Capturing Mary

I'm surprised to find myself headlining a Poliakoff film as "boring" but I can't find any other way of describing this drag of a sagging saga.

Maggie Smith can do no wrong of course, and it would be sacrilege to criticise - she is truly a very skilled actor and is the reason I gave the film 5 stars . . .

However, David Walliams felt like he was all his Little Britain characters in one. In LB he's in his element, but outside that zone of easy comfort, he is, well, merely Walliams being given something other than comedy to try out, and I'm afraid he didn't cut it for me.

Everything seemed to go only so far. The posh accent, the gesticulations, thr facial expressions - all conspired to leave me unconvinced. And it always felt like Matt Lucas was about to suddenly appear from the scullery.

There are others here better qualified than I who can tell you what they think the "plot" was all about. To my mind it was just a slow windy spiral staircase through the mind of a now older woman trying to exorcise some past demons.

I can't review anymore because I fell asleep. I'm sure those kept awake by wondering how it all ends will stay the course, but frankly, there wasn't much in this film to make me care about the ending.

Please....Please......Please....Someone please help me recapture the wasted time and brain space this terrible movie stole from me.....I have been on IMDb website thousands of times and have never left a review.....this was so bad that I was motivated to sign up solely for the purpose of warning people....if I can save one person from the torture of this atrocity, I will be quite content....Take your remote control.....Close your eyes.....push any buttons.....and you will do better than choosing this train wreck......I think I need a couple hours of South Park to get the taste of this movie out of my mouth.............Peace

Maggie Smith was the drawcard for watching this oddity that sounded like it may have had something to say. Writer/director Stephen Poliakoff keeps the viewer waiting to see if his story will develop into a profound revelation or simply avoid the issues being seriously suggested. This treatment is nothing more than a filmed stage play & these usually leave the patient viewer wondering why they bothered to stay through to the end - 'Mary', proves to be just another . In the 60's and 70's a movie like this might have been produced by the B.F.I. as a 30-40min short story and would have been interesting all the way but, being stretched for over 100mins kills sustained interest & is quite infuriating. Poliakoff's grandfather had associations with the company that supplied hearing aids to famous people i.e. Winston Churchill - so it's possible some stories of a 'personal' nature may have been overheard or known.

There are stories involving political and royal dignitary's, movie makers, and socialites, ugly enough to nauseate and make the skin crawl - this story dramatically hints of many such people being implemented in such evil occurrences, but then rattles on, going nowhere. It appears 'Mary' is the second part of an earlier movie titled 'Joe's Palace' - If this overlong HBO/BBC spin-off is any indication - then might just be best to stay away from both. Disappointing.

The performances by Maggie Smith and David Walliams was excellent, as expected. The filming was beautiful as well. However, I have absolutely no idea what this movie was about. There was no point that was made.

I feel like I wasted 100 minutes of my life. What a fail!

Like Shooting the Past and Friends and Crocodiles, Poliakoff creates yet another intriguing dynamic between a man and a woman, and unlike every other television writer, he doesn't fall for the cliché that just because two people of the opposite sex meet that they should then fall in love.

No, his writing is far more interesting, far more subtle, and like his other films the relationship between the two protagonists is captivating. Unlike the other films however, in Capturing Mary it is also very creepy.

I loved the concept of this young woman unable to shake off these horrible stories she has heard, unable to escape from Greville's destructive influence. Yes by the end there are more questions than answers but I think this is a minor flaw in an otherwise brilliant observation of regret, loss, fear and the effect a few moments of your life can have on you forever.

Stunning, haunting, beautiful and eerie, you'll be thinking about this film long after the DVD has stopped.