Revered children’s author Roald Dahl and Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal had a tumultuous marriage. And director John Hay puts it under the microscope in To Olivia. Dahl (Hugh Bonneville) and Neal (Keeley Hawes) brought up a family in Buckinghamshire. The highly imaginative Dahl revelled in vocalising off-the-wall stories to his children. That was…
Creator Julian Fellowes seems determined to squeeze every last drop out of the Downton Abbey saga. The popular television series set in the impressive titular stately rural mansion home of the wealthy Crawley clan finished its run in 2015, but Fellowes revived it with a stand-alone film (also titled Downton Abbey) in 2019 that brought…
Andrew Garfield’s representation of a severely disabled polio victim in Breathe reminded me of Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar-winning portrayal of Stephen Hawking in 2014’s The Theory of Everything. Andy Serkis’s directorial debut tells the true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield) and his wife Diana (Claire Foy), starting in 1957. This is a couple that refuses to give…
The worldwide hit Paddington became the most successful non-US studio family film of all time. The sequel (predictably, Paddington 2) continues the story of the young Peruvian bear who came to London in search of a home. Having found that home with the Browns in Windsor Gardens, life is set for Paddington. While searching for the…
The contrast between the haves and have-nots is starkly evident in The Viceroy’s House, a historical drama based on fact. When the English wanted out of India, the country was deeply divided along religious and cultural lines. Indians were literally killing each other and the man tasked with orchestrating a smooth handover was the highly regarded Louis…
