Page Eight

David Hare both wrote and directed this stylish, intensely intelligent suspense film (his other films include work on The Hours, The Reader, Damage, Plenty, etc). Few films have been made that depend on smart dialogue and intense acting instead of explosions, car chases, and other improbable acts of danger to make their point. Aided by a top-notch British cast, Hare has created a thinking person's drama and it is refreshingly poignant.

A contemporary spy film created for BBC, the action is set in both London and Cambridge. Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy in one of his best roles to date) is an experienced MI5 officer whose boss and best friend Benedict Baron (Michael Gambon) dies of a myocardial infarction: he leaves a secret file for his friend. Both men have been married to the same woman (Alice Krige) and Worricker has a grown child from his marriage, an artist Julianne Felicity Jones) who has never quite forgiven her father for leaving her mother for another woman. The file is so important that it is under surveillance by the British Intelligence (Judy Davis et al) and the Prime Minister's office (Ralph Fiennes). Worricker lives in a flat opposite a beautiful but aloof girl Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz) whose brother has been murdered in the Middle East. It is the silence about Nancy's brother's death that is at the core of the file Worricker holds and with some help from Nancy he traces the truth to the point of being threatened by MI5 to be fired. The film addresses contemporary intelligence issues and techniques and the associated moral dilemmas we face today. To reveal more would be to rob the viewer of the complexity of the story.

The strong supporting cast includes Marthe Kellar in a small but pivotal role, along with Tom Hughes, Kate Burdette, Ewen Bremmer and others. This is a tense drama, exceptionally well written and acted and a welcome change from the current barrage of action flicks.

Grady Harp

Bill Nighy really could be turning into this generation's David Niven - with a more world-weary edge, mind you, but he has an immense charm without any swarm, and puts it to excellent use in Page Eight. He plays a civil servant and security analyst coming to the end of his career in the upper echelons of Whitehall who discovers that politics and war are not honourable affairs.

With an outstanding cast and an intelligent plot this remains a thriller - but one without the usual resort to unlikely battles and chases - it is very British, both in its tone and in its look - and what we get is a very nice thriller indeed.

If you like 60s cold war spies movies, and want a break from the Bourne type, then this will fit the bill very nicely. Intelligent, beautifully paced and acted, and all in all a nice break from action films to something more purposeful and, really, a satisfying watch.

Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, and Michael Gambon in very good form, playing charmingly audacious characters. The Security Service, and the sense of 'England' that is built around it, are both portrayed in an amusingly artsy, lighting-a-cigarette-under-a-lamppost-to-the-tune-of-modern-jazz manner that some might might find annoying - but which I felt more to be endearing. And a refreshing contrast to the bleak picture of the world and it's intelligence services painted in other modern spy shows, 'Spooks' being the prime example.

The story seems to ramble a little, at first, and is not as tight or conventionally depicted as audiences might be used to, but it soon picks up - leading to a 'Johnny on the run' sequence that is as good as any other staple 'spy in hiding' romp in any TV espionage thriller of recent years, but one which is much more believable and down-to-earth. An unexpected conclusion left me praising Nighy's character for doing the right thing, in normal person terms, rather than 'the right thing' in the usual On Her Majesty's Secret Service terms that we're usually force-fed by spy drama - one of the many things that made the character and those around him seem less like a phantom, emotionless government spook, and more like a human being.

Well worth watching.

This is a good film with a fantastic cast. It's content seems to upset a lot of reviewers including at least one member of the IDF who says the murder of a protester would never happen. Well, it could and it has. This is not a left wing film but one that explores one version of the world we live in. The old boy establishment is still influential in British politics and our Civil Service. This film was made pre Trump and it explores the UK/USA relationship or a version of it. It is intelligently written and sensitively acted. The direction is a little slow burner but this is not an action hero movie. Bill Nighy is superb - one of his best performances although he rarely has a bad one. The only part for me that spoils it is his character. He is very much part of the establishment and one of the most senior members of MI5. It is highly doubtful that someone that senior would be getting as involved as he does and the film would have worked better for me had the character been slightly younger and lower down the pecking order. That apart it is highly believable. It is worth remembering that a UK ambassador was forced out of the diplomatic service when he revealed UK involvement in extraordinary rendition. The type of events depicted in the film have actually happened.

I'll assume you've read the plot summary, so I won't labour on explaining that. In a nutshell, Bill Nighy is playing an MI5 agent who's responsibility it is to uncover the deceit allegedly led by the British Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes).

It opens with the quirky, upbeat jazz music and feels a bit 'Alfie-ish' as Nighy struts down the streets of London to his flat, and then we finally settle down into the story. The story is, and I hate to say it, a little thin around the edges and could do with a little more 'oomph' to get it those final couple of stars. If your expecting to see Nighy as the ass-kicking, hard-nut veteran version of James Bond then I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. This is about plot and character, not flamboyant action sequences. Speaking of character, there is plenty of that in this film; from Nighy himself to Ralph Fiennes and Michael Gambon- there are stars a plenty to keep the film alive, the acting is brilliantly good and there's a scene between Nighy and Fiennes which I particularly enjoyed, just simple dialogue between two great actors.

Yes it does feel a bit BBCish, but at the end of the day it is a BBC film so I can't really complain! So if you have an hour and 40 minutes to fill, I strongly recommend this film- it's mysterious (yet it probably could have been more so), fun (there are a handful of good laugh-provoking lines thrown in there), engaging and an all-round enjoyable watch. Enjoy.