Film REVIEWS
ALSO RELEASED
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (12A) 154min Michael Bay steps out for a third time with those robots in disguise. Will be reviewed at list.co.uk. General release from Wed 29 Jun.
Larry Crowne (12A) 98min Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts team up for a post economic- crash rom-com about a recently redundant company man who forms a crush on a teacher at the adult college he starts to attend. Will be reviewed at list.co.uk. General release from Fri 1 Jul.
Huge (15) 78min ●●●●● Mildly diverting comedy-drama about a feuding comedian double act, directed and co-written by comedian Ben Miller. See First Word, page 2. Selected release from Fri 8 Jul. Last Year in Marienbad (L’Annee Derniere a Marienbad) (U) 93min ●●●●● Alain Resnais’ seminal abstract 1961 love story gets a new lease of life on cleaned-up print. Selected release from Fri 8 Jul.
Super (15) 96min ●●●●● Silly schlock comedy thriller about an everyday guy who transforms himself into a superhero when his wife falls under the influence of drug dealers. Selected release from Fri 8 Jul.
Trust (15) 105min The threat to children by sex offenders on the internet is the big topic for this social drama directed by Friends’ David Schwimmer and starring Clive Owen and Catherine Keener. Will be reviewed at list.co.uk. Selected release from Fri 8 Jul.
Bal (Honey) (PG) 104min ●●●●● Turkish drama set in the Black Sea region, where a six- year-old boy wanders the forests looking for his father, who has disappeared. The third and final part of playwright and filmmaker Semih Kaplanoglu’s Yusuf trilogy. Will be reviewed at list.co.uk. GFT, Glasgow from Fri 15 Jul. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows (tbc) tbc min The end has arrived for Harry and co but will the young wizard be able to destroy Voldemort’s remaining horcruxes? Will be reviewed at list.co.uk. General release from Fri 15 Jul.
64 THE LIST 23 Jun–21 Jul 2011
DRAMA THE CONSPIRATOR (12A) 122min ●●●●●
Have you ever wondered about the true story of Mary Surratt, the woman charged alongside John Wilkes Booth – the man who shot Abraham Lincoln – and his co- conspirators in 1865? Robert Redford’s courtroom drama supposes that you have and that you are more than aware of this sorry tale’s modern analogies.
The Conspirator is based on historical events, but is clearly just as inspired by recent politics; in the aftermath of Lincoln’s death, Redford implies that there was a rush to
judgment that provides obvious parallels with post- Guantanamo Bay America. James McAvoy plays idealistic young lawyer Frederick Aiken, who takes responsibility for defending Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), whose boarding house was used by Lincoln’s assassins.
Surrat is deliberately presented as an anxious but elusive figure, but the military tribunal setting allows for plenty of strong supporting roles, especially a stern Kevin Kline as Draconian war secretary Edwin Stanton. As with Redford’s Lions For Lambs, the results are intermittently preachy and starchy, better suited to stirring a classroom debate than a cinema audience. (Eddie Harrison) ■ General release from Fri 1 Jul.
DRAMA TREACLE JR (15) 85min ●●●●●
Treacle Jr is a little gem of British independent filmmaking told with the lowest of budgets and the best of intentions. Director Jamie Thraves’ third feature returns him to his independent root that means a film where character and performance take priority. The result is a gently beguiling salute to an unlikely friendship and the power of positive thinking.
Thraves has remained close friends with actor Aidan Gillen (The Wire, Queer as Folk) since their collaboration on The Low Down a decade ago. Casting Gillen against type as an
endearing, garrulous eccentric lends the film a good deal of its energy and warmth.
Tom (Tom Fisher) walks out on his wife and baby and
destroys any ties to his previous life. The perils of sleeping rough lead to accident and emergency where he is befriended by the relentlessly cheery Aidan (Gillen), who provides him with a temporary home and introduces him to his bullying girlfriend Linda (Riann Steele). Treacle Jr works because the characters feel real and
rounded, complete with foibles and failings that make them all the more human. Aidan is a sparky mixture of the optimistic and the annoying but by the end of the film he will have won even the hardest heart. (Allan Hunter) ■ General release from Fri 15 Jul.