by tragic images of events in the Middle East, Annaud puts together a world of rugged, exotic beauty – whose inhabitants’ lives are intimately tied to the sand and Allah. This world is given life by a mostly Middle-Eastern or North African supporting cast, whose faces and mannerisms add that extra level of conviction to the plot’s setting. In addition, Annaud’s direction and Jean-Marie Dreujou’s photography shine through during the film’s white-knuckle desert battle scenes. The cinema screen’s aspect ratio is put to full use with epic shots capturing desert armory clashing with scimitar-wielding camel-riders.

Perhaps the film’s biggest draw though is Mark Strong’s portrayal of the Sultan Amar. Strong emits both rock-hard strength and vulnerability on screen, reflecting his character’s position as a warrior being left behind by a wealth-craving world. One of the film’s best moments is when Auda visits his home Sultanate for the first time in fifteen years to discuss with his father the fate of the Yellow Belt. Strong’s and Rahim’s father-son interaction elevates the film to a more human level, engaging the viewer in a debate about the cost of keeping to one’s values. The character appeal of these scenes is further increased by the presence of Ali (played by Riz Ahmed), Auda’s half-brother who is ostracised by the Sultan due to his forward-thinking views. Ahmed’s casting is inspired and his charisma endures throughout the film.

Strong’s acting though brings into focus an evident tension in Black Gold. Clearly, the attention to detail, the epic imagery and the gravitas of some of the acting point to the construction of a quality historical epic but, unfortunately, the film contains some elements which can only be described as a bit…Narnia.

Starting with the most obvious one of all, it is unclear why Antonio Banderas was cast as the Emir Nesib and why the portrayal of the character is tonally so different from the rest of the cast. While Banderas has proven that he can deliver in Latin roles, I fail to recall many instances where he has replicated that form for more foreign parts. This remains true for this film, where his credibility as an Arab Emir pales in comparison with that of Strong and most of the supporting cast. In contrast to Strong’s Sultan, Banderas’ Emir comes across as a camp fairy tale baddie (complete with humorous one-liners), who can’t be seen to be too evil in case the kids get scared. In this respect, the film lacks a true villain, which lessens the viewer’s suspense as to whether Auda will succeed.

The film’s fairytale sensibilities are also evident in the character of Leyla (played by Freida Pinto), Nesib’s daughter and Auda’s love interest. The script doesn’t give the viewer the opportunity to view Leyla as anything but a princess with a cliché love for a geek.

In many ways, Rahim’s performance in the film is caught between the two contrasting styles of the film. His performance in the The Prophet is evidence enough that Rahim is a great new talent and as mentioned above, his chemistry with Strong and Ahmed give the film character-led momentum. Unfortunately though, the script simply doesn’t give him enough to chew on and his emergence as a hero in the conflict feels a little contrived. Indeed, when a tribesman exclaims his surprise at “soft hands” Auda’s ability in warfare, the viewer is in agreement.

Deciding on whether to like this film is essentially a choice as to whether to treat it as a historical epic or a fantastical desert tale. As the former it falls short but as the latter it packs enough entertainment to remind us why we like going to the movies in the first place: good old fashioned escapism.

Black Gold hits cinemas 24th February 2012.

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Stars: Tahar Rahim, Mark Strong, Antonio Banderas
Runtime: 130 min
Country: France, Italy, Qatar

Film Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer still affected years down the line by the death of his wife during the birth of their one and only child. When he is sent to a remote village to sort out some affairs and put some papers in order he begins to uncover a supernatural mystery while organising the important items of the deceased. When the titular ghost starts to appear here and there, sometimes noticed by Kipps and sometimes only shown to the movie audience, deaths begin to plague the village once more.

Some people hated Insidious. I loved it. Why bother mentioning that movie here? Well, if you hated Insidious then I can’t see you enjoying The Woman In Black. Many people accused the former of having no atmosphere and having nothing in it but a series of jump scares. I disagreed. It did have a number of perfectly executed jump scares but it also had some nice atmosphere, especially considering the setting of the standard, modern household. The Woman In Black has an atmospheric setting (there’s a remote village and the time period is almost a sepia-tinged yesteryear) but does nothing with it. This movie is the one to point at and accuse of being nothing more than a series of jump scares.

