Eleanor Reviews

  *** DVD Release As Ann lays dying, she remembers the wedding weekend of her best friend, Lila, and the passionate love affair she experienced with another wedding guest, Harris. So, maybe I’m just a massive cynic when it comes to all this lovey stuff, but the main premise of this story is that two people, after only spending one weekend together in their entire lives, believe the other to be their soul mate. I’m sorry, I know this is fiction, but the fact that Ann is still pining over this one man years and years after is a little obsessive, but maybe it is not the man she longs for, but the time when she was happiest and had the whole world at her feet. The younger Ann (played by Claire Danes) is to be the bridesmaid to Lila (Mamie Gummer), whose little brother, Buddy (Hugh Dancy) she is also best friends with. At the wedding, Harris (Patrick Wilson) makes an appearance and everything spirals out of control, and the lives of the four young people are changed forever

*** Available for internet streaming/No evidence of DVD release This documentary focuses on the suicides that occurred in 2004, specifically those who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Filmed over the period of a year in 2004, ‘The Bridge’ focuses on the stories of those who committed suicide by interviewing those they are survived by, as well as showing the harrowing footage of the individuals pacing the Bridge, before jumping into the water. Yes, there are actual clips of people committing suicide in this documentary, some seen up close and others from afar. The documentary focuses on the confusion of those left behind, from parents, to siblings and friends, and those who were in the area at the time. We hear briefly about how each individual came to be in the space that caused them to end their lives, with lots of frank discussion on the effects mental illness and substance abuse. Most distressing are the interviews with parents of those who were me

  *** Picking up where the last film left off, ‘DoS’ follows the journey of the homeless dwarves and their quest to regain their homeland, and their adventures through Mirkwood and Lake Town. I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. Unlike the rest of the world, I rather enjoyed ‘An Unexpected Journey’ despite its problems, but with ‘DoS’ Jackson really takes the biscuit. To start with, the narrative is all over the place: the meeting with Beorn is over in the first ten minutes of the film; Bilbo only features as a central character at the beginning and the end (if indeed, there is a beginning and an end); and too much time is spent on aspects that Jackson has completely fabricated. By now everyone will know that there is a completely new female elf, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), added to the story, who has the most contrived ‘romance’ with dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner) which goes on forever and is completely cringe-worthy. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) also makes an appearance when the

  **** DVD Release When Jerry Lundegaard lands in financial troubles, he hires two hit-men to kidnap his wife in the hope that her father will pay the ransom. However, everything soon spirals out of control and, with the body-count rising, heavily-pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson steps into the ring. This is quite an odd little film. For starters, there is no exposition about the lives of the main characters – we only know them from what they do in the film as there is not ‘background’ information on them.   This gives the suggestion that we are just looking in on a tiny snapshot of their lives. Subsequently, all of the characters seem quite distant from us as the viewer, but this doesn’t impinge on the film as you only really begin to notice at the end. The overall tone is extremely dark, and whilst there are some moments of black-humour (one such moment involves a wood-chipper), the film is mostly gory and a disturbing study into what man will do for money. Stev

**** DVD Release Yes, it’s true – until last night I hadn’t seen ‘Love Actually’ all the way to the finish. So, with it being the festive season all over again, I thought I’d put down my two pennies worth. In the weeks running up to Christmas, we meet and explore the relationships of various different couples. Packed to the gunnels with A-list British actors, the film draws upon that most frustrating, enduring and all-consuming of human emotions: love. With so many different narrative threads, some stories are inevitably stronger than others. The story of Colin Frissell (Kris Marshall) and his quest to achieve an American girlfriend is in quite poor taste, and the Colin Firth thread suffers from under development and the conclusion is so completely over-the-top it verges on cringe-worthy. However, the other stories are endearing. Liam Neeson is excellent as a grieving widower struggling to connect with his stepson (an adorable Thomas Sangster) – it is such a relief to