danieljfarthing

Gentle Brit-drama "The Salt Path" is the 'true' tale of 50+ Moth & Raynor Winn (Jason Isaacs & Gillian Anderson) who on losing their home embark impoverished on a 630 mile coastal trek... despite him apparently having an incurable, debilitating, & fatal disease. Raynor's book (that Rebecca Lenkiewicz adapted the screenplay from) however allegedly lies about why they lost their home and about Moth's illness. Still, the film's leads are superb (with minor support from the likes of Hermione Norris, James Lance & Angus Wright) and the scenery is beautiful - so true or not, kudos to director Marianne Elliott on her first 'proper' film (after five theatre adaptations). It's a good 'un.

Despite starring Pierce Brosnan & Samuel L Jackson "The Unholy Trinity" is a shockingly cheap & tacky western. When his dad's about to hang in 1888, Brandon Lessard (meh) promises to avenge him in the wild & remote titular town where Brosnan (with dodgy Irish accent) is sheriff and former-slave Jackson (with David Arquette) pulls him into a saga over lost buried gold that rakes up old Trinity wounds which set bullets flying. While far from great Lee Zachariah's debut screenplay isn't terrible - but Richard Gray's soulless direction is, and so are all the performances except Jackson's. Why he or Brosnan got involved in this is a mystery, as it's a stinking turd. Flush it.

In 1999's sluggish serial-killer drama "The Minus Man" modest Owen Wilson drifts into a small-town, lodging with Brian Cox & Mercedes Ruehl and sparking a slow romance with Janeane Garofalo - but no-one knows he's a quiet psycho. Despite support from the likes of Sheryl Crow, Dwight Yoakam, Dennis Haysbert, Larry Miller, & John Carroll Lynch it plods too uneventfully to engage let alone thrill. Writer Hampton Fancher (also writer of the great "Blade Runner" and its sequel btw) did try putting an original spin on a favourite genre, but his direction (in the only film he ever directed) was tv-standard and his overall experiment failed. Twas brave, but still a turd. Flush it away.