Thursday 30 May 2013

Film According to Mr Cinema review: "Broken" 2012

Rufus Norris’ film: “Broken” (2012) is a wonderful film. This movie is set in a small cul-de-sac in England. Living in this quiet neighbourhood is 12 year old Skunk (marvellously brought to life by acting newcomer: Eloise Laurence) through whose eyes we witness the gradual decay of this little community after a young man: Rick Buckley (played by Robert Emms) is violently assaulted by a neighbour: Robert Oswald (Rory Kinnear). “Broken” was based, to a point, on Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”; having said this, the film did not follow the book to the point of the court case, and I’m quite glad about that because this film would not have been as passionate or powerful as it is, were it a courtroom drama. The film is told in a way that really compliments the somewhat taboo nature of the story.

When I went to see this movie, I had no real idea what it would be like. I knew very little about it seeing as it was not a huge filmic event, however I came out of the cinema completely bedazzled and amazed by not only the amount of care that was obviously put into every technical and story-wise aspect of the movie, but by the quality of the acting, especially by these young children with probably very little prior acting and performance skills. The story choked me up multiple times throughout. This film is an absolute gem in every notable aspect.


“Broken” has superseded every expectation (of the limited ones) I had. This is just about one of the best films that I have seen in a very long time. Although not all aspects of the film will be relatable to everybody, thematically, everyone should find something to enjoy about this movie whether it be paternal relationships, bigotry in society or communal function. This lovely film is about as wonderful a film as I have seen.

Rating: 10/10

Friday 10 May 2013

Film According to Mr Cinema review: "Marnie" 1964


Alfred Hitchcock made “Marnie” in 1964, just after “Psycho” (1960) and “The Birds (1963). This film was more of a return to some of his earlier working approaches, being somewhat stylistically similar to “Rear Window” (1954) (it included the patented “Rear Window zoom”) and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1956) in its visual approach. The movie’s story is as follows: Marnie Edgar (Tippi Hedren) is a compulsive thief and liar, she is conned into marrying Mark Rutland (Sean Connery), even though she is repulsed by the mere thought of men. This results in a series of events which leads to the uncovering of her mysterious, clouded past.

While watching “Marnie”, I felt something was amiss, the acting was fine, the direction was of Hitchcock’s brilliant standard and all of the technicalities were in order. After the film I realised that for the longest time in the middle of the film, the story didn’t really move, didn’t really go anywhere. This pacing problem did bring down the film a bit (though not enough to make it a really bad film). The film was about 130 minutes long, this could have been cut down to 70-90 minutes easily. This film was supposedly going to be a dialogue orientated movie; however the dialogue did lag at times in Marnie. All in all not a terrible film, but not up to the standard that Hitchcock set for himself in most of his movies.

Rating: 6.5/10

Marnie (1964) Poster