The Moon of Liberty

The Duchess

Starring - Kiera Knightley, Ralph Finnes, Domonic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling

Directed by Saul Dibb

In a film that demonstrates yet again that nobody does period drama films like Kiera Knightley, she playes the Duchess of Devonshire, her marraige to the Duke (Ralph Finnes) is a sham purely to provide the Duke, himself the heir the the British thrown, a male aire for the future. The duchess struggles as she finds her husband does not seem to have much interest in anything beyond providing a male aire to the thrown.

The duchess finds a freinds in Lady Elizabeth Foster, after a woman on woman encounter where Foster shows the duchess that private matter can be about more that child creation, the freindship is shattered when the duchess finds the duke has taken Lady Foster for himself as her mistress. This leads the duchess to respond by formaing a relationship with the man she truely loves, new Parilamenatary MP and possible future Prime Minister, Charles Grey (Domonic Cooper) When the Duke finds out, he forces the duchess to make a series of heart breaking decisions which would define the future for her and the children she dearly loves.

This films best quality is the acting. Knightley is typcially brilliant in playing the woman trying to find herself in a male dominated world, espcially within the Royal Family. Finnes does a great job playing the cold, dull and at times nasty role of the Duke. Hayley Atwell as Lady Foster plays a fine supporting role too, and Charlotte Rampling who playes the duchess' mother, comes across as the throughly dislikeable, selfish character she is supposed to depict.

By contrast to the fine top rate acting, the film fell flat at times. It felt as though something was missing, a true spark that would take the film to another level. The ending fely rushed and unfinished too. That indefinable X-Factor which turns a very good film like this into an excellent one was just for whatever reason not quite there. There is an 'Is that it?' feeling at the end of it all. The quality of the cast does however, still make this worth seeing. And it is still a very good film as a result.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - Rating 'B+' - Great acting, but leaves you with a sense of dissappointment that it could and should have been even better.

Last night the real England football team finally came out of the ashes of a series of never ending miserable performances. Since the failure of the last World cup, England have underachieved again and again despite having starts who consistantly shine on the European Chmapions League stage for their clubs, the likes of Stephen Gerrard, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney,who play like world beaters at time in European games, have never really done it for England.

Last night something different happened. They went away to Zagreb to play Croatia, a team considered one of the best teams in Europe, recent scapls included Germany at the recent European Championships, they also has a 35 game unbeaten record at home, including a comprehensive 2-0 victory over England almost two years ago.

So would Englands flopsfail yet again against a very good side? No, England played their best game since a 3-2 win over Argentina in a warm up game in the run up to the alst World Cup in 2006. They tore Croatia apart in every department, the players played like they can for their clubs and demolished Croatia by a huge 4-1 scoreline.

Rooney also getting on the scoresheet was also good, as he had not scored for a while. A fine performance as well as result should also help confidence going into future games, however, the star of the show last night was Arsenal's young starlet Theo Walcott. A brilliant hat-trick, taring Croatia apart with his pace and precision, which leads you wonder wonder may this have happened if it was not for one other overlooked man.

That man is the much maligned for England Manager, Sven Goran Eriksson. In the 2006 World cup Eriksson caused a storm when he surpisingly announced the very same Theo Walcott into his World Cup squad. Then Theo was only 18 and had only played a small number of first team games. The press lined up to attack Eriksson's decision, especially as he had no intention of playing Walcott, at that point he was not ready. When the England team failed to get passed Portugal in the quarter final, the decision to take Walcott was again and again attacked as evidence that Eriksson was a poor mananger who had not got clue what he was doing.

Of course, maybe he did know what he was doing. In seeing the potential in Walcott, take him to a World Cup, allow him to get used to the squad elecment, train with the first team, create an environment where a young man who Eriksson obviously was clear had a huge future with England, could get used to the realities of what being an England squad memeber entailed, was all about at every level.

This of course was a huge sacrifice, as Eriksson surely knew he would not be manager after that World Cup, but he was willing to bring through a young man for the future he would not be a part of. Without going to that World Cup last night may never have happened. It would still be being discussed if Walcott was ready to perform, he may have only been on the fringes of the squad, and last night may have been a very different story.

We will of course have no retractions from anyone about how wrong they were to attack Eriksson for his decision, It will be all Walcott, Capello ect. But in hailing those, raise a glass to Sven, proven absolutely right in his judgement about Walcott, and willing to risk his own short term position for the long term good of a young player with potential, and the rest of the England team.

