Recipe for a good movie. First, as the base, you take an award winning novel, two awards in this case are better than one, then you add a generous portion of creativity, from Brignull and Jankell you could hardly expect anything less, and finally you throw in the right amount of great talent which the casting people (whoever was responsible) were not stingy about doing. Follow this process and you get a good movie. I did not specify what kind, genre or type of movie because the formula should work with just about all types.
In this case it's about a fantasy/mystery/social drama kind of movie, not at all what attracts the general population of moviegoers. Some movie connaisseurs will find it hard to resist one of the elements of this recipe and if the critics favour the result, then more movie lovers will care to give it a look. Finally when you add the reviews of all those that have seen the movie and like it, you will get a good rating; (44.4% had rated it 8 or more, at the time I wrote this review), which in turn will hopefully attract more and more viewers.
That's not at all why I watched it or why I liked it or even why I'm recommending it by giving it a really good rating. I am a fan of Tim Roth, have been for some time. I am a fan of Kelly Macdonald, just recently since I watched the HBO series 'Boardwalk Empire'; she caught my attention in that series, thus I've been looking for projects where she plays a role and so I stumbled on this fine movie.
Roth and Macdonald play their characters as well as you'd expect, certainly as well as I expected. Bill Milner was the surprise for me as the main and most important part in the movie is played by this fourteen year old. His character is the thread that binds all the parts of this movie and he pulled it off like a pro.
I don't care for fantasy movies and unless a similar set of circumstances occurs, I'll likely not see one for a long time. At the end of this movie I felt good about life just a little bit more and for a fleeting moment. Whatever your reasons are for watching it, the right recipe or the right set of circumstances, in either case, don't miss it. If on the other hand you don't believe the recipe has merit, don't agree with the talent I referred to or are not a fan of any of the key actors, you won't like this movie; also if you have little time to spare and only get to watch a few movies now and then and require a sure mass entertainment product, stick with the tried and true candy-ass movies you always watch and you won't go wrong.
