davidbaldwin-11838

Clint does it again. This is a very classy, cleverly organised piece of story-telling with moral sting. Something so relevant for these times as the foundation of democracy crumbles away. Nicholas Hoult-- a perfectly judged performance, again....and everyone else (including Toni Collette, JK Simmons, Gabriel Basso and Keifer Sutherland) totally up to the mark. Not flashy. Not overdone. All real. Not a frame wasted. The effect is so much more personally-felt than '12 Angry Men' or any other courtroom drama I can think of. Useful.

And if I write any more to try to complete the required number of characters for your review I fear I will be straying into the kind of hubris and self-importance which this reviewed work successfully avoids.

Yes, it is probably 60 years since I last saw this film. But this year I discovered Nabakov and have just finished being blown into space by Lolita, the novel. And what a brilliant honourable job this film is. Superb and very hard working performances from James Mason and Shelley Winters...the audacious opening up to the Peter Sellers and his outrageous offering...but then you need the magic. For that, thank you Sue Lyon...a kind of perfect foil, a gem of lifeforce, amidst the power of professional craft force displayed in all other aspects of this great film. Lolita was not included in my list of 10 favourite films. It sure is now....and near the top.

I have no doubt that everyone worked hard on this movie and, frankly, I think it's a shame that it misses the mark at a number of points. But I had no problem watching it all the way through and appreciated the scenes in which suspense developed well (especially with the group on the island.) But it was frustrating. Zoe Bell does a good job but was let down by the script, which I think just needed another good go by the writer-director. A return to the editing room would have helped too--mainly to remove stuff rather than revealing! Why oh why did you include that large and silly reveal on the wharf with the poor old fisherman early in the movie? There were some nice things. I hope the writer-director has learned from this one. Good luck! I have certainly been worse entertained by films with double your IMDB rating.