macduffthegaul

Oh Dear, I really wanted to like this film. The theme is interesting, the cast includes some distinguished names and it was filmed in an area I know well. But to say Stella is pedestrian is an insult to pedestrians. The theme of a Jewish refugee seeking work in a country house run by a rabid fascist in the 1930s should be fascinating and charged with drama and stress. But I'm afraid the combination of an undisciplined script with weak dialogue, frequently amateurish acting, single level directing and lazy editing results in a movie with few low or high spots and at least thirty excess minutes. What was required was a team of script editors who knew what makes a film pull the audience along with it and creates pace and emotional excitement. I'm afraid neither are present here and you are left wondering at the end, what actually changed over the previous two hours. Such a shame to see excellent actors like Gary Lewis make a perfunctory appearance, spew out unrealistic propaganda and then disappear. Some reasonably good cinematography, but the opportunity to establish the action in a beautiful rural landscape was largely missed.

Like many Scots I had high hopes of Granite Harbour, only to have my expectations dashed within the first few minutes. To say the script is creaky is an understatement - it is a prime example of how a lack of continuous re-writing at the pre-production stage results in a disaster. This is certainly not helped by a narrative which is wholly unoriginal, and a bunch of lead actors who are clearly out of their depth. It takes an old pro like Dawn Steel (Monarch of the Glen) to show that you can indeed polish the odd t**d if you are experienced enough. Most of the cast here are not, and therefore cannot wring any conviction out of dud dialogue. It was like watching painting by numbers. On the plus side it was pleasant enough to see Aberdeen, shot both on the ground and from the air. But good technicals are not going to save this car crash. In rating it 4 out of 10 I'm being generous; it could have been so much better.

Apart from the fact that the lead character is a woman, The English is unoriginal, rather a tribute to the work of Serge Leone and in particular to Once Upon A Time in the West. In other words the cinematography mimics Leone, the music is second class Morricone and the story is OUATITW crossed with The Wild Bunch. All these films deal with the Old West meeting the New West, and so far The English has nothing new to add. Yes, it's good that the series appears on TV (previously screens would have been too small to capture the wide vista shots) but that is no reason to heap acclaim on a series which is merely keeping keeping abreast of new technology. I had high hopes of The English and was disappointed, not least by the modern fashion of making the narrative obscure beyond belief.