MAUDIE
VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS
Cert Running time
Take a holiday trip to a city in space with this spectacular-looking sci-fi adventure. War is threatened when aliens kidnap a space police commander, so a pair of glamorous intergalactic agents blast off to save the universe.
It’s based on a 1970s French comic which was one of the key influences of the original Star Wars, and everything feels very familiar.
However, we’re never bored because there is always something glorious to look at. It’s a non-stop parade of dazzlingly beautiful aliens, spaceships and planets. But even mad French director Luc Besson is so busy gawping like a tourist at the amazing sights, the story is lost in the rush to see what’s around the next corner.
After her astonishingly poor performance in last year’s superhero fiasco Suicide Squad, model-turned-actress Cara Delevingne rescues her fledgling career with a terrifically smart, sexy and kickass performance.
As Sergeant Laureline, she has to carry the story due to her costar being horrifically miscast.
This big-budget blockbuster needs leading man swagger, such as Chris Pratt provides in Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Instead, we have Dane DeHaan, an intense actor well suited to small indie movies, but his skill set is utterly wrong for the role of Major Valerian, and he lacks the authority required for the role. Nor does DeHaan have a shred of romantic chemistry with Delevingne.
Plus, Valerian is noticeably more dim and less effective than his subordinate Laureline, but the script never sees this as a problem. Pop star Rihanna makes a rather brief appearance as an adult entertainer – she has multiple costume changes, and her stunt double does good work.
Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke and Rutger Hauer appear game for a laugh, and for some reason jazz composer Herbie Hancock beams by as the Defence Minister.
The city of a thousand planets is a lovely looking place to visit – but I wouldn’t want to go back. Cert Running time
Intimate, warm and moving, this oddcouple drama is based on the true story of a folk painter from rural Canada in the middle of the last century.
British actress Sally Hawkins is best known as the mother in the recent Paddington Bear film. She’s on devastating form as selftaught artist Maudie, giving a performance full of conviction, inner strength and sly humour.
Burdened with a crooked back and assumed incapable of anything, she takes a job as a housemaid for an illiterate fish peddler. He’s played with a lack of sympathy by a grunting and growling Ethan Hawke.
The honest and unflinching script causes us to deeply invest our emotions in the bickering pair and we long for a happy ending. We imagine the soundtrack is there to reassure us but as the story slowly unburdens its dark secrets, we realise it’s an accompaniment to our hearts breaking. And I’d very much like to stop crying now, please.