An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Joel Hopkins.
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, James Brolin, Richard Schiff, Liane Balaban
Description: Middle-aged jingle writer Harvey flies to London with redundancy looming, in order to reconnect with his estranged daughter Susan in time for her wedding, where her stepfather Brian will proudly walk her down the aisle. At the airport, Harvey briefly meets survey taker Kate and rudely dodges her questioning. When he sees her sitting alone in the airport bar later that same day, Harvey apologises and strikes up a conversation, which unexpectedly sparks a romance between the two lonely souls.
Country: US. 2008. 93mins
Credibility gap: Harvey (Dustin Hoffman) and Kate (Emma Thompson)
"Joel is one of those people who see the world in a very warm, rosy way,” says the producer of Joel Hopkins’s romcom.
He certainly does in this film, which has Dustin Hoffman phoning in a performance as New York jingle-writer Harvey Shine, in London for his daughter’s wedding, and meeting up with Kate (Emma Thompson).
She is a fortysomething spinster with a smothering mother — and he begins to fancy her rotten.
The romance reveals how the two duds transform each other’s lives — and it would be more fun if you could possibly believe any of it.
Harvey is devastated because his daughter (Liane Balaban) has chosen to have her stepfather (James Brolin) rather than himself lead her up the aisle.
Flattered to be noticed after a series of awful blind dates, Kate nonetheless feels her comfortable no-risk life as a spinster is a safer bet than linking up romantically with Harvey.
The problem lies in a sloppy screenplay and direction that’s too slick to be credible. Added to that, while Thompson often makes acting look natural, Hoffman these days makes natural look like acting. Then there’s the languorous score ...
The warm and rosy whole is thus defeated on most counts — though Thompson occasionally transcends it all, possibly by changing the screenplay into her own words and sounding as if she’s real flesh and blood.
This is more than Hoffman can manage, even when making a sentimental speech at his errant daughter’s wedding reception.
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