Eleanor Reviews

*** After losing her job as a waitress in the village café, Lou Clarke desperately seeks a new position, but when she meets the recently-paralised Will Traynor, she has little idea that her role as a carer will become so complicated.   When you're a little hungover and feeling sorry for yourself, there are a few things a girl needs: a tub of ice cream and/or chocolate; a comfy duvet with which to moan into; and a light-hearted chic flick to have a bit of a cry over. Only, Me Before You isn't a light-hearted chic flick in the slightest, apparently having the most heart-breaking ending possible for this genre. And, in my fragile, tequila-induced state, I ended up having more than a little sob. Damn you, Sam Claflin and your perfect features.   That's not to say that Me Before You is a good film, however. In fact, for the majority it is your basic boy-meets-girl movie, only that the boy is paralysed and the girl has a truly eccentric wardrobe. Emilia Clarke (play

**** Convinced that the mysterious Rachel who suddenly appears in his late cousin's letters was the reason for his demise, orphaned Philip plots his revenge. However, his plans go awry upon meeting the woman herself, and he finds himself falling under her spell... Whilst watching My Cousin Rachel it occurred to me that we haven't had a gothic story that doesn't descend into ridiculousness ( Crimson Peak, we're looking at you!) in a while. And it was somehow so refreshing to enjoy a story that relied upon the audience's interpretation of what was really happening than having it spelt out for you, much like the lately-released Lady Macbeth. The tale itself is a claustrophobic one, with only four characters given any notable screen time, whilst the majority of the proceedings are taken up with Sam Claflin's obsessive Philip and Rachel Weisz's beguiling Rachel. Set in the sweeping, rugged landscape of the Cornish coast and largely set within capacious, ca

    ****   When the tranquillity of her existence on an island paradise is shattered by the arrival of a pilot, Diana chooses to leave her home to stop the war the man tells her of. Travelling from London to France, Diana fights alongside men for the first time, discovering more about mankind and her own destiny than she could ever have realised...   Hallelujah! It is 2017 and we finally have a superhero film with a female character as the lead, which has gone on to smash the box office and garner good reviews from critics and audiences alike. At last! Missing out on the 'female only' screenings, I watched this film in a packed out cinema, and had a brilliant time. The first thing to say is that Gal Gadot is perfect as Diana - she is a vulnerable as she is strong, as confused as she is stubborn, and as innocent as she is knowledgeable. Positioned at the forefront of almost every scene, Gadot commands the screen, with her male support cast stepping aside duly. The

  ***/**** (3.5 stars)   The interweaving story of two men who are suffering their own hardships - Khaled who has fled Syria to Finland in search of a better life, and divorced gambler Wilkstrom.   It is quite possible that Finnish humour may be even more bizarre than British. At least, that is what I have come to conclude after watching  The Other Side of Hope . Interweaving moments of genuine tragedy with frankly quite odd instances, Aki Kaurismaki's latest film combines the timely story of Khaled's (Sherwan Haji) flight from war and struggle for acceptance with Wilkstrom's (Sakari Kuosmanen) failing marriage and equally unfulfilling shirt business. It is certainly a strange set up, and it becomes even more unusual when you realise that these two characters aren't actually going to meet until very late in the film.   I was trying to work out what part of the film I found most peculiar, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Maybe it was the deliv