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I saw the film last night in a sparsely attended screening in London. It's a real pity that more people aren't making the effort to see it.

It's not an easy film to watch and take in. The opening credits were interminably long, and at times the pace of the film seemed very slow. The dialogue however is fast and furious, especially when Cate Blanchett speaks. At times I really struggled to decide what she meant and the many subtle nuances in her long monologues.

The plot relies on nuances, and it's only slowly that the bullying characteristics of Tár unfold.

All this out the film in the 'art house' mould for me. It probably explains the limited appeal for audiences more used to Hollywood films. It was interesting that the majority of the audience when I saw it were old or middle aged like me and I heard several muttering at the end that the film was interesting but that they would watch something more accessible next time.

All this is a pity because overall I liked the film. I have to admit that I am a great fan of Blanchett. She's a highly intelligent woman and is courageous enough to take on challenging and unfashionable roles. No one would have batted an eyelid if she'd produced a film with the same plot but with Tár as an older man. But ensuring the lead character was a predatory lesbian character was provocative and brave. As an older man I'm sick of being stereotyped as a risk. So it was right of her to show that dangerous people come in a 'diverse' range of identities.

Cate, please keep on being brave and keep on making great films like this!

This was a classically scripted and acted film with good points. It ticked all the right PC boxes. The depiction of the prejudice gay people faced in the 1950s etc etc. But it was also very stereotypical. The use of a policeman, who we discover, shock horror, was actually gay. The gay bar in a basement with a Madame serving drinks at the bar. The setting of the whole thing in Brighton, the gay capital of the UK. There was nothing really new, surprising or even educational in the whole thing. It felt therefore a really lost opportunity, unlike some of the other really excellent recent films that explore gay relationships.

The worst aspect were the chronological missteps. The events that took place at the beginning of Patrick and Tom's friendship were in the late fifties. But the end of the film was in the present day - you could tell from the registration of the taxi- when the characters would have been in their late 80s. However the characters were visibly in their sixties. For me this made the film feel fake as well as predictable.

Portrait of harsh and lonely existence of spanish hill farmer.