That’s not to say that the movie is unlikeable. It’s got a lot of good things going for it. The cast, for one. Daniel Radcliffe may seem a bit young for the lead role but he acquits himself fairly well, for the most part (believing him as the father to a young boy is the hardest part to swallow and really isn’t entirely his fault). Ciaran Hinds, who seems to be jumping into every British movie ever made at the moment, is fantastic whenever he’s onscreen. The same can be said of Janet McTeer, playing his wife. Shaun Dooley, Mary Stockley, Misha Handley and all of the other cast members do a great job.

Secondly, the script is quite probably the second best that Jane Goldman has ever written (with her very best work still being Stardust). The character histories are nicely sketched out and the plot unfolds superbly from start to finish. It’s a really polished piece that blends an economy of style with some great little details.

Thirdly, those jump scares aren’t really big or clever but they are somewhat fun. It’s a shame that the movie didn’t make more of the material but it’s certainly a fun time at the cinema (judging by the reaction of the crowd around me in the packed screening I managed to see). Jump scares are cheap tactics, as many horror fans will tell you, but jump scares that are so finely executed and make for such an enjoyable thrill-ride are harder to dismiss entirely.

Director James Watkins shows a surprisingly deft hand with the material in the quieter moments (considering his previous, and first, directorial outing was the brutal Eden Lake) but he needs to learn that having a big, eerie house in the middle of nowhere and filling it with rooms that have rocking chairs, old toys and dolls isn’t enough to create a sustained atmosphere of dread. These things, individually, are unnerving but they’re thrown onscreen in some scattershot approach to generating audience reaction. Which is, essentially, a variation on the obvious jump scares.

The Woman In Black is a good film to watch and have some fun with. It has a number of very good moments that will make you jump or wait in anticipation of a jump. Sadly, and despite all of the elegant trimmings, it’s just another in a long line of disposable horror movies that fails to understand the “less is more” ethos of the best horror.

DIRECTOR: JAMES WATKINS
WRITER: JANE GOLDMAN (BASED ON THE NOVEL BY SUSAN HILL)
CAST: DANIEL RADCLIFFE, CIARAN HINDS, JANET MCTEER, SHAUN DOOLEY, MARY STOCKLEY, MISHA HANDLEY, JESSICA RAINE, VICTOR MCGUIRE, TIM MCMULLAN, CATHY SARA
RUNTIME: 95 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: UK, CANADA, SWEDEN

Film Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

Jalil Lespert is the star of two of my favorite contemporary French films, Laurent Cantet’s 1999 labor union drama Human Resources and Xavier Beauvois’ emotional 2005 policier, Le petit Lieutenant. He’s a powerful actor. At 36,he’s already establishing himself as a director. This is his second performance in that other role.

In this quietly tumultuous little film, Paul Anderen (Benoît Magimel), a writer, fights with his doctor wife (Audrey Tautou), insisting that she take care of the house as well as her hospital duties so he can write, but she’s fed up and voilà! she disappears without a trace — leaving him with two adorable and vulnerable little kids. His life shattered, after a year of hoping in vain that his wife will be found, forced to go back to zero, Paul retreats from Paris to his childhood home in Saint-Malo, in Brittany, where his older brother Alex (Antoine Duléry) sets him up with a place to live and work as a driving instructor. Then he screws one of his first students, the pretty, flirty young Justine (Marie-Ange Casta). And he takes in a jobless, homeless man (Ramzy Bedia) who steals his kid from school. The cops and the mother (Lubna Azabal of Incendies) are not too pleased. This is not so good because when hiw wife first disappeared, he was a suspect. He also befriends a man who’s lost his job and license for running over a kid on a bike at night (Bouli Lanners). Paul must deal with the passive-aggressive officiousness of the local police chief (Isabelle Carré).

Des vents contraires, the bestselling novel this is based on by Olivier Adam (who collaborated with Lespert, Marion Laine and Marie-Pierre Huster on the screenplay), clearly chooses to throw the works at its sensitive yet durable protagonist and Magimel has to be a kind of damper: he absorbs, and the noise stops till something new comes along to challenge him. Clément and Manon (Hugo Fernandes and Cassiopé Mayance), the two kids, fare surprisingly well. One of the story’s points seems to be that the French social safety net is too intrusive at times and the police investigations, school administrators, and therapists ought to mind their own business.

An older woman comes along to learn to drive, an admirer of Paul’s books (Aurore Clément), who gives him her big house at a very reasonable rent. There is resolution, and life begins again.

