mdc-9

It's hard to know where to start with Hallmark Romance films. The money it costs to make these movies they could actually make a decent film and still meet all the romance parameters, but they rarely if ever, take the time. The performances in Royal New Year's Eve, actually manage to be worse than the script and that's saying something. The phoney accents are atrocious. No Sam Page, you did not get away with it! Worse than Keanu Reeves in Dracula, a feat in itself. The Cinderella stakes in this dreary tale are so low you just wish they'd cut to the well posted climax. The moral being a movie all about fashion only to tell us fashion doesn't matter but then have fashion triumph. Too stupid for words.

Visually stunning but way too slow and bleak in content to sustain empathy. Was also surprised how many plot points were similar to Giant, with Cumberbatch's character doubling and outdoing, Mercedes McCambridge. Somehow I always felt 20 min ahead of the script. Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons are outstanding and provide the movie with its only heart. Cumberbatch is okay, but I kept thinking how much better it would have been with an edgy unpredictable actor like Guy Pearce, Joaquin Phoenix or Adam Driver. To complete the Giant analogy it's the difference between Hudson and Dean. Hudson was good but Dean was mesmerising. Jane Campion's script hints but never really delivers, and consequently neither does the film.