Churchill, Gifted, Whitney: Can I Be Me The Film Review

Hello and welcome to the film review. What she have for us? A very

diverse week. We have Churchill with a powerhouse performance by Bryan

Cox. We have Gifted which is not what it seems to be. Whitney: Can I

Be Me. Churchill, I do like Bryan Cox. He gives fantastic

performances. He plays Winston Churchill in the run-up to D-Day. He

is not played as a bulldog that is a wounded beast. Someone who has been

sidelined. Seen as a figurehead. He is convinced that the D-Day landings

operation is flawed and a dangerous and it will and possibly in tragic

loss of life which recalls a previous conflict. He looks back to

World War I. We seem at the beginning walking on the beach, the

CD starts to turn red and he has visions of previous tragedies. --

the sea. He is attempting to convince everybody this is not a

good idea. This will be the greatest campaign we have mounted. The

operation will require 200,000 vehicles, 7000 sheets, swarms of

planes, most essentially a quarter of a million men. All this will be

focused in one place, taking the German army head on. That's right.

No, gentlemen. This plan may be admirable in its bravery but in its

risk it is foolhardy. Up to 150,000 civilians will be killed. It could

easily fail. We would lose in one strike most of our war material

along with tens of thousands of our men. Who then will defend England?

Is it fair to say not a straight biopic because of this is looking at

a specific period. I have to say the film is carried shoulder high by

Bryan Cox. He brings an awful lot of King Lear to the role. He plays

Winston Churchill is this slightly wounded figure, a man out of time,

no longer in the position of power they think they ought to be an

conflicted and haunted by the ghost of Gallipoli and he is convinced

they are walking towards tragedy. There are very few people to to whom

he listens, the King and his wife played by Miranda Richardson.

Performing alongside Ryan Cox, all eyes are on him, it is a tribute to

Miranda to hold the screen as well as she does which is no surprise

because she is a fantastic act. A couple of boys, a subplot, and

assistant who has an weaves into Arab military Matic contrivance. The

story does not need it. I note that take on history has ruffled some

people 's feathers but the me it felt like a fairly solid if

occasionally somewhat ordinary drama but lifted high by that performance.

It is a Shakespearean performance. A moment where he is praying for rain.

The storm scene... It absolutely is. He and Miranda Hart the main reasons

for seeing this. Gifted. The subject matter struck me is really

interesting. This has potential to be interesting. The poster that very

cheesy. It looked like it was going to be a particular kind of drama and

I went in not expecting very much. A single man raising a precociously

intelligent young child. He wanted to go to a normal school. The school

saying she is a genius. He says she once her to have this normal life.

What I like about this film is it is very sharply written by Tom Flynn.

It is funnier than you expect it to be. The performance is are all

really well judged. Not least Lindsay Duncan who plays the

grandmother who wanted the child to fully explore all her intellectual

potential. In another drama, it could have been demonised this

character that I was surprised. It was funny, great performances and I

came out feeling joyous, uplifted with a real smile on my face. I was

surprised by how much it did what it set out to achieve. Your third

choice is a documentary, the new Nick Broomfield. Whitney: Can I Be

Me. He has made things in the past with a particular documentary style.

He put himself in the documentary a lot. Wandering into shot. He has

taken a back seat here. You hear his voice a couple of times, he uses

footage never before seen. He looks at the home life, her mother who was

a particular strong figure. Finding herself in a difficult position

where she did not know who she was meant to be and her relationship

with Bobby Brown and her mother. Hugh loved her as herself. She could

come off the stage and not have to be the person that everybody in the

world expected her to be or who they thought she was. He understood the

pressures because he was Bobby Brown. He understood the pressures

and her pain. What I think Bobby and Whitney gave each other, except

turns, love. She absolutely loved him. They loved each other. And

there was acceptance. You can see from the clip, the film is more

forgiving than some of Nick Broomfield's work. I went into this

not a great Whitney Houston fan at a came out with a new-found respect

for what she did, the way she sank and how important the music was. You

do get that. It is important that a film like this tells you that. The

comparison to be made is with Amy. This is not as good as Amy. What Amy

did was give it a sense of being intimately involved in that story,

sometimes in a way that was deeply uncomfortable. The way he used the

lyrics to tell the story like a diary. This feels more like watching

something from a distance and that is inevitable. It is also... A

fairly familiar story. Someone with a lot of talent, finding it

difficult to deal with fame and fortunate and feeling insecure. It

investigate the relationship with the people around her. An interview

with her bodyguard who said this is not going to end well. He was then

rewarded by being told they no longer required his services. It is

primarily an extraordinary talent having made some really trillions of

records which I really had not thought of like that before and a

great waste. As shown with a me as well. As a piece of filmmaking it is

not in the shame league. Amy is remarkable and very painful film.

Best out? My cousin Rachel, and adaptation from the 1951 fell.

Rachel Vice playing this mysterious character. What the film manages to

do is keep the ambiguity. It starts off as a did she or did she not? It

keeps you guessing. Rachel said she read the script and said to the

director, I have decided, do not tell me. The film manages to keep

that secret. I love what you have chosen as a DVD. Perhaps too

understated but fascinating. That was the criticism levelled against

it. A terrific performance by the lead actress. A story about a couple

fighting racism and the right to get married. The key thing about the

couple is they do not want to be in the public eye. They do not want to

be people fighting a really important case. They just want to be

left alone. But they are very strong. Characters are you

absolutely believe in. I love the understatement of it but I know some

people thought it is that which made it look like there was no huge

outstanding moment but that isn't the point. I think that adds to its

power. That is the joy of it. It is a remarkable piece. Thank you very

much. A reminder that you can find all film news and reviews online.

That is it for this week. Happy cinema going. Bye-bye.