Monk Dawson

A noble effort from first time director Tom Waller. Mixed reviews at the time it was released in Britain, but you can see that this guy shows considerable promise. Glad to see that someone is trying to make films other than Lock Stock! You should check it out for a rare performance by Paula Hamilton (where is she now?), and also Eastenders' Martin Kemp. Tomb Raider girl Rhona Mitra also has a cameo. . .

This Film was being shown in a specialist English speaking video store in the 16th arrondisment of Paris. The clients there are the French version of the Chelsea and Mayfair crowd in London and the films played are aimed accordingly. It caught my eye and i took it out, curious because as someone who casts young actors - I had already seen some extraordinary talent capture the customers of the Prime Time Store. Monk Dawson is no action film, but in almost every other way it is absolutely enticing. The elder performances are somewhat overshadowed by the child actors. Daniel Brocklebank as Monk Dawson is resolutely brilliant, capturing the uncertainties and convictions of teenage faith. His friend Furness, played by Tristan Sherwood-Roberts is the crux of the performances. Too little time was given to this startling screen presence, the highlight of talent on display. Some beautiful actresses - seemingly disappeared now, Paula Yatres, Rhona Mitra (the original model for Lara Croft) gave fun roles. An interesting movie for anyone who cares about life's mysteries, the future of British Acting talent, and enjoying the engrossing and evocative qualities of a great British film experience.

I wouldn't normally watch this sort of film. It was on BBC2 recently and I recorded it. I was vaguely intrigued, though. I've a friend who's catholic, though I'm agnostic, so (in my own belief!) I can judge such topics with impartiality. And, that it had a certificate 18 rating - and was British. I wanted to write a review, as so few had already done so.

British films of this era weren't always bad and sometimes, a snapshot looking back brings back memories; good and bad. On the 18 certificate front and with promises of 'forbidden love' I thought maybe a thread (and becoming a monotonous one) of homosexuality and all the juicy factions that would obviously create.

Its narrative changes an awful lot mainly because it needs to, to stop becoming more boring than it is. It is just about watchable, if on a day when one is not at all discerning. Acting is mechanical, as are the sex scenes and the dialogue is laboured and uninspired. Directing is though its worse scourge, not because it is necessarily bad but so cliché ridden and very very average. Though I don't watch those TV film dramas and the adult romantic novels that get TV serialised by the bucket-load, this (to me) must be what they must be like. The backing music is typically MOR ish and ponderous camera shots slowly arcing round smiling people, un-blinking into the sunset are not what I pay my TV license for.

There could be a story in there, somewhere, if written with more depth and properly characterised. There's more in these 108minutes than many TV drama series and unfortunately, it floats off into forgetfulness. However, as other reviewers have cited, it is always good to see once familiar faces on our screens in a different light. Those watching to check out Martin Kemp and Paula Hamilton and others that they might recognise, won't be disappointed but I wouldn't say it was worth wading through all this for them alone.

In conclusion, I would say that what started off as a well-meant and sombre but 'worthy' script got cold feet and tried to be a film for everyone. Understandably (& perhaps rightly) clerics, romantics and mainstream adult audiences looking for sex and violence just do not mix.

I cannot state enough how bad this film is. Twee, poorly acted, boring, disjointed. It's an hammy embarrassment of the highest order.

The moral ambiguity teaches nothing, there are no answers and no real questions. I suppose the premise of a monk leaving his order and going out into the world had some potential, but this was entirely wasted.

I honestly see no point in this film. It is a total waste of time, and I strongly advise you not to bother with it.

There is one thing which I was impressed with though, the house master at the school Dawson attended, aged tremendously well. He didn't look a day older over the 40 odd years the film spanned, they couldn't even be bothered with a bit of hair whitening or ageing make-up.

Gentle story of two friends, over several years, who betray but forgive each other. One, who becomes a Roman Catholic priest, has a teenage crush on the other. The public school solution is to cane it out of him.

The RC priest supposedly loses his faith, but as an older priest says, it is the Church that has lost him because his radical and challenging views upset the hierarchy.

The monastery on an island is a little bleak. I almost expected a butler, bent-double, to appear at the door and say, 'You rang?' I wish they had hired some sort of religious consultant – it was tiresome to see the same green set of vestments worn back to front while the monks wore the wrong combination of tat.

The 'twist' at the end is reminiscent of The Thorn Birds.