Reckless: The Sequel

"Reckless: The Sequel" takes place one year after "Reckless." Anna and Owen are living together, and before the film starts, Owen has proposed. When the movie begins, Anna is getting ready for work. As she's leaving, she says, "Yes." Owen is thrilled.

Richard isn't supposed to know but he finds out and tries to stop them. One way he does that is to hire Owen's ex-fiancée to work in the hospital. She and Owen had broken up some months before he even met Anna.

The movie manages to still be a cliffhanger. From one minute to the next, you don't know whether or not Anna and Owen are going to get married, what with parental and sibling interference, not to mention Richard squeezing himself into the situation.

The beautiful Francesca Annis is excellent as Anna, and one can really understand why both Richard and Owen are so desperate to be with her. You can easily see a younger man finding her irresistible.

Sometimes I find older woman-younger man casting not very good (for instance, Linda Grey and Christopher Atkins in Dallas). Whomever does the casting chooses someone too boyish for an older woman. Well, Robson Green is perfect -- what woman of any age wouldn't want him? He's delightful in this -- passionate, intense, sexy, and sincere. The two make a great couple. You have to love Michael Kitchen as the manipulative ex. He's hateful, which means he's doing his job well.

The rest of the cast shines: Geoffrey Palmer, Pauline Yates playing Richard's parents, David Bradley, Owen's father, Conor Mullen as John McGinley, and the versatile Julian Rhind-Tutt, who is hilarious as the womanizing (or wishes he could be) Danny.

Very sweet film and a nice wrap-up to the whole Reckless miniseries.

Reckless: The Movie picks up a year after Anna leaves Richard for Owen. Anna has divorced him, and has accepted Owen's proposal of marriage. Richard, not meant to know, finds out and does everything in his power to stop them, including hiring Owen's ex-fiancee as the new registrar. (It turns out that Owen called off that wedding five months before he met Anna.) Complicating matters for Richard is that his parents have been invited to the wedding by Anna. Anna's thorn is her younger sister Barbara, who feels that she divorced Richard too quickly and that she should wait. Francesca Annis is shining again as Anna, a woman still torn, although more subtly this time, by two men: one she despises, one she adores. Robson Green, while having only slightly less to do in this movie than he did in the series, is wondrous, and still smolders on screen; his performance is full of fire and passion. Together, Annis and Green still make for a sparkling, combustible couple. Michael Kitchen is terrifically rotten as the smug bastard who will stop at nothing to keep Anna and Owen apart; one genuinely begins to despise him almost as much as Anna. Kudos also go to Geoffrey Palmer and Pauline Yates as Richard's parents, David Bradley as Owen's father, and Conor Mullen as John McGinley, also torn between his career aspirations dependent on Richard and his friendship and loyalty to Owen.

If you can, buy this, rent this or tape this, because you will find yourself enveloped in a fantastic story with sharp wit, cutting humor and gifted actors and acting.

Anything with Robson Green could not be considered endless (in a negative way) unless you were a hetero male I guess. The three leads are some of my favorite actors, Michael Kitchen - so great in "To Play the King", "Out of Africa" and "Enchanted April". It was particularly nice to see F. Annis in a staring role, a wonderful over 40 part - imagine!

I absolutely loved the shows and I was thrilled when the movie came too. The movie was great, except for the part when Richard was in Iceland. I realize that the dogsleigh and that whole thing was done to amuse people and to make Richard look foolish in his ridiculous situation, but it was not very amusing if you can understand the icelandic language (the sleighman spoke danish) and know that there has never been such thing as dogsleigh in order to travel around Iceland(not even in ancient history) Besides from that, I loved the shows and I hope there will be more sequels.

I just saw the Sequel for the second time because I thought it was just terrific. The complete cast is so right for this movie and I was highly entertained and amused by the constant funny scenes developed through the clever plot.

Michael Kitchen as Dr. Richard Crane is at his best, reflecting perfectly his emotions when plotting devious plans to thwart his ex-wife's plans to marry young Dr. Springer, a colleague. Francesca Annis as Anna his ex-wife gives a brilliant performance, ably deflecting all the roadblocks Richard keeps putting in her way to thwart the marriage.

And Robson Green as Dr. Owen Springer gives a superb performance as the love-sick young doctor madly in love with Anna who's 15 years his senior. Robson's charm, engaging youthfulness, and charisma make this a memorable Masterpiece Theatre production for all those lovers out there who have gone through all the agony and bliss of a passionate love affair!