The criticism is that this is a TV movie, a very good one, but a TV movie. Magimel is soulful and appealing; you may wish you had his rueful smile, his quiet intensity. At 38, he has already had a formidable career, winning the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his work with Isabelle Huppert in Haneke’s Le Pianiste and a regular for the late Claude Chabrol.  Nice restrained music here by  David François Moreau (with a minute of wild rap by DJ Pone), and creditable lensing by Josée Deshaies.  I like the way Lespert varies his tone.  This is not all gray, as some seem to think.

Des vents contraires, with its wintry Breton setting, opened appropriately in Paris in mid-December 2011, to generally favorable reviews (Allociné 3.1). There were a few dissenters: Cahiers du Cinéma found it taking shelter “under a gray smile,” too cowardly “to work with fire and ice.” Lespert may still be a better actor than director, but he knows how to find the best actors and work with them. The scenes with children are natural and sometimes fun. Head Winds opened in UK cinemas 17th February 2012.

DIRECTOR: JALIL LESPERT
WRITERS: OLIVIER ADAM (NOVEL AND ADAPTATION, LESPERT, MARION LAINE AND MARIE-PIERRE HUSTER (SCREENPLAY)
STARS: BENOÎT MAJIMEL, ISABELLE CARRÉ, ANTOINE DULÉRY, AUDREY TAUTOU, RAMZI BEDIA, MARIE-ANGE CASTA, AURAURE CLÉMENT
RUNTIME: 91 MINS
COUNTRY: FRANCE

Film Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Nobody was more excited than I was to hear that, at long last, we were getting a new Muppets movie worthy of a theatrical release with great talent behind and in front of the camera. The last great movie featuring the gang was, arguably, The Muppet Christmas Carol and it had been a horrible slide downhill since that shining star of Muppety greatness.

“It’s time to light the lights.”

Okay, some people were probably a bit more excited than I was but let’s just not argue with the fact that I was very, VERY excited. I love The Muppets. I have done since I was a child. If you don’t like The Muppets then, frankly, I don’t trust you.

“It’s time to meet the muppets on the Muppet Show tonight.”

Jason Segel had been promoting puppet-based fun ever since the fantastic Forgetting Sarah Marshall so the news that he was co-writing, producing and starring in the film came as very good news. It was a seal of approval, one fan standing in for legions of them.

“It’s time put on makeup.”

The fact that Segel was going to be joined onscreen by the Julie Andrews of the 21st century, Amy Adams, wasn’t necessarily the best news ever but Adams is certainly good to watch in the right movie (just avoid the likes of the dire Leap Year). Singing and dancing wouldn’t be a problem and, surely, her winning smile and positive attitude would fit nicely with The Muppets. Rashida Jones was another human in the cast and another person I liked. And Chris Cooper was going to be the villain of the piece. Be warned . . . . . . he raps at one point, but in a way that causes genuine chuckles.

“It’s time to dress up right.”

And then we had the most important factor of all. The people making the movie were going to do right by the characters. They were going to restore The Muppets to former glory and the movie would actually be about just that, while also introducing a new character named Walter (a puppet character who also happens to be the brother of Jason Segel’s character though the movie, amusingly, never questions such implausible genetics).

“It’s time to raise the curtain on the Muppet Show tonight.”

The gang all back together, the gags as whacky and frantic as ever, Animal on the drums, a bunch of celebrity cameos. I try never to get my hopes up too much for any movie but this seemed like nothing could go wrong. The trailers did what all trailers do, they included a number of great moments and raised expectations even further (I’d go as far as saying that the trailer parodying The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trailer was one of the greatest trailers of the last decade, which is quite a trailer-filled sentence to piece together). My mind was made up. As long as nothing was really messed up then I knew that this just couldn’t go wrong.

“Why do we always come here?
I guess we’ll never know
It’s like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show”

So, where DOES The Muppets go wrong? It IS amusing and it is fun for the family but it’s lacking a certain something. Perhaps it’s just the fact that Frank Oz is no longer providing some of the voices (the replacement does a GREAT job but fans can tell the difference, ever so slight as it is). Perhaps it’s because, as is so often the case, the trailer had all of the best moments packed into it. Perhaps the gang have all managed to retain their Muppet charm but have simply grown up a bit, taking the edge of their anarchic and lovably kooky ways. The Muppets will appeal to fans of the show who are of my generation (let’s say that those aged 30-40 may end up loving this the most) but it’s a movie powered by very little once you look past the goodwill and nostalgia that viewers have for the lead characters.

