tresdodge

The true story of homosexual Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem) the film charts his eventful and troubled life attempting to do what he loves best in a 1960's Cuba where the regime brand him a counter revolutionary and traitor. Starting from his humble beginnings in a small village, his later life in the city where he befriends other homosexuals, writers and poets which leads to imprisonment and torture to the last part of his life in New York.

Javier Bardem is believable and excellent in the lead, Johnny Depp is also very competent in his dual roles and Sean Penn makes a decent cameo appearance. The cinematography is top notch, direction impeccable and score complements each scene well making them atmospheric and moving. Throughout we hear snippets of the writers poetry and musings which add to the emotionally charged nature of the film. A tender and well shot story of an important figure in Cuban literature, well worth seeing.

A middle class commuter belt couple Mr Bates (Denholm Elliot) and Mrs Bates (Joan Plowright) are duped into taking a charming young man Martin(Sting)into their house to help care for their catatonic daughter (Suzanna Hamilton). Martin claims to have been close to their daughter before an accident left her unable to communicate. As the film progresses the couple mistakenly start to trust Martin and dark family secrets are revealed.

Originally a stage play written by Dennis Potter the film is in turn engrossing, disturbing and claustrophobic. Denholm Elliot is as ever brilliant as the lonely and disturbed father figure, Sting puts in a good performance as a strange and demonic young man, Joan Plowright is very good as the maternal and naive housewife.

The two slight let downs for me were the music which I did'nt feel fitted in well with the film and the main fantasy sequence which did'nt stand the test of time well.

Other than that the film held my attention throughout, the direction by Richard Loncraine was extremely capable, all in all an intriguing and idiosyncratic piece which is well worth a watch.

Australia at the end of the nineteenth century a barren and hostile place where people have little respect for human life. Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) captures two well know crooks and rapists the Burns brothers Charlie and Arthur (Guy Pearce and Richard Wilson) after a shootout. The two men have a third brother who is part of the gang who Captain Stanley also wants to capture. Therefore, he lays a proposition onto the table that if Charlie kills his brother he will let Arthur go on his return. Charlie accepts and begins to seek out his brother, but will he return with the proof that he has fulfilled his part to the proposal?

I expected far more from this, it had been built up a great deal in advertising and had got favorable reviews so I had high expectations. Unfortunately this was a slow and dull picture that brought nothing new to the Western genre, it was a million miles away from matching the excellence of Sergio Leone Westerns. The film plodded along, coming to a very predictable end without satisfying at all. The acting was fine although John Hurt's fine acting skills were wasted on a stupid part and Pearce was 'safe' as ever in his role. The cinematography was good and shots of landscapes were nice to look at but thats not why I go to see a film. I wanted a unique story, diverse and idiosyncratic characters, a good score and something to remember that stays locked in your mind for a couple of days after. This was certainly not it, a boring conventional film that was a waste of time, I wish I had re-watched a decent Western like the 'Good the Bad and the Ugly' instead.