The Herald - The Herald Magazine
PICK OF THE BEST FILMS
SATURDAY
What We Did on Our Holiday (2014) (BBC Two, 10.30pm) Gordie McLeod (Billy Connolly) is about to celebrate his 75th birthday in the Highlands. His self-obsessed son Gavin (Ben Miller) is hosting a lavish party to impress the neighbours and hopefully secure the captaincy of the golf club. As the party beckons, Gavin’s less successful brother Doug (David Tennant) and his wife Abi (Rosamund Pike) arrive with their three children. However, the birthday celebrations are thrown into disarray when a media scrum descends on the family’s doorsteps along with a social worker who casts doubt on Doug and Abi’s ability to nurture their dysfunctional brood. In the House (2012) (BBC Two, 1am) Fabrice Luchini plays despairing teacher Germain, whose passion for the written word is reinvigorated by a talented student and his detailed accounts of weekends spent with a wealthy classmate, which course with homoeroticism and adolescent yearning. The lad’s descriptions of spying on his friend’s unhappy mother are especially tantalising, not to mention slightly creepy. Germain’s sexually frustrated wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) becomes equally fixated when her husband reads aloud the young man’s essays.
SUNDAY
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) (ITV2, 7.15pm) Andrew Garfield’s second and final outing as the webslinger sees Peter Parker tormented by the ghost of Captain Stacy, whose daughter Gwen (Emma Stone) is Peter’s on-off girlfriend. While Peter hones his powers, childhood friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns to the Big Apple to assume control of Oscorp in the wake of the death his father. Harry’s ascension coincides with an industrial accident that transforms nerdy employee Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) into an electrically-charged monster. The King’s Speech (2010) (Channel 4, 9.50pm) Bertie (Colin Firth), the younger son of King George V, suffers from a stammer that makes public speaking an ordeal. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) enlists eccentric speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) to help, but their sessions take on a new urgency as Edward VIII (Guy Pearce) abdicates and Bertie – now known as King George VI – faces the prospect of addressing a country on the brink of war. There’s a reason this film picked up four Oscars and was nominated for eight more. It’s a fascinating tale, expertly and movingly told, with a cast that’s positively groaning with class.
MONDAY
The Heat (2013) (Film4, 9pm) Paul Feig’s oestrogen-fuelled buddy movie pairs Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy as a strait-laced FBI special agent and gung-ho Boston police detective who join forces to bring down a criminal mastermind. The lead actresses spark off each other brilliantly, milking belly laughs from the script.
TUESDAY
Unbroken (2014) (Film4, 9pm) As a boy, Louis Zamperini (Jack O’Connell) narrowly avoids reform school, and his older brother channels his sibling’s energy and aggression into running. These efforts reap rewards and Louis is selected to represent America at the Berlin Olympics. War breaks out and Louis serves in the US Army Air Force alongside best friend Russell Phillips (Domhnall Gleeson). Their B-24 bomber crashes into Pacific, killing everyone except Louis, Russell and fellow recruit Francis McNamara (Finn Wittrock). A Japanese crew picks up the survivors and Louis is sent to a POW camp, where the sadistic commander sets out to break his spirit. Director Angelina Jolie’s admiration for her subject is evident in every gorgeously crafted frame of this biopic.
WEDNESDAY
Bridge to Terabithia (2007) (Film4, 1.10pm) Sixth-grade student Jess Aarons (Josh Hutcherson) is a talented artist, not that his family notice. Life in the classroom means running the gauntlet of bullies, and so Jess retreats into the world of his art. When talented storyteller Leslie Burke (AnnaSophia Robb) moves in next door, she gradually breaks down Jess’s defences and they become friends, creating a fantasy kingdom called Terabithia. However, even in their shared imagination, Jess and Leslie are not safe from the dangers of the outside world.
THURSDAY
Millions (2004) (Film4, 1.05pm) Danny Boyle’s fairy tale is set 12 days before Britain enters the Euro zone and pound sterling is replaced by a new currency (the film was made in 2004, before anyone had ever heard of Brexit). Ten-year-old Anthony Cunningham (Lewis McGibbon) and his eightyear-old brother Damian (Alexander Etel) have far greater worries than money: the boys’ mother died recently and they are struggling to come to terms with their loss. When Damian stumbles upon £229,320 in a sports bag, he immediately assumes the money has been sent by God to be used for good deeds. When it turns out that the money is, in fact, the spoils of a heist, the lads race against time to change the sterling into euros, while evading the robbers who are on their trail. Wild (2014) (Film4, 9pm) Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) tries to come to terms with the death of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) by embarking on a 1100mile solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. She is ill-prepared for her journey, which is punctuated by nightmarish memories of her descent into sex and alcohol-fuelled oblivion – a futile effort to salve the pain of her mother’s death. Wild is an uplifting drama that celebrates the endurance of the human spirit and the restorative power of a mother’s love.
FRIDAY
Big Game (2014) (Film4, 9pm) Oskari (Onni Tommila) is poised to turn 13 and must follow in the footsteps of his father by venturing into the wilderness to bring down a deer with his bow and arrow. Within hours of embarking on his quest, Oskari witnesses the crash of Air Force One and stumbles upon the escape pod of the US President, William Allen Moore (Samuel L Jackson). It transpires that a psychopathic illegitimate son of one of the richest sheikhs in the Gulf has brought down the plane in order to hunt the most powerful western politician on the planet.