“But now it’s getting started
Why don’t you get things started?
It’s time to get things started
On the most sensantional
Inspirational
Celebrational
Muppet-ational
This is what we call The Muppet Show!”

I can’t mark this down as an average, or below-average, movie. This is a Muppet movie. And it’s a very good Muppet movie. It’s just not quite the return to former glories that fans like myself may have been pining for (a phrase I have found myself using more and more over the past few years, sadly). If you go to the cinema to see The Muppets then you’ll have fun and any kids you take along should also have fun. It does a good job. I already know that I’ll be buying it on shiny disc when it comes out some months down the line. But I also already know that I’ll spend more time rewatching the older movies than I will visiting this one. Perhaps that was inevitable and the fact that this film is actually a good, fun Muppet movie is not something to be ungrateful for. That, and the amazing singing chickens.

Now, a one and a two and a three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MAH NA MAH NA!

DIRECTOR: JAMES BOBIN
WRITER: NICHOLAS STOLLER, JASON SEGEL
STARS: JASON SEGEL, AMY ADAMS, CHRIS COOPER, RASHIDA JONES, KERMIT THE FROG, MISS PIGGY, FOZZIE BEAR, THE GREAT GONZO, ANIMAL
RUNTIME: 103 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA

Film Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Set for UK release on 2nd March, This Means War stars the tantilising trio of Tom Hardy, Chris Pine and Reese Witherspoon and is directed by McG and we have for you below the trailer…

Join the War now at facebook.com/ThisMeansWarMovieUK and twitter.com/ThisMeansWarUK

Join the War now at facebook.com/ThisMeansWarMovieUK and twitter.com/ThisMeansWarUK

Viva Bianca is Holly, a “working girl” who seems to have placed herself in a pretty good position (no pun intended) within the business. She doesn’t have to walk the streets and she has a number of trusted colleagues that she can easily work with during private shows. She’s also reached her financial target and is all set to head off to Paris and start her life anew. Things take a turn for the worse when a colleague lets her down as she is heading towards a lucrative job. Fortunately, she encounters young Shay (played by Hanna Mangan Lawrence), a newcomer to the streets who needs to wise up fast before she lands in big trouble. Shay takes Holly up on her offer and the two head to the job. Things are going well until they go horribly wrong and before you can say “overused plot point” the two women are heading their separate ways and praying that they’ll not be found by the perpetrator of the crime that they just witnessed. This is a movie though. Anyone can be found in the movies, no matter how big the city and how many crowds you can disappear into.

Director Jon Hewitt (who co-wrote the movie with Belinda McClory) certainly tries his best to make the stale material seem fresh and original but, for the most part, he doesn’t quite manage to pull it off. There aren’t really any big twists, the violence isn’t shocking enough when it appears and the film takes potentially edgy and dark material and treats it too gently. Many may feel that Hewitt deserves to be commended for his approach to things, and that’s a fair point, but I couldn’t help wishing that he’d done something more, something just to reward any viewer who would feel as if they’d seen it all before. A viewer like myself.

Thankfully, the characters are all interesting and/or likeable enough and that certainly helps to add to the enjoyment of the thing. Viva Bianca is believable as the professional Holly, just trying to kill time and get by until her dream life can begin, and Hanna Mangan Lawrence is suitably naive and childish as the young Shay, a nervy girl trying to pass her off as a working woman. Peter Docker does well with his role, portraying someone as dark and dangerous as he is genuinely caring and Eamon Farren stands out as a cab driver who offers the chance of something magical to Shay.

X: Night Of Vengeance isn’t bad. It’s well made, well acted and often interesting when showing the psychologies of desperate people. But there are many similiar movies that put it in the shade.

X: Night Of Vengeance “x-plodes onto DVD on February 20, 2012″ (as the press release puts it. The movie is accompanied by a “making of” featurette that runs for a decent length of time and a number of passable, but unexciting, interviews with the main players involved.

DIRECTOR: JON HEWITT
WRITER: JON HEWITT, BELINDA MCCLORY
STARS: VIVA BIANCA, HANNA MANGAN LAWRENCE, PETER DOCKER, STEPHEN PHILLIPS, EAMON FARREN
RUNTIME: 90 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA

Film Rating: 6 out of 10 stars
DVD Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

Apparently, Trish Stratus (who gets the lead role in this movie) is a former 7 time WWE women’s champion. I didn’t know this. I hadn’t even heard of Trish Stratus before seeing her in this movie. As you may have guessed, I just don’t watch wrestling. So perhaps wrestling fans can take my review and rating and add a bit of goodwill and one point.

