A few good films on the TV this weekend.
TODAY
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (TV2, 7pm) is a decent entry in the series, notable for two things. First, it has dragons by the truckload, which made me very happy. And second, it was the big screen debut for young Robert Pattinson, which made every young woman in the world, a fair percentage of young men, and an unconscionable number of their mums, very happy indeed. Pattinson was cast officially on the strength of a couple of roles in a few bits of British telly. Unofficially, the story is that author and producer JK Rowling took one look at Pattinson’s giraffe-like limbs and James-Deanish cheekbones, and ordered the production to secure the young man’s services. Pattinson went on to fame and fortune via the interminable Twilight saga, and is now one of the wealthiest young actors on the planet. The fact that he barely has the emotional range to adequately portray the back end of a pantomime horse is seldom mentioned.
There’s better – far better – for the kids on Four at 6.30pm, where you can see a re-run of the wondrous Coraline. Writer Neil Gaiman and director Henry Selick ( The Nightmare Before Christmas) bring a loopy and unique sensibility to this film, which almost qualifies as a horror movie for children. It’s entirely done with hand-stitched puppets and hand-made model sets. Ian Mc Shane, Dawn French, and Dakota Fanning all provide voices. This is an enthralling and extraordinarily effective film, but probably too intense for the under-sixes.
And a grown-up treat on Maori TV at 9.10pm. Mid-August Lunch is a hugely likeable and entertaining Italian comedy from 2008. A middle-aged bachelor gets blackmailed into cooking lunch for his landlord’s elderly Mum and her mates. It takes a great comic sensibility to wring belly-laughs out of that scenario, but writer/ director/star Gianni Di Gregorio manages it. This film is a charmer.
TOMORROW
Almost Famous (Four, 8.30pm) is a very well liked semiautobiographical film from writerdirector Cameron Crowe. Crowe writes himself as a young aspiring music journalist invited to go on tour with an up and coming rock band. This is a funny and affectionate film, with great performances from Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Or on Maori TV at 9.30pm, Footnote is a stunningly good and intelligent Israeli dramacomedy set between a feuding father and son, both academics in the same field at a Jerusalem University. This is a dense and wordy film, but if you’re in the mood, also a riotously funny and moving one. Very recommended.
BEST OF THE WEEK There have been many John Le Carre adaptations over the years, but the first is still one of the very best. Sky Classics are screening The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) at 4.45pm on Monday. Richard Burton and Clair Bloom starred, and the film perfectly captured Le Carre’s ‘‘atmosphere of chilly hell’’. Brilliant.
GRAEME TUCKETT