:00:24. > :00:37.Hello and welcome to the film review. What she have for us? A very
:00:38. > :00:45.diverse week. We have Churchill with a powerhouse performance by Bryan
:00:46. > :00:53.Cox. We have Gifted which is not what it seems to be. Whitney: Can I
:00:54. > :00:59.Be Me. Churchill, I do like Bryan Cox. He gives fantastic
:01:00. > :01:04.performances. He plays Winston Churchill in the run-up to D-Day. He
:01:05. > :01:12.is not played as a bulldog that is a wounded beast. Someone who has been
:01:13. > :01:17.sidelined. Seen as a figurehead. He is convinced that the D-Day landings
:01:18. > :01:25.operation is flawed and a dangerous and it will and possibly in tragic
:01:26. > :01:29.loss of life which recalls a previous conflict. He looks back to
:01:30. > :01:34.World War I. We seem at the beginning walking on the beach, the
:01:35. > :01:42.CD starts to turn red and he has visions of previous tragedies. --
:01:43. > :01:51.the sea. He is attempting to convince everybody this is not a
:01:52. > :01:58.good idea. This will be the greatest campaign we have mounted. The
:01:59. > :02:04.operation will require 200,000 vehicles, 7000 sheets, swarms of
:02:05. > :02:12.planes, most essentially a quarter of a million men. All this will be
:02:13. > :02:21.focused in one place, taking the German army head on. That's right.
:02:22. > :02:31.No, gentlemen. This plan may be admirable in its bravery but in its
:02:32. > :02:39.risk it is foolhardy. Up to 150,000 civilians will be killed. It could
:02:40. > :02:45.easily fail. We would lose in one strike most of our war material
:02:46. > :02:53.along with tens of thousands of our men. Who then will defend England?
:02:54. > :02:59.Is it fair to say not a straight biopic because of this is looking at
:03:00. > :03:06.a specific period. I have to say the film is carried shoulder high by
:03:07. > :03:10.Bryan Cox. He brings an awful lot of King Lear to the role. He plays
:03:11. > :03:16.Winston Churchill is this slightly wounded figure, a man out of time,
:03:17. > :03:21.no longer in the position of power they think they ought to be an
:03:22. > :03:26.conflicted and haunted by the ghost of Gallipoli and he is convinced
:03:27. > :03:33.they are walking towards tragedy. There are very few people to to whom
:03:34. > :03:39.he listens, the King and his wife played by Miranda Richardson.
:03:40. > :03:45.Performing alongside Ryan Cox, all eyes are on him, it is a tribute to
:03:46. > :03:50.Miranda to hold the screen as well as she does which is no surprise
:03:51. > :04:04.because she is a fantastic act. A couple of boys, a subplot, and
:04:05. > :04:10.assistant who has an weaves into Arab military Matic contrivance. The
:04:11. > :04:16.story does not need it. I note that take on history has ruffled some
:04:17. > :04:20.people 's feathers but the me it felt like a fairly solid if
:04:21. > :04:27.occasionally somewhat ordinary drama but lifted high by that performance.
:04:28. > :04:35.It is a Shakespearean performance. A moment where he is praying for rain.
:04:36. > :04:42.The storm scene... It absolutely is. He and Miranda Hart the main reasons
:04:43. > :04:47.for seeing this. Gifted. The subject matter struck me is really
:04:48. > :04:57.interesting. This has potential to be interesting. The poster that very
:04:58. > :05:02.cheesy. It looked like it was going to be a particular kind of drama and
:05:03. > :05:07.I went in not expecting very much. A single man raising a precociously
:05:08. > :05:14.intelligent young child. He wanted to go to a normal school. The school
:05:15. > :05:20.saying she is a genius. He says she once her to have this normal life.
:05:21. > :05:27.What I like about this film is it is very sharply written by Tom Flynn.
:05:28. > :05:36.It is funnier than you expect it to be. The performance is are all
:05:37. > :05:43.really well judged. Not least Lindsay Duncan who plays the
:05:44. > :05:50.grandmother who wanted the child to fully explore all her intellectual
:05:51. > :05:55.potential. In another drama, it could have been demonised this
:05:56. > :06:01.character that I was surprised. It was funny, great performances and I
:06:02. > :06:08.came out feeling joyous, uplifted with a real smile on my face. I was
:06:09. > :06:15.surprised by how much it did what it set out to achieve. Your third
:06:16. > :06:28.choice is a documentary, the new Nick Broomfield. Whitney: Can I Be
:06:29. > :06:31.Me. He has made things in the past with a particular documentary style.
