mgumsley

As a humble admirer of Maria Callas, and of opera generally, I did enjoy this movie. I think this was Angelina Jolie's best performance since 'Girl, interrupted.' She is a talented actress and it was very brave of her to take on a role like this, which requires considerable vocal strength and training. Her lip synching was grotesque at times, but she captured quite a lot of what Maria was, and why audiences were so captivated by her.

The musical choices for the movie were brilliant - I particularly loved the depiction of 'The Soldiers' chorus' - and her passion for her art was utterly sincere.

To be honest, I would like to see a film about Maria when she was in her prime, wowing audiences round the world with her voice and her lifestyle.

Besides all this, the photography, costumes and scripting of the movie had an enjoyable flow, although seeing Maria killing herself with Mandrax was not a pleasant experience.

Harlan Coben is a good writer who delivers thrillers with good premises, and resolves the mystery in a satisfactory fashion. The problem is they always come just after Christmas, when I am not in the mood for his sometimes heavy handed approach. I usually end up giving him a low mark, which perhaps isn't fair.

I approached this story in the same way, although I liked the fact that the tale wasn't inhabited by the usual group of entitled characters. Rosalind Eleazar was marvellous as Kat, the Detective riddled with problems from her past, including her runaway boyfriend. She's my favourite Coben heroine so far, with her mobile face and features, she had me on her side right from the start.

She's looking for her lost boyfriend and wants to solve the riddle of her dad's murder, who was a policeman like herself. This is where Coben's convoluted story telling kicked in. The story was awash with characters who usually pop up in thrillers, i.e. Warren, Armitage, Nesbitt, all of whom seemed to be in lacklustre form. Steve Pemberton did a good job as a dodgy pet salesman, the pace picked up when he was on the screen.

The cinematography was stunning, some of the cityscape scenes were great, and it was not overlong at five episodes. This was definitely not the best of Coben, but it did have some good parts, and it was a pity Lenny Henry was not offered more screen time.

The sword and sandals genre has been undergoing a revival, and this lively series could be an important part of it as long as the producers resist the impulse to indulge in a storyline offering too much gratuitous sex and violence. We all know that it was a violent age, but it would be enlightening and perhaps more truthful if they endeavoured to show viewers a more balanced view of the times. The scenes featuring violence just seem to ramble mindlessly on and on.

It has a good storyline, and the series is well served by a talented cast. The two leads have great chemistry. Their relationship could be developed further by another series, and it would be great if the CGI could be tweaked somewhat. That make believe lion looks like some form of alien life and behaves like it as well. The script has been criticized more than anything else, actually that is not the real problem, it is the silly accents that the actors adopt which is more annoying. I don't think it is necessary to try and sound like an Italian of two thousand years ago.

I hope the series makes a return in the future, and I would like to see some of the teething problems ironed out.