The Orphanage

Starring - Belen Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, Geraldine Chaplin

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

To start a run of films I need to catch up on, I begin with this fairy tale meets supernatrual horror from Spain. Belen Rueda plays Laura, who has just bought with her husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) the place where she grew up, a disused orphanage that she intends to restore to its original purpose by turning the place back into an orphanage that she intends to run, a dream of hers. She also has a son called Simon who is HIV positive and adopted, a fact that Simon, aged 7 at this point is unaware of.

At first it seems Simon has a wild imagination. He devlops a sense that he has 5 'imaginary friends' living in the house. Laura and Carlos assume the young boy just has a typical childs imagination. Simon also goes off to play in a cave where he meets another seemingly imaginary friend. However the more time passes strangethings happen within the house that suggest to Laura that their may be more reality to Simon's imagination than meets the eye.

When Simon goes missing it is assumed he has been kidknapped by a strange lady seen earlier in the film, When Laura witnesses her death in a chance meeting, revelations about the history of what went on in the Orphanage, coupled with drawings of Simon's 'imaginary friends' that match the history of the place, Laura heads to the world of the super natrual for help. This begins a journey which leads her face to face with the ghosts of the past which inhabit the Orphanage. Will she find Simon? Are the ghosts of her old friends in the house? Will she survive the journey to the other side?

The context of this film is virtually unique. It combines references to Peter Pan, old fairy tales, and hankering after childhood. It also explores the supernatrual, life after death, and the very essence of death itself. It has dark twists and spine chilling moments worthy of the darkest horror films. A series of combinations this film delivers spectaculuarly well and avoids the trap of becoming convoluted by so many angles like for example 'No Country For Old Men' did by being a fast paced film with new information constantly coming at you. It's was also all helped by the brilliant emotional depth of Rueda's performance as Laura, she throws herself into every aspect of her characters contridictory and complex mindset with enormous passion and emotional energy.

Combine all that with a story that will have you on the edge of your seat, as you are never quite sure where this is going next. The revelations come thick and fast, some of the Spanish backdrops for the film also add t the mysery and suspense, carefully chosen for exactly that reason, in that regard the director got it absolutely right. There are parallels with another Spannish film, 'Pans Labyrinth.' This however has more depth and in my view is even better. Forget the fact this is subtitled and foreign, see this if you can, I don't think there will ever be a film made quite like it again.

THE MOON OF LIBERTY VERDICT - Rating 'A' - A unique mix of fairy tale, suspence and horror. The finest foreign language film I have ever seen. Belen Rueda's performance is also simply stunning.

It seems to create passions few other things can. The end of the world. Ove the last couple of days there has been no escape from it's discussion. Certainly where I work it's been the topic of many a conversation over the last couple of days, and from what I here a topic in many a home too. Scientists are currently attempting to re-create the conditions of the big bang, the start of the universe as we know it. Apparently the experiment has got off to a great start. 

Scientists state they will be able to learn more about the very start of the universe. faciniating if true, but does beg the question, how can they possibly know if what happens here mirrors the start of the known universe several thousand billion years ago? As nobody was there, how do we know, we don't of course, and neither do the scientists.

As a result of this we have also heard the lazy arguments around this being a waste of money, the UK alone has put £500 million in, thetotal cost is £6bn. Why can't we spend it on fighting climate change, or fighting world povety or whatever more 'worthy' causethey say. Well the reality is scientists may learn something from this, even if it's not to do with the start of the Universe, sometimes we have to stop feeling guilty about everything and expand into other areas, as a result, I say good look to the scientists, I hope you learn something, and well done to the affiliated Governemnts for agreeing to such a large scale project.

The experiment has caused a stir in another way. Endless suggestions that the experiement could create black holes we could die in, or the explosions would destroy the Earth and create the end of the world. The most amusing observations go along the lines of 'wouldn't it be funny if it happened.' Well, no, because if it happened we would be all dead, so nobody would be here to find it funny anyway.

In any case, lets break a world exclusive (well not really, but The Sun and The Mirror would claim it, so hey, why can't I) I'm writing this, and we are all still here, so the World did not end. Thankfully the prophets of the end of the world have a 0% record so far, although i guess they only have to be right once. For now though, until next time the 'end of the world' is nigh, I hope you all sleep well safe in the knowledge, we will all wake up tomorrow to find another day.