:06:32. > :06:39.He put himself in the documentary a lot. Wandering into shot. He has
:06:40. > :06:54.taken a back seat here. You hear his voice a couple of times, he uses
:06:55. > :07:02.footage never before seen. He looks at the home life, her mother who was
:07:03. > :07:07.a particular strong figure. Finding herself in a difficult position
:07:08. > :07:16.where she did not know who she was meant to be and her relationship
:07:17. > :07:23.with Bobby Brown and her mother. Hugh loved her as herself. She could
:07:24. > :07:28.come off the stage and not have to be the person that everybody in the
:07:29. > :07:34.world expected her to be or who they thought she was. He understood the
:07:35. > :07:43.pressures because he was Bobby Brown. He understood the pressures
:07:44. > :07:51.and her pain. What I think Bobby and Whitney gave each other, except
:07:52. > :07:58.turns, love. She absolutely loved him. They loved each other. And
:07:59. > :08:05.there was acceptance. You can see from the clip, the film is more
:08:06. > :08:12.forgiving than some of Nick Broomfield's work. I went into this
:08:13. > :08:16.not a great Whitney Houston fan at a came out with a new-found respect
:08:17. > :08:22.for what she did, the way she sank and how important the music was. You
:08:23. > :08:29.do get that. It is important that a film like this tells you that. The
:08:30. > :08:34.comparison to be made is with Amy. This is not as good as Amy. What Amy
:08:35. > :08:39.did was give it a sense of being intimately involved in that story,
:08:40. > :08:44.sometimes in a way that was deeply uncomfortable. The way he used the
:08:45. > :08:49.lyrics to tell the story like a diary. This feels more like watching
:08:50. > :08:58.something from a distance and that is inevitable. It is also... A
:08:59. > :09:04.fairly familiar story. Someone with a lot of talent, finding it
:09:05. > :09:08.difficult to deal with fame and fortunate and feeling insecure. It
:09:09. > :09:17.investigate the relationship with the people around her. An interview
:09:18. > :09:22.with her bodyguard who said this is not going to end well. He was then
:09:23. > :09:29.rewarded by being told they no longer required his services. It is
:09:30. > :09:33.primarily an extraordinary talent having made some really trillions of
:09:34. > :09:42.records which I really had not thought of like that before and a
:09:43. > :09:50.great waste. As shown with a me as well. As a piece of filmmaking it is
:09:51. > :10:00.not in the shame league. Amy is remarkable and very painful film.
:10:01. > :10:07.Best out? My cousin Rachel, and adaptation from the 1951 fell.
:10:08. > :10:17.Rachel Vice playing this mysterious character. What the film manages to
:10:18. > :10:26.do is keep the ambiguity. It starts off as a did she or did she not? It
:10:27. > :10:32.keeps you guessing. Rachel said she read the script and said to the
:10:33. > :10:40.director, I have decided, do not tell me. The film manages to keep
:10:41. > :10:47.that secret. I love what you have chosen as a DVD. Perhaps too
:10:48. > :10:52.understated but fascinating. That was the criticism levelled against
:10:53. > :10:58.it. A terrific performance by the lead actress. A story about a couple
:10:59. > :11:05.fighting racism and the right to get married. The key thing about the
:11:06. > :11:09.couple is they do not want to be in the public eye. They do not want to
:11:10. > :11:15.be people fighting a really important case. They just want to be
:11:16. > :11:20.left alone. But they are very strong. Characters are you
:11:21. > :11:26.absolutely believe in. I love the understatement of it but I know some
:11:27. > :11:30.people thought it is that which made it look like there was no huge
:11:31. > :11:37.outstanding moment but that isn't the point. I think that adds to its
:11:38. > :11:45.power. That is the joy of it. It is a remarkable piece. Thank you very
:11:46. > :11:58.much. A reminder that you can find all film news and reviews online.
:11:59. > :12:09.That is it for this week. Happy cinema going. Bye-bye.