Film choice
Letters to Juliet (2010) FILM4, 6.50PM ★★★★
Journalist Sophie Hall (Amanda Seyfried), in Verona with her fiancé, finds herself falling for a cocky Englishman (Christopher Egan) while helping his grandmother (Vanessa Redgrave) track down the suitor she jilted 50 years previously. The central Seyfriedegan romance is boring, but Redgrave’s reunion with Franco Nero (her real-life husband) is extremely moving. Looper (2012) TCM, 9.00PM ★★★★
It’s impossible not to be tickled by the playful logic of this sleek sci-fi film that ticks along with pocket-watch precision. Joseph Gordon-levitt is a “looper” – an assassin whose targets are zapped back to him from 30 years in the future, before his contract expires and his final target is his future self. It sounds confusing, but works, and has a great cast that includes Emily Blunt, Bruce Willis, Piper Perabo and Paul Dano.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) ITV, 11.25PM; NOT STV ★★★
Cate Blanchett took Shekhar Kapur’s 1998 film Elizabeth by storm, winning an Oscar for her portrayal of a young Elizabeth I, and she does it again in this sequel, set a decade later, between 1585 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The script takes a few liberties with the truth, but it favours romanticism over the dark complexities of its predecessor. Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush and Samantha Morton also star.