Winter's Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)

The white-trash backwaters of the States get another pasting in a story of a 17-year-old girl (an able Jennifer Lawrence) left to look after her siblings and inert mother after her drug-addicted father disappears prior to his court hearing, leaving the family facing the imminent loss of their house. She sets off determinedly in search of him and encounters outright hostility from most of the community, even her own relatives. It's a desolate and cold environment, in terms both physical and human, and when any glimmer of warmth does manifest itself you'll seize it with helpless relief. The lack of sentimentality throughout is an asset, but probably not appreciated by the Missouri tourist board.

6/10

The Bourne Legacy (Tony Gilroy, 2012)

Not so much a sequel to the first three Bourne films, more an attempt to make another of the same with a fresh actor (presumably one who doesn't command Matt Damon's fees), this is set in the same timeframe as The Bourne Ultimatum, the developments of which are constantly being referred to, always teasingly just off camera. In the meanwhile, Jeremy Renner kicks his way through hordes of Agency goons with increasing frenzy in search of the meds they hooked him on, to keep himself in working superhuman order and thereby alive. Rachel Weisz is forced to tag along, finding herself hunted down by the CIA for the same reasons.
So, there's always a programme in this spy universe that shadowy officials want to shut down and that invariably means killing all the witnesses. If you're prepared to take that as a sufficient pretext for what ensues, suitably pumping manic action is on offer, although it's way short of the interest quotient of the first Bourne film, and not just for its familiarity: it's just that you do need a stronger narrative hook to hang all that chasing on.

5/10

Darbareye Elly (Asghar Farhadi, 2009)

Farhadi's precursor to his 2011 Foreign Language Oscar winner A Separation, About Elly follows a group of friends on a weekend away at the seaside. The organiser of the trip is set on match-making between her daughter's teacher, who is not known to the rest of the group, and a male friend who has returned from Germany. At first, the weekend seemingly proceeds in good spirits, but then a calamitous event forces secrets to the surface.

About Elly demonstrates a technique that Farhadi refined in A Separation, namely that of the slow reveal, with deliberate jarring leaps in the action. It forces us to speculate on what has transpired at no faster a rate than the characters and thereby involves us more cohesively in the events. This is a real asset, so it's a pity that on this occasion some of the script could have done with tightening up: the entourage start digging themselves deeper and deeper into a hole by trying to cover up the unpalatable truth with ever more short-sighted lies, with a lack of sense which is unbecomingly Fawltyesque for a serious drama. 

Still, you can see what Farhadi is trying to say about the conflicts within Iranian society, and at times you really do get under the skin of a culture hard to pin down, which is a deft feat.

6/10

As Good As It Gets (James L. Brooks, 1997)

Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt bagged the Best Actor & Actress Oscars for this romcom, in which Jack gets to essay an OCD variant of his lovable misanthrope staple. He comes into the same restaurant to sit in the same seat every day, to be waited on by her only, and you know that her irritation with his foibles will be worn down by the end. This is either gratingly formulaic or like a cosy pair of slippers, depending on your personal tastes, and the addition of Greg Kinnear's gay artist neighbour as a third wheel doesn't change the quirky-but-sweet pattern. Still, there are some cute moments to be had along the way, and Nicholson is always good value, even if he is just very much in his comfort zone.

6/10

Total Recall (Len Wiseman, 2012)

Is Wiseman actually inviting a kicking with this unnecessary remake? It doesn't take a great wit to walk out of this and quip that the hack director seems to be hoping that the viewer has as little recollection of the past as the film's protagonist. The 1990 Schwarzenegger original may not have been high art, but it was fun. The additions here are just a coating of modish dystopian grimness and an even higher tempo and bodycount. It's a joyless exercise spawned by the cynical calculation that enough fans of the older film will pay just to revisit a fondly remembered universe, hoping against hope for the best, rather like the case was with Lucas's milking of the Star Wars cash cow.
The casting is weaker, too: Colin Farrell just looks bewildered, and Wiseman has done his missus Kate Beckinsale no favours by again shoehorning her in, as Farrell's murderous wife, as this means that the wooden dear has to be compared to Sharon Stone, who stuck in the memory more despite having only a tenth of her screentime. Meanwhile, Bill Nighy has the good sense to get himself shot and out to cash his cheque after about two lines.

3/10

The Da Vinci Code (Ron Howard, 2006)

On one hand, converting Dan Brown's pseudorevelatory wodge of pulp to the more time-efficient format of film is welcome, on the other two and a half hours is still an awfully long time to spend in the company of poorly conceived piffle. My concern is not what jerks the chains of religious fanatics: the idea of the Holy Grail as a female presence deleted from the records by the patriarchal and Christ-guarding Church is actually a rather interesting one and it is of little relevance whether recorded history is tinkered with by the writer to serve the purpose of that plot conceit. What is not forgivable, though, is the sheer stupidity of large swathes of the story, with its needlessly contrived puzzle-solving. Time and time again, 'thrills' are only created because the protagonists will stop to deliver installments of exposition on the uncovering of the mystery so far so that their pursuers can once more catch up to place them in jeopardy. At the same time, an estimable cast take turns in trying to animate their characters and fail without exception. And never mind all the outrage it provoked amongst zealots, which is not hard to do: it ends up sitting on the fence and thereby satisfies no-one.

3/10

Shame (Steve McQueen, 2011)

Michael Fassbender joins forces with director McQueen again, following on from their collaboration on the searing Hunger, which followed the last days of the IRA protester Bobby Sands. Fassbender is an actor with a rare self-controlled quality, with a sense of always barely keeping an internal tension in check, which works a dream in this role. He is an outwardly successful New York exec fixated on sex in any form, nominally functional until his unstable sister, played by the also impressive Carey Mulligan, inflicts herself on his fragile balance.
At first it seems there will be no more than meets the eye here, as Fassbender shags to a joyless stupor in scene after scene, reminiscent of Patrice Chéreau's dead-hearted Intimacy (2001) with its tone of emotionally stilted graphic coupling. Then Lodge Kerrigan's Keane (2004), with Damian Lewis as a troubled man struggling with loss in a parallel New York setting, proves to be an empathically closer comparison. But Shame grows from a synthesis of these, with a quiet power, into an involving study of damage and need, with one sibling imploding as the other explodes. It's uncomfortable to watch and fiercely truthful.

8/10