Not half-baked but no dramatic feast
LOVE SARAH
★★★✩✩
(Cert 12A, 98 mins)
Director: Eliza Schroeder
Stars: Celia Imrie, Shelley Conn, Shannon Tarbet, Rupert Penry-jones
BLACK WATER: ABYSS
★★★✩✩ (15, 98 mins)
Director: Andrew Traucki
Stars: Jessica Mcnamee, Luke Mitchell, Amali Golden, Anthony J Sharpe, Benjamin Hoetjes
THE WAY BACK
★★★✩✩
(Cert 15, 108 mins)
Director: Gavin O’connor
Stars: Ben Affleck, Janina Gavankar, Al Madrigal, Brandon Wilson
JUST when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinema, Hollywood bottles it by knocking out a raft of re-releases. One exception is the sedate British comedy Love Sarah.
Here Eliza Schroeder is working to a very familiar recipe, with a gentle family drama set in London’s most cinematic postcode.we’re in Paddington and Hugh Grant’s neighbourhood of Notting Hill, where two lifelong friends are planning to realise their dream of opening a bakery.
But on the way to pick up the keys to a derelict former shop off the Portobello Road, chef Sarah (a cameo from Great British Bake Off champ Candice Brown) is killed in a bicycling accident.
After the funeral, her business-minded partner Isabella (Shelley Conn) gets some more bad news. Her lawyer can’t find a way out of the long-term lease for the building.
Isabella is about to sublet the shop to a pop-up bar business when she discovers Sarah’s professional ballerina daughter Clarissa (Shannon Tarbet) sleeping behind the counter.
As her role in her ballet company doesn’t seem to require her to do much actual ballerina-ing, Clarissa suggests they open the shop together.
To get the dough for the refurbishment, she persuades her grandmother and Sarah’s estranged mother Mimi (Celia Imrie) to invest. Mimi, weirdly, is a retired trapeze artist but while she knows nothing about cakes she is keen to make Sarah’s dream come true and reconnect with Clarissa.
But can three generations of entrepreneurial women find a gap in Notting Hill’s already crowded bakery scene? And does Rupert Penry-jones’s Michelin-starred chef – and Sarah’s old flame – have a secret agenda when he turns up for a job in the kitchen?
These questions aren’t quite enough to power a feature film. Bill Paterson is drafted in as a local eccentric to provide a light dusting of romance, but he never convinces as Mimi’s love interest.
Yet while the plot feels a bit half-baked, the characters are likeable, west London is pretty and the cakes are beautifully photographed.
If it’s big screen thrills and chills you’re missing however, you will have to make do with cheap croc-in-a-cave thriller Black Water: Abyss as all the other blockbusters are socially distancing from a muted re-opening.
The sequel to
2007’s Black Water, it sends five Australian soap stars potholing in unexplored caves. After arriving in a large circular chamber, the “oohs” turn into “aarghs!” Water begins to rush in, rockfalls block escape routes and a giant crocodile begins to circle.
From here, it’s all about keeping schtum, finding inner heroes and guessing which photogenic Antipodean will buy it first.
This set-up is efficient and the raceagainst-the-clock action is nicely paced, but budgetary restraints soon become apparent.
The rocks look like polystyrene, and while the croc’s beady eyes are menacing, he’s not much of a mover.
An early, rubbery wrestle brought to mind Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan, while a climactic CGI leap had me reminiscing about early video games.
Still, director Andrew Traucki summons up some claustrophobic chills as our cavers dive into murky water and feel their way around cramped passages.
And while the dialogue is a little flat, a daft subplot about a shock pregnancy adds some much-needed giggles.
Basketball drama The Way Back had a brief pre-lockdown release in US cinemas so they’ve decided to bounce it straight to UK audiences via video-on-demand.
Thankfully, you don’t need to know anything about American sports to appreciate the touching lead performance of Ben Affleck.
In early scenes, the former Batman actor makes us feel for Jack Cunningham, a construction worker who has turned to booze to ease the pain of his failed marriage to Angela (Janina Gavankar) and the loss of their eight-year-old son to cancer.
But he gets a chance to turn his life around when he’s offered the part-time job of coach to a high school basketball team.
Jack was a star player at the Catholic school more than 25 years ago and headmaster Father Devine (John Aylward) thinks he could help turn the failing team around.
Reluctantly, Jack accepts the position alongside maths teacher and assistant coach Dan (Al Madrigal).
With Jack’s tactics and foul-mouthed man-management, the team quickly improves under the leadership of new captain Brandon Durrett (Brandon Wilson).
But while Father Devine wishes he would mind his language, coach Dan is more concerned about the mountain of beer cans piling up in Jack’s office.
On paper, this film combines three Hollywood staples – the underdog sports movie, the inspirational teacher drama and the addiction weepie.
But after a touching first act, it never turned into the emotional slam dunk
I was hoping for.
Scenes where Jack unites the bickering team felt a little rushed and his road to redemption could have done with a couple more twists and turns.