Regent Theatre reopens with spy film
The Regent Cinema in Pahiatua will reopen this week with the wartime drama A Call To Spy.
As Great Britain’s forces were stretched thin during World War II, Winston Churchill’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) began to enlist women as spies.
Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Spy-mistress Vera Atkins, later the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise, was the chief recruiter for this secret army.
Atkins selected two unusual candidates: Virginia Hall, an American journalist hampered by a wooden leg, and Noor Khan, a wireless officer of Indian descent and an avowed pacifist.
Together, they worked to undermine the Nazi regime in France. The courage, sacrifices and grit of these three women helped quell the Nazi occupation — and ultimately turned the tide of the war. A Call To Spy opens at the Regent this Thursday.
Also opening at the Regent this Thursday is the British comedy Blithe Spirit, a riotous reimagining of Noe¨l Coward’s classic 1941 stage play, about love that just won’t die.
Bestselling crime novelist Charles (Dan Stevens) is struggling with writer’s block and a stressful deadline for his first Hollywood screenplay. His second wife Ruth (Isla Fisher)
is doing her best to keep him focused in the hope of fulfilling her dream of heading to California.
Charles’ desperate search for inspiration leads him to invite Madame Arcati (Judi Dench), a clairvoyant recently exposed as a fraud, to perform a se´ance in their home.
They all get more than they bargained for when Madame Arcati accidentally summons the spirit of Charles’ late first wife: the fiery and jealous Elvira (Leslie Mann) which leads to an increasingly comical and deadly love triangle.
Opening next week is the animated family adventure Dragon Rider, in which a young silver dragon teams up with a mountain spirit and an orphaned boy as they set off on a journey through the Himalayas in a search for the fabled Rim of Heaven.
Opening on January 29 is the Australian crime-thriller The Dry. Federal agent Aaron Falk (Eric Bana) returns to his home town after an absence of over 20 years to attend the funeral of his childhood friend who allegedly killed his wife and child before taking his own life — a victim of the madness that has ravaged this community after more than a decade of severe drought.
When Falk reluctantly agrees to stay and investigate the crime, he opens up an old wound — the death of 17-year-old Ellie Deacon. Falk begins to suspect these two crimes, separated by decades, are connected as he finds himself pitted against the pent-up rage of a terrified community.
Opening the following week on Thursday, February 4 is the fantasy action-adventure
Wonder Woman 1984. In this sequel to the 2017 hit Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot takes the lead role again as we fast-forward to 1984 and find Diana facing two new foes: Max Lord and The Cheetah. Also starring Chris Pine and Kristin Wiig. i