ZB Movie Review - Talking Alexander, What We Did on Our Holiday and What We Do In The Shadows

ZB Movie Review - Talking Alexander, What We Did on Our Holiday and What We Do In The Shadows

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You're Not You: Movie Review

You're Not You: Movie Review

Cast: Hilary Swank, Emmy Rossum, Josh Duhamel, Ali Larter
Director: George C Wolfe

Negotiating a movie with a disease is no easy task.

But given that director George C Wolfe was involved in Angels in America and won a Tony for his direction, this story about Hilary Swank's Kate and her battle with ALS would appear to be in safe hands.

Prim and proper, with her life fully in control and her marriage to Josh Duhamel's Evan perfectly happy, Swank's Kate finds everything upended when she's diagnosed with the incurable disease ALS, the first signs of which rear their head on her birthday.

18 months later, and the pair is forced to find a full-time caregiver to help - which is where the impulsive college student Bec (Shameless star Emmy Rossum) comes in. Initially seeming like a polar opposite to the order they need in their lives, Kate insists on hiring her - even though she's no experience and appears to be a train wreck herself.

Instinctively, the duo form a bond which moves sensitively and inevitably towards its conclusion.

You're Not You has moments of mawkishness and twinkling piano music, designed to elicit tears from the most cynical given the subject matter. There are also moments of manipulation as the predictable inevitability of the disease plays out.

But yet, among all of that, there's a powerhouse of a performance from Swank, whose measured control as Kate imbues this potentially telemovie story with a dignity and sensitivity that's hard to deny.

Sure, there are the bumps in the road that you can see coming a mile off (Rossum's rough and ready Bec clashes with all around her except Kate; Swank's perfect veneer masks the guilt of knowing peoples' lives will be affected by her illness; Duhamel's Evan falls spectacularly as expected but remains likeable) but the strength of the acting pulls the piece out of worn-out and over-used tropes, designed to see you delving into the Kleenex.

(Though that isn't to say that those moments occasionally rankle, thanks to over-used signposting and cliche)

At the end of the day, You're Not You does exactly what you'd expect - and while the sentimental gloop is poured on thickly about two thirds into the piece, George C Wolfe's restrained direction, combined with Swank and Rossum's effortlessly plausible bond, give the film the power it needs to just rise above some of the mawkishness that threatens to pull it down into telemovie territory.

Rating:

Terminator: Genisys Trailer - he is back

Terminator: Genisys Trailer - he is back

He is back.

Here's the first look at the first Terminator: Genisys trailer

Terminator: Genisys Trailer is here

Terminator: Genisys Trailer is here

He is back.

Here's the first look at the first Terminator: Genisys trailer

What We Did On Our Holiday: Movie Review

What We Did On Our Holiday: Movie Review

Cast: David Tennant, Rosamund Pike, Billy Connolly, Ben Miller, Celia Imrie
Director: Andy Hamilton, Guy Jenkin

The producers of Brit comedy Drop The Dead Donkey and (perhaps more relevantly) Outnumbered essentially produce another version of Outnumbered with a parallel cast.

Dr Who star David Tennant and Gone Girl Rosamund Pike star as Doug and Abi, who are about to head their separate ways and more pressingly to Scotland for Doug's father Gordy's birthday.

As the duo - along with three kids - pack up and head north, the inevitable tensions begin to rear their heads. Convincing the children not to say anything about the separation has varying degrees of success, but when the family hits the homestead, it soon becomes clear that Gordy's health is deteriorating quickly - and any revelations will hasten his potential demise.

Cue the predictable cracks, exasperations and awkward moments that seem to plague British family get togethers and summer holidays within the UK...

What We Did On Our Holiday is very good at honing in on what it's like to be eminently British and how to behave during strained family outings. But it's plagued with moments which feel forced, an uneven tone that doesn't veer too closely to broad comedy or drama to be effective enough.

Using the old adage of "kids say the darndest things" at the worst moment, the trio of children are set up as wiser than their parents and unleash truth bombs and absurdities for maximum effect. However, it's a mix that doesn't quite gel unfortunately, given the wealth of talent involved.

Tennant is as watchable as ever, mixing a bit of OTT behaviour and drama; Pike is relatively straight-laced; and there's a certain tragic irony in seeing a maudlin Connolly play a man who's quite sick. The issue really with What We Did On Our Holiday is more one of tone; by not quite deciding whether to delve deep into farce or drama, the script feels all too predictable and inevitably mawkish (even with the occasional spontaneous reactions from the children) as the secrets and lies swirl around before bubbling over.

The central conceit that adults don't know enough and children do thanks to their innocence and all-seeing eyes, as well as explosive secrets coming out at inopportune family meetings just feels all too familiar and lacks the freshness to give What We Did On Our Holiday an edge or bite that it desperately needs as it teeters between pathos and tragedy.

A final act resolution jars and feels unnatural in places thanks to the pacing of beforehand, but there are bittersweet moments and performances in What We Did On Our Holiday which help you through - and may even provoke a feeling of familiarity.

Rating:

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Film Review

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Film Review

Cast: Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Ed Oxenbould
Director: Miguel Arteta

Disney fires off a pre-Christmas cannon shot in the form of Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a safe, relatively inoffensive piece of family fare.

Predicated on the idea that Alexander (a lispy Aussie Oxenbould) is always having bad days, while his family's life is going to perfection.

His mom (an uptight And underused Jennifer Garner) is on the verge of scoring a VP role with a book launch, his stay-at-home dad is about to score a much-needed job interview, his brother Anthony (an Alan Ruckish Dylan Minnette) is about to take his driving test and take his girl to the prom and his sister is about to storm the stage as the star of Peter Pan.

Whereas the Aussie-obsessed Alexander is feeling neglected since a baby was born into the brood, rejected as his birthday party is happening at the same time as a popular kid and is struggling to vocalise his feelings to his school crush.

On his 12th birthday, he makes a wish they'd all have a bad day like him...

Which, of course, this being a Disney comedy about family and values, they subsequently do.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day does exactly what it sets out to do and makes the journey along the way a relatively pleasant one to endure.

With some silly laughs for the kids and a couple of adult-only zingers, as well as Dick van Dyke making a cameo, it's all fairly safe family fare that never deviates into dangerous territory or is in danger of having parents dive for to cover their children's ears.

Carell provides the laughs in his usual deadpan and nonsensical way and while the kids aren't overly cute moppets with perfection in range, they are perfectly relatable and watchable in this relatively toothless family comedy which doesn't outstay its welcome with a zippy run time.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day won't be the biggest Christmas hit here from the studio (that accolade's likely to go to the animated Big Hero 6) but it is a timely reminder as we head into the holidays of the power of family pulling together and the fact that no good, very bad, horrible days sometimes pan out quite well if you stay positive.

Rating:

Terminator: Genisys trailer drops...soon

Terminator: Genisys trailer drops...soon

It's very nearly time - the Terminator: Genisys trailer will be arriving soon...