Well-suited for love’s reel deal
Phantom thread
(Cert 15; 130mins)
LOVE is an obsessive, high-stakes game in Phantom Thread, an exquisitely crafted, mesmerising weave of melodrama and Gothic horror from master director Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in the 1950s and looks as if it was made in that decade with its lush colours and heightened emotions. Anderson scoops up a swirl of influences from Powell and Pressburger to Hitchcock and transforms them into a fairy tale of a film in which you are never sure what might happen next.
Daniel Day-Lewis has announced his retirement and if Phantom Thread is his final film, then it is an impressive, Oscar-nominated farewell as he burrows beneath the perfectly clad skin of acclaimed high society fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock.
This is a fastidious fellow who provides gorgeous gowns for European royalty and high society London and has the standing of a real-life figure such as Norman Hartnell. Reynolds is a perfectionist who demands order and control, being the kind of man who could never pass a crooked painting without stopping to straighten it.
This highly strung genius is protected by his sister Cyril (Lesley Manville) who acts as the gatekeeper to his world. She is the one who tells the latest woman in his life when it is time to pack her bags. She is as steely and implacable as Mrs Danvers in Rebecca but Lesley Manville’s impeccable, Oscar-nominated performance makes her a much more human, sympathetic figure.
Everything changes when Reynolds meets waitress Alma (Vicky Krieps). He is completely smitten and there is a sense that she could be the Eliza to his Henry Higgins as she grows into the role of his muse. However, Reynolds is impossibly demanding and uncompromising. The noise of butter being scraped on toast can break his concentration and ruin the entire day. If Alma plans to stick around, then she will have to follow his rules.
Then again Alma is not as docile as she first appears and enormous credit goes to the relatively unknown Vicky Krieps for making Alma such a formidable character, full of hidden depths and wiles. The fact that she can go toe-to-toe with Daniel Day-Lewis and emerge as his equal suggests that a great future lies ahead.
The film becomes increasingly unpredictable and twisted as the fraught central relationship becomes a battleground. Who is really in control here?
Phantom Thread is simply sumptuous. The work of the costume department is outstanding with a spiffy wardrobe for Reynolds and glamorous gowns that could have graced Audrey Hepburn.
The pin-sharp precision of the dialogue, the magnificent, lilting musical score from Jonny Greenwood and the quality of the performances all combine to create an audacious, spellbinding slice of storytelling.
Journey’s end
(Cert 12A; 108mins) YOU might wonder why anyone would want to make a new version of Journey’s End until you see this film. RC Sherriff’s landmark play was first staged 90 years ago but still feels powerful and moving on the big screen as we are immersed in the horrors of trench warfare.
In March 1918, Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) seems little more than a boy when he arrives at the front line where a fresh German offensive is imminent. Weary
commanding officer Stanhope (Sam Claflin) was once Raleigh’s schoolmate but he resents his presence and his naive enthusiasm for the war.
The only things that give Stanhope the strength to carry on are whisky and the support of kindly, battle-hardened veteran Osborne (Paul Bettany).
There is nothing stuffy or old-fashioned about Journey’s End as it becomes a portrait of courage under fire and the intense emotions that forge a group of strangers into a band of brothers. You gain a sense of the claustrophobic trenches, the squelching mud and death’s inevitable approach.
There is also a very British sensibility in the film’s gallows humour and the way in which death is met with a stoic shrug.
In the year that we commemorate the centenary of the First World War drawing to a close, Journey’s End couldn’t be a more timely drama.
DeN Of ThIeveS
(Cert 15; 140mins) GERARD BUTLER takes a break from saving the world to tackle a gang of ruthless bank robbers in Den Of Thieves. Butler stars as “Big Nick” O’Brien, a burly, booze-soaked cop who sweats testosterone and makes Dirty Harry look like a lightweight.
He heads the Major Crimes unit of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and his sights are set on a gang of thieves led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber). That may sound straightforward but it takes two hours and 20 minutes to tell the story.
Director Christian Gudegast is clearly a big fan of Michael Mann’s Heat and wants his film to have the same scope and ambition but it never comes close. The macho encounters between Big Nick and Merrimen are laughably contrived and reflect a screenplay that lacks logic and never knows when to call it a day. Entertaining enough as it passes by but you don’t believe a word of it.
ROmAN J ISRAel eSq
(Cert 12A; 122mins) DENZEL WASHINGTON joins Daniel Day-Lewis among this year’s Best Actor Oscar nominees and he is easily the best thing about legal drama Roman J Israel Esq.
Israel is an idealistic criminal defence lawyer in Los Angeles and a veteran of the civil rights movement.
He sports an afro and ill-fitting suits, looking like a relic from the 1970s in modern-day LA. Eccentric, socially awkward and probably some kind of savant, he seems ill-prepared for the real world. His integrity comes under fire when he is employed by slick hotshot lawyer George Pierce (Colin Farrell).
This is a fascinating study of a vulnerable figure. The film works best when it is establishing Israel’s character but it starts to flounder with a murder case that grows increasingly implausible.
The film is still worth seeing for Washington’s committed performance though.
lIeS We Tell
(Cert 15; 110mins) GABRIEL BYRNE deserves better than Lies We Tell. This sleazy, sluggish British thriller is clumsily handled and wastes a number of talented actors, especially Byrne who plays Donald, a chauffeur to elderly businessman Demi (Harvey Keitel). When Demi dies, the eternally discreet Donald is left to clear up the mess and remove any trace of the boss’s mistress Amber (Sibylla Deen). She too has been leading a double life that puts her on a collision course with her strict Muslim family.
The bond that develops between dour Donald and Amber has echoes of Mona Lisa but the credibility of Donald’s subsequent journey into the heart of Bradford’s vicious criminal underworld is constantly undermined by awkward dialogue and amateurish performances.
Jan Uddin’s exuberant, hammy, scenery-chewing turn as gangster KD is a particular ordeal.