SECOND SCREEN
Almost half a century ago, Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland were starring – separately and sexily – in such Seventies pictures as Don’t Look Now and O Lucky Man! Now they’ve been brought together in The Leisure Seeker (U) ★★★★, a comedydrama that addresses the indignities and frailties of old age. And very good it is too.
Directed by Paolo Virzi, it’s the story of the long-married Spencers, who climb into their elderly motorhome – nicknamed the Leisure Seeker – and disappear on one last road trip down America’s East Coast. Sutherland is excellent as a still charismatic academic slowly succumbing to dementia, while Mirren is lovely as the feisty but ever-present wife, now facing battles of her own. Funny and moving in equal parts.
A younger audience should enjoy the cleverness of Every Day (12A) ★★★★, which combines elements of Groundhog Day and body-swapping pics such as 13 Going
On 30, as we watch love blossom for high-school student Rhiannon (Angourie Rice, pictured) and the enigmatic ‘A’.
The only problem is that A wakes up in a different teenage body every day. The fact that their love can overcome gender, race and sexual preference chimes with these inclusive times, but the film also happens to be very sweet.
Despite its title, Funny Cow (15) ★★★ leaves a distinctly bitter taste, with Maxine Peake playing a spirited northerner who overcomes a horrendous childhood, an awful marriage and rampant Seventies sexism to make it as a stand-up comedian.
The name Marti Caine is not mentioned, but her spirit is never far away in a film that, despite Peake’s splendidly gobby performance, delivers rather less than it should.
Let The Sunshine In (15) ★★ is an archetypal French film almost to the point of parody. Juliette Binoche plays a newly divorced artist in search of mid-life love, while a gaggle of French actors – Gérard Depardieu included – play the many men who don’t say what they mean, don’t mean what they say and generally forget they’re married to someone else. Despite the gamely miniskirted, thigh-booted Binoche, this is rather less fun than it sounds. Matthew Bond