SECONDSCREEN
winner of the Oscar for Best Film last weekend, Spotlight.
With a castled by Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford, director James Vanderbilt was clearly aiming high with this recreation of circumstances that led to the respected 60 Minutes news programme-broadcasting – in the run up to the 2004 US presidential-election – an investigation into George W Bush’ s Vietnam era service in the Texas Air National Guard that may have been based on false documents.
The fall out from the controversy would bring to an end to the CBS career of veteran news anchor Dan Rather–played here by Redford–and lead to the sacking of producer Mary Mapes (Blanchett), who was responsible for the story.
The first half is tough going but once things start to unravel it certainly pick sup speed .However, despite a fine performance from Blanchett ,political sensitivities – particularly in another election year – and perhaps the fact that it deals with failure rather than success means the film has been one of the conspicuous absentees rom the awards season , while interest is likely to be further curtailed by the very American subject matter.
Time Out Of Mind ( 15A) His the sort of film that plays well at a film festival but then dies a quiet death when it reaches the more unforgiving en irons of commercial cinema. With Richard Gere gamely but improbably playing a homeless man in New York, it’s very long and very little seems to happen.
It lacks both the sentimentality and box-office appeal of another recent film about homelessness, Hector, but some small strands of story do come together in the end.