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| Colin Firth in The Railway Man |
Nuanced twin performances from Colin Firth and Jeremy Irvine as the old and young Eric Lomax - which show care in the way they maintain consistent mannerisms - anchor this real life adaptation of the former Royal Signals officer's memoir. The film not only tells of the brutality Lomax suffered as a PoW working on the Burma railway but spins out beyond that to show how he later tracked down his chief persecutor (Takashi Nagase), with affecting results. Nicole Kidman is slightly odd casting as Lomax's wife, but don't let that put you off.
Late Night, 9.55pm, BBC3, Sunday, August 28
It might drift towards the formulaic but with Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling riffing off against one another, this comedy drama from Nisha Ganatra has plenty to recommend it. Thompson plays late-night talk show host Katherine, a sharp-witted frontwoman in the Letterman mould who is not well liked in the writers' room - largely because she hardly visits. Ratings are falling and there's a new pen on the block - belonging to Molly (Kaling), the first woman to be hired in the role. She happens to be a fan of Katherine, who, naturally, is an old sourpuss, but the stage is set for them to learn to spark along while skewering the patriarchy as they go. The storyline is a bit sprawling but the central performances and a raft of good one-liners keep things moving along.
The Workshop, 11.15pm BBC2, August 23, then on iPlayer
Jennie Kermode writes:Teachers often say that they like challenging students with lots of ideas and strong opinions, but in practice they have limits like everyone else, and what's good for individual students may not be good for the class. Taking on issues around free speech and provocation in a pleasingly nuanced way, Laurent Cantet's drama, which premiered at Cannes in 2017, follows novelist Olivia (an excellent Marina Fois) as she interacts with aggressive right wing student Antoine (Matthieu Lucci) in her creative writing group and, in time, outside of it, as he begins to stalk her and their intellectual exchange gradually gives way to something more personal. it explores the limits of liberal tolerance and the difficulty of talking someone out of ideas which, at least in the short term, are working for him, whilst also exploring the tension between two very different people who are mutually fascinated by how difficult it is for them to understand each other, and it keeps other members of the class in sight even as their speech risks being suffocated, reminding viewers that for members of minority groups, this sort of exchange will always be personal. Although it may now sound like familiar material, it's approached with a rare intelligence and offers a glimmer of hope.
Amazing Grace, 11pm, BBC4, Friday, August 26
She was known as the Queen of Soul and I defy her performance here not to lift yours, whatever you do or don't believe in terms of faith. The story behind this is amazing in itself. Filmed all the way back in 1972, Sydney Pollack (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) turned his hand to concert directing, something he wasn't used to and he was given the job over the more experienced James Signorelli, who was originally in the frame. Presumably due to inexperience, Pollack didn't use clapperboards - which help synchronise the sound with the picture, so he ended up with some 2,000 bits of film and no idea how they married to the music and that wasn't fixed until a technical team tackled it in 2008. Then they couldn't find the contract with Franklin for the release and, when they ultimately did, she challenged it. Finally, after her death, her niece Sabrina Owens approved it and here we are. And what a place to be! The fact there were so many cameras has become a virtue in hindsight as there's a real sense of energy about the whole enterprise, Franklin's powerful performance somehow magnified more by the fact she's so quiet in between times. It's truly intimate because of the church setting and the fact that the crowd act not like music fans but in the way of a gospel congregation, jumping up to join in or euphorically clapping along. You feel both the warmth of her room and the heat of her spirit - cinema at its most joyful.
Shoplifters, 1.40am, Film4, Tuesday, August 23
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or winning tale charts what happens when a family of crooks take in - or, perhaps more accurately, steal - a young girl they find on the street. Kore-eda's regular themes concerning family and connection are all in evidence here as he gradually lets the emotional eddies build from the humourous eccentricity of this clan. He has always been an enjoyably unhurried director and he takes his time to explore the lives of the members of the family before moving the film into unexpected territory that, as always with Kore-eda, packs a hefty emotional punch.
How To Train Your Dragon, 12.55pm, Thursday, August 25
This first instalment of the DreamWorks trilogy about a young viking who forges an unlikely friendship is by far the best. Teenager Hiccup (voiced by Jay Baruchel) finds the forever war his viking settlement's adults are waging with dragons might not be the best way forward after discovering one of the creatures injured in the woods. There's plenty of smart observational comedy about what it means to be a teenager confronted with an adult world of recalcitrance in the script to lift above its more formulaic elements, while the dragon flight scenes deliver the adventurous goods.
Galaxy Quest, 9pm, Friday, August 26
Jennie Kermode writes: Aliens passing for human at a science fiction convention is an old idea, so if you're going to do it, you have to do it well. Dean Parisot turns the tables by having his aliens, in turn, mistake the cast of a Star Trek-like TV series for genuine space adventurers, and that's where the fun begins. Key to the film's success is the fact that he's also understood it needs to be more than just a spoof, so whilst it's built upon a beautifully observed and immediately recognisable framework, it has a strong story of its own and fully rounded characters. There's a plum role for Alan Rickman as the British thesp who hates the fact that he's best known for playing an alien with a twee catchphrase, and Sigourney Weaver has fun playing against type as the actress confined to the role of dizzy blonde communications officer who repeats what the computer says. The result is a lively adventure with lots of heart, leavened with deadpan comedy and the occasional moment of serious strangeness.
With the news that Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson won this year's Powell and Pressburger Award at Edinburgh International Film Festival with A Cat Called Dom, it seems appropriate to include one of Anderson's early films, Betty, as our short to watch this week.
Betty from Will Anderson on Vimeo.
