SECONDSCREEN
The Finest Hours (12A) ★★★ is a tale of remarkable American heroism and, boy, doesn’t it know it, with director Craig Gillespie generally overcooking things in pretty much every department. But – thanks to a mix of impressive special and visual effects – he still just about holds on to what is undeniably a good yarn.
Set in the early Fifties, it’s the true story of a young US coastguard officer, Bernie Webber (Chris Pine), who is ordered out to sea amid one of the worst storms the Massachusetts coast has ever seen. One oil tanker has already broken in half and another is about to follow. But can Bernie and his crew possibly make it over the sandbanks in these mountainous seas and find the drifting stern section of the Pendleton in the dark?
Pine channels his inner Jimmy Stewart, and Casey Affleck (playing the Pendleton’s chief engineer) his inner James Dean, while Holliday Grainger is a minor irritant as Bernie’s over-protective fiancée.
But in a film that is one part The Caine
Mutiny and one
part The Perfect
Storm, the depictions of both lifeboat and stricken tanker are excellent and the film does have an old-school appeal, albeit an obviously manufactured one.
On paper, the story of a terminally ill detective struggling to leave her police pension to her lesbian partner hardly sounds promising. But thanks to some superlative acting and a beautifully constructed screenplay, Freeheld (12A)
★★★★ is one of the unsung pleasures of the winter.
Julianne Moore plays Laurel Hester, who has kept her sexuality a secret for most of her 23-year career. But then she meets the love of her life, a young motor mechanic called Stacie Andree (Ellen Page). It’s soon after they’ve bought a house together and entered into a domestic partnership that Laurel discovers she is ill. Moore and Page both shine in low-key ways, while there is tremendous support from Michael Shannon and Steve Carell. It’s really not that long since
Trainwreck and Sleeping
With Other People both saw the light of cinematic day, so it’s no surprise that How To Be Single (15A) ★★★ struggles to say anything new about the modern dating game in New York City. Dakota Johnson plays Alice, who lives with her sister Meg (Leslie Mann), works at a law firm alongside new best friend Robin (Rebel Wilson), and has