Eleanor Reviews

      ***/**** (3.5 stars)   Once the star of Mindhorn (an eponymous TV series about a detective who could see truth), Richard Thorncroft's career has hit an all-time low. Then a mysterious killer emerges, asking to speak to Mindhorn, and Mindhorn alone. Returning to the character who defined him, Richard returns to the Isle of Man to solve the murder...   It occurred to me whilst I was watching Mindhorn how truly strange and unexplainable British comedy is. Gently taking the mickey out of everything and everyone, Julian Barratt's welcome return to our screens is possibly the epitome of 'British humour', with gags about everything from old age to the fickleness of TV. At the heart of the film is Barratt himself, playing Richard Thorncroft as a self-centred fool still trying to cling on to his sex symbol status, despite the balding and slimming underwear. Barratt pitches the performance well, making Thorncroft an instantly likeable character, but it is whe

**** Sold into a loveless marriage with a middle-aged man, young bride Katherine soon finds herself alone in her new home. Upon meeting one of her husband's new groomsmen, she embarks upon a dangerous affair that has truly murderous consequences.   'Are you cold?' This is the first question our young bride, Katherine (Florence Pugh) is asked, and it can be interpreted in two ways, much like the rest of the film. It sounds as though the maid, Anna (unawares of the trauma she is about to experience) is asking whether her mistress is chilly, but, after seeing the rest of the film, could it be foreshadowing of Katherine's cold emotional behaviour? It is certainly a tricky one to decipher, and yet so is the film itself. With a completely stripped-down soundtrack - there are very few instances where music is used at all - the focus of the film remains wholly upon the actors. Without the guidance of music to tell us what to think or feel, we are left alone to interpre