WHAT THEY HAD
(15)
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BASED on writer-director Elizabeth Chomko’s observations of her grandparents, What They Had is a poignant study of a fractured family coming to terms with surrendering a loved one to Alzheimer’s.
Bert Keller (Robert Forster) wakes to find the other side of the martial bed empty.
His beloved wife Ruth (Blythe Danner), who has stage six Alzheimer’s, has wandered into a snow storm wearing just a flimsy nightdress and housecoat.
Bert telephones his son Nick (Michael Shannon), who in turn calls his sister Bridget (two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank), and she hurriedly flies into sub-zero Chicago from California with her petulant daughter Emma (Taissa Farmiga) in tow.
Thankfully, Ruth is unharmed but the unsettling episode is the last straw for Nick, who has secured a place for his mother in a memory care facility called The Reminisce Neighbourhood.
Ex-military man Bert stubbornly refuses to entertain the thought of a nursing home and Nick’s frustration boils over when peacemaker Bridget refuses to back him up.
As Christmas beckons, members of the Keller clan face tough choices about their (in)ability to nurture themselves as well as the people they love.
What They Had is an assured debut feature from Chomko, who elicits compelling performances from a superb ensemble cast.
AWARTIME love triangle set against the backdrop of a devastated and defeated Germany makes for gloomy viewing in James Kent’s handsome but emotionally starved drama based on the novel by Rhidian Brook.
Adapted for the screen by
Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, The Aftermath gifts Keira Knightley another elegantly attired but emotionally stifled heroine, whose sexual awakening wreaks havoc on everyone within her orbit.
The smouldering rubble of Hamburg, which was hit by more bombs in one weekend than London suffered during the whole of the Second World War, mirrors the psychological ruins of the affection-starved characters, who have suffered tragic losses during the conflict.
Director Kent ventured into similarly fraught territory – albeit during the First World War – in his handsomely crafted 2014 picture Testament Of Youth, which was galvanised by committed performances from
Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington and Taron Egerton.
Bruised and broken hearts are considerably older and wiser here but the pedestrian tug-ofwar between Alexander Skarsgard as Stefan, Jason Clarke as Lewis Morgan and Keira Knightley as Rachael Morgan
Alexander Skarsgard and Jason Clarke for Knightley’s stiff-upperlipped affections fails to get the blood pumping.
There is a chill in the air of 1945 Hamburg, five months after the Allied victory, as Rachael Morgan (Knightley) arrives in the city to join her husband Lewis (Clarke), a British colonel who must combat any residual German resistance. Lewis requisitions a large mansion belonging to widowed architect Stefan Lubert HHHHH
GLOSSY heist thriller. Career criminal Harry Rawlins (Liam Neeson) spearheads the theft of $2m with a crew comprising Florek Gunner (Jon Bernthal), Carlos Perelli (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Jimmy Nunn (Coburn Goss). The job goes sour and the robbers are killed. Soon after, Harry’s wife Veronica (Viola Davis) is visited by crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) who claims Harry stole the $2m from him and wants Veronica to replace the funds. Armed with plans for Harry’s next robbery, Veronica assembles a crew including Carlos’s wife Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Florek’s wife Alice (Elizabeth Debicki).
■ Download/stream from March 1 and on DVD/ Blu-ray from March 18. (Alexander Skarsgard) and consigns the host and his 15-year-old daughter Freda (Flora Thiemann) to the attic while the Morgans make use of the bedrooms and an open-plan living room complete with piano.
The household staff including Heike (Anna Katharina Schimrigk) are duty bound to serve the British intruders.
They whisper snide remarks about Rachael moving ornaments and furniture: “She’s making herself at home... like a maggot in the bacon!”
The new lady of the manor is visibly uncomfortable sharing quarters with the enemy, having lost a young son to German bombs in London.
Her husband’s friend and fellow officer Burnham (Martin Compston) echoes these sentiments and drunkenly humiliates Stefan during one house party.
Unthinkably, sexual tension simmers between Rachael and Stefan, and when Lewis is called away to deal with a crisis, passions boil over.
Meanwhile, impressionable Freda falls under the spell of a local boy, Albert (Jannik Schumann), who is steadfastly committed to the Nazi movement.
The Aftermath melts at a similar pace to ice covering Hamburg, even with a couple of artfully staged sex scenes involving Knightley and Skarsgard.
Kent’s lens swoons at his actors in a state of beautifully lit undress but HHHHH
CHARMING computer-animated retelling of Dr Seuss’s seasonal fable. The mayor of Whoville (voiced by Angela Lansbury) decrees that this year’s Christmas celebrations should be three times grander than usual. Everyone rejoices except for The Grinch (Benedict Cumberbatch), who despises the festive season. He resolves to dress as Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and steal the town’s decorations, trees and presents. Meanwhile, little Cindy Lou Who (Cameron Seely) plans to capture Santa Claus and ask the man in red to grant her Christmas wish: to lighten the load of her overworked single mother (Rashida Jones).
■ Download/stream from March 1 and on DVD/ Blu-ray from March 11.