Anyway, let’s not dwell on the wrestling prowess of the leading lady for now and actually get a description of the plot here. Stratus plays Jules, an attractive and tough woman who is both a bounty hunter and, of course, an occasional stripper (don’t get too excited if you’re a BIG fan, she plays one of those movie strippers who wears a schoolgirl outfit type of thing but never actually strips, natch). Her two main colleagues are the tough and reliable Ridley (played by Frank J. Zupancic) and the young and cocky Chase Thomson (played by Boomer Phillips). These bounty hunters always do well, they always get results and they always play by the rules. Until the one night that they don’t. Then everything starts going horribly wrong.

Let’s be honest here, I don’t think that anyone expects a movie promoting a female wrestler in the starring role to be very good. No offence intended to Trish Stratus, WWE fans have seen many movies pushed as star vehicles for their favourite wrestlers (of either gender) and many of those movies have been pretty poor. The fact that Bounty Hunters actually entertains and raises a smile or two is a pleasant surprise.

The script by Reese Evenshen has a few funny lines dotted here and there (most of them given to Boomer Phillips, the most entertaining of the cast members) and the direction by Patrick McBrearty works just perfectly for the simple nature of the material. A couple of the action scenes are satisfying and Trish Stratus herself is attractive, sassy and far from incapable of handling such a sexy and tough role.

The acting from the leads does the job – Stratus, Zupancic and Phillips getting on well together and providing a decent chemistry. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the main baddies. Joe Rafla never seems to pose any real threat though Christian Bako, Andrea James Lui and Richard Ha grab one or two opportunities to look cool while upsetting the bounty hunters.

It’s a shame that Bounty Hunters just doesn’t have the energy and resources to push ever so slightly higher in aim and execution because, considering the type of film it is, it’s a solid outing that just stops short of turning into something that could grow and grow its fanbase.

Bounty Hunters storms onto shiny disc on February 20th, sadly lacking in any extra features for anyone hoping to see more from Trish Stratus.

DIRECTOR: PATRICK MCBREARTY
WRITER: REESE EVENSHEN
STARS: TRISH STRATUS, FRANK J. ZUPANCIC, BOOMER PHILLIPS, JOE RAFLA, CHRISTIAN BAKO, ANDREA JAMES LUI, RICHARD HA, ENRICO DIFEDE
RUNTIME: 80 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: CANADA

Film Rating: 5 out of 10 stars
DISC Rating: 3 out of 10 stars

This is a harrowing film but the love story at the heart of it provides another element, Magician’s quest to find a white rooster adding some much needed light relief from the story of war in The Congo. For all the atrocities the film chooses to leave a lot to our imagination, Komona describes a horrifying act of torture but we never see it, it is left for us to visualise. The Butcher later on in the story also doesn’t speak of what happened to his family, we just see close ups of him cutting the meat which is just as affecting. The film visually depicts the ghosts that Komona sees as people painted white with white eyes, an effectively haunting and surreal visualisation. The perspective is that of Komona’s throughout and due to that we feel for the character and gain an insight into a different culture during war.

The central performance by Mwanza is exceptional and the rest of the cast, largely consisting of non-professional actors, do an incredible job. The film feels realistic and its choice to focus on some African legends avoid this being just another harrowing tale of war. The perspective of a child soldier understandably makes this a poignant tale but the glimpses of happiness we see add a feeling of positivity and hope to a dire situation.

Lively music successfully enhances the soul of the film and whilst we are thrown into the action from the beginning, it is when the film slows down that the story really blossoms. One particularly shocking and horrific act towards the end of the film truly demonstrates the strength and character of the protagonist and I found myself really caring for her. Striking imagery is presented throughout the film, one scene with a large family of albinos is particularly prominent and the white rooster along with the white ghosts stands out amongst the greens and browns of the location.

Although not an enjoyable film as such due to the subject matter, War Witch (Rebelle) has a surprisingly uplifting spirit due to the determination and strength of the main character. Full of authenticity and cultural references this is a fascinating viewpoint on war that never utilises shock tactics or graphic depictions of violence to make it memorable. Instead it focuses on the people and these strong performances are what make War Witch memorable.

