Eleanor Reviews

  ***** DVD Release In April 1945, Berlin became the front line. In his bunker, Adolf Hitler was entering his final few days alive. Surrounded by his remaining officers, a handful of soldiers, Eva Braun and his female secretaries, we watch as the once powerful dictator sinks into despair and bitterness. There has been a plethora of World War Two films, but ‘Downfall’ adopts an angle that we perhaps have not seen before – Germany is falling to the Allies, but this time we see this from inside the Nazi headquarters as opposed to the point of view of the victorious nationalities. In his elaborate underground bunker, Hitler (Bruno Ganz) is an old man rapidly losing control of the situation – many of his high ranking officers have betrayed and abandoned him, and he has run out of troops to fight off the approaching Russian forces. Ganz is outstanding as Hitler – his is bitter, broken, angry, but at moments also strangely tender, especially towards the women in his compa...

**** Based on the novel by the same name, ’12 Years A Slave’ is the story of Solomon Northup who lived as free black man in New York. After being deceived and sold into slavery, he battles despair and intense cruelty, all the time trying to prove his right to freedom. This film is incredibly difficult to watch in places, and is mostly so utterly joyless that it I cannot say that I really enjoyed the experience no matter how moving I found it. The camera is watches unflinchingly as Solomon is beaten in a cellar, and then again as he is left hanging from a tree with just his toes brushing the ground to stop him from straggling completely. There is also an extremely long and painful shot of a young woman being lashed until the skin is ripped from her back, which left several people in the screening I was in covering their faces and fidgeting. Throughout the entire film I was dreading what would happen next, constantly fearing for the welfare of Northup and his fellow slaves –...

  ** DVD Release After King Richard the Lionheart is killed in a siege in France, long-serving Robin Longstride and a small group of fellow soldiers set off back to England. On the way, Robin receives a sword from its dying owner who wishes for it to be returned to his father, Sir Walter Loxley. Meanwhile, King John (newly crowned after the death of his brother) finds his position compromised after his right-hand man, Godfrey, persuades him to ruthlessly pursue the missing taxes. With the country out of love with the new king, Godfrey hopes the French will be able to invade and overtake with ease, and begins shipping troops into England. So, the historical accuracy of this film is about as far from the truth as Ridley Scott’s previous film, Gladiator . The lack of accuracy doesn’t really matter in Gladiator , however, as it is such an excellent and exciting film that you get swept along in it, but this is not the case with Robin Hood . For starters, the tone of the...

  *** DVD Release As Ann lays dying, she remembers the wedding weekend of her best friend, Lila, and the passionate love affair she experienced with another wedding guest, Harris. So, maybe I’m just a massive cynic when it comes to all this lovey stuff, but the main premise of this story is that two people, after only spending one weekend together in their entire lives, believe the other to be their soul mate. I’m sorry, I know this is fiction, but the fact that Ann is still pining over this one man years and years after is a little obsessive, but maybe it is not the man she longs for, but the time when she was happiest and had the whole world at her feet. The younger Ann (played by Claire Danes) is to be the bridesmaid to Lila (Mamie Gummer), whose little brother, Buddy (Hugh Dancy) she is also best friends with. At the wedding, Harris (Patrick Wilson) makes an appearance and everything spirals out of control, and the lives of the four young people are changed for...

*** Available for internet streaming/No evidence of DVD release This documentary focuses on the suicides that occurred in 2004, specifically those who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Filmed over the period of a year in 2004, ‘The Bridge’ focuses on the stories of those who committed suicide by interviewing those they are survived by, as well as showing the harrowing footage of the individuals pacing the Bridge, before jumping into the water. Yes, there are actual clips of people committing suicide in this documentary, some seen up close and others from afar. The documentary focuses on the confusion of those left behind, from parents, to siblings and friends, and those who were in the area at the time. We hear briefly about how each individual came to be in the space that caused them to end their lives, with lots of frank discussion on the effects mental illness and substance abuse. Most distressing are the interviews with parents of those who were me...

  *** Picking up where the last film left off, ‘DoS’ follows the journey of the homeless dwarves and their quest to regain their homeland, and their adventures through Mirkwood and Lake Town. I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed. Unlike the rest of the world, I rather enjoyed ‘An Unexpected Journey’ despite its problems, but with ‘DoS’ Jackson really takes the biscuit. To start with, the narrative is all over the place: the meeting with Beorn is over in the first ten minutes of the film; Bilbo only features as a central character at the beginning and the end (if indeed, there is a beginning and an end); and too much time is spent on aspects that Jackson has completely fabricated. By now everyone will know that there is a completely new female elf, Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly), added to the story, who has the most contrived ‘romance’ with dwarf Kili (Aidan Turner) which goes on forever and is completely cringe-worthy. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) also makes an appearance when...

  **** DVD Release When Jerry Lundegaard lands in financial troubles, he hires two hit-men to kidnap his wife in the hope that her father will pay the ransom. However, everything soon spirals out of control and, with the body-count rising, heavily-pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson steps into the ring. This is quite an odd little film. For starters, there is no exposition about the lives of the main characters – we only know them from what they do in the film as there is not ‘background’ information on them.   This gives the suggestion that we are just looking in on a tiny snapshot of their lives. Subsequently, all of the characters seem quite distant from us as the viewer, but this doesn’t impinge on the film as you only really begin to notice at the end. The overall tone is extremely dark, and whilst there are some moments of black-humour (one such moment involves a wood-chipper), the film is mostly gory and a disturbing study into what man will do for mo...