Director: Kim Nguyen
Writers: Kim Nguyen, Michel Coulombe and Pierre Magny (storyline consultants), Alexandre Mangona and Simon Trépanier (collaborating writers)
Stars: Rachel Mwanza, Alain Bastien and Serge Kanyinda
Runtime: 90 mins
Country: Canada

Film Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

Based on actual historical events, the film makes the story extremely accessible and considering I know absolutely nothing about this era, I was riveted from beginning to end. Part tragic love story and part historical political thriller, A Royal Affair successfully amalgamates the genres and is a surprisingly gripping film. Considering its relatively long runtime of over two hours, it never dragged and the characters were likeable and interesting. Caroline is an intelligent woman who naively gets trapped in a disastrous marriage, the audience seeing things from her perspective and immediately siding with her, allowing the following affair to be gripping. Følsgaard brilliantly adds a maniacal laugh to the character of Christian instantly establishing the psychological state of the character, but he also shows an extreme vulnerability which is in both the script and the performance that makes the character fascinating. Mikkelsen is equally great as the doctor who brings about change, his interesting face depicting a fascinating mixture of brooding haughtiness and dedicated passion to both his cause and the woman he falls in love with.

Both Caroline and Stuensee seem to genuinely care for Christian, at one point the three talk excitedly about the changes they can bring about. It is the complexity and likeability of the characters that really hold this film together but the film is also carefully crafted and the story flows beautifully carrying us along with it for the ride. It is easy to become completely absorbed in this lavish historical world. But don’t expect anything out of the ordinary, this is a conventional story told in a conventional manner, however, it is thoroughly enjoyable. There are a few genuinely amusing moments that prevent this film from becoming too serious and boring and the uncertainty of characters and actions allows the film to remain compelling throughout.

A Royal Affair never becomes too focused on the politics but also doesn’t dumb things down for the audience, most of the details being humanised by the three main characters. The political conflicts at the centre of the story paralleled with the love conflicts can be poetically interpreted and adds a particular depth to the film. In a sea of often difficult and pretentious films this one stands out for its appealing clarity and strong storytelling with marvellous central performances.

Director: Nikolaj Arcel
Writers: Bodil Steensen-Leth (novel “Prinsesse af blodet”), Rasmus Heisterberg (screenplay) and Nikolaj Arcel (screenplay)
Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, David Dencik and Alicia Vikander
Runtime: 130 mins
Country: Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany

Film Rating: 9 out of 10 stars

With some brilliant naturalistic performances, Home for the Weekend is an engaging drama about family dynamics with a lingering sense of unease throughout. As the film progresses we learn of Jakob’s struggling dental practice, funded by his father, his financial worries and his concerns for his mother exposing his dark side, perhaps even the same illness his mother suffers from. Truths become uncovered and perceptions and patronisations of mental illness are delicately depicted. The narrative takes an interesting turn, offering a rather surprising conclusion which feels rather anticlimactic due to our distance from the characters. Director Hans-Christian Schmid chooses to remain at arm’s length from the characters, never revealing much about Gitte and only giving us brief glimpses of the sons and her husband’s true personalities, focusing rather on the facades that people put up. Whilst this is interesting, particularly when it is the facades of the non-mentally ill that we are examining, we never become truly attached to the characters, resulting in a plateau of emotions.

It is this emotional flatness that is both frustrating and fascinating though and this film gradually gets under your skin. Before anything has even happened to their mother, the family are anticipating danger, and the film successfully depicts this anticipatory atmosphere. The two brothers and their distance are the strongest element of this film and both actors do a superb job of saying so much with few words. It is what is bubbling away under the surface that is the main theme of this film, be it mental illness, a desire to be free of drugs, despair at a failing business, or hidden aspects of our lives and this is a compelling aspect of human beings. The film effectively brings these issues to the surface but it never really reaches a satisfying close, the characters all too accepting of what happens.

This is an interesting journey with enough compelling atmosphere created to draw the audience in but not quite enough depth of character is revealed for emotional investment. Some great performances but an anticlimactic ending means the sense of unease remains, a lingering shot of the house and car at the end providing a sense of an ominous conclusion that the plot lacks.

Director: Hans-Christian Schmid
Writer: Bernd Lange
Stars: Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch and Sebastian Zimmler
Runtime: 85 mins
Country: Germany

Film Rating: 7 out of 10 stars