Tag Archive: Eddie Redmayne


The magic escapism of Fantastic Beasts

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November 21, 2016

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM directed by David Yates (UK, 2016)220px-fantastic_beasts_and_where_to_find_them_poster

The spirit of Mary Poppins is not dead; it’s just been Marvellised. The bottomless bag this time around contains not household fixtures but numerous gremlin-like creatures.

The ‘beasts’ of the title are harmless if handled by a nerd but destructive in unscrupulous hands. Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander plays up the role of an awkward Brit for all its worth to the point that he looks half retarded most of the time. The plot device of hooking him up with a ‘no-maj’ (American for muggle) in the portly shape of Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) provides a welcome foil to his gormlessness.

JK Rowling further demonstrates her instinctive empathy with tormented adolescence through the invention of the ‘obscurus’, a black cloud of malevolence unleashed when children feel anger and discomfort. In addition, a literal witch hunt provides more of the requisite villainy but it is the anarchic antics of the beasts that steal the show. Continue reading →

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF STEPHEN HAWKING

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January 18, 2015

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THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING directed by James Marsh (UK, 2014)

The doctors who told Stephen Hawking that he only had around two years to live must be feeling pretty silly. They obviously weren’t counting on the man’s superhuman willpower or what the love and dedication of a good woman can do.

In some ways Hawking’s story is like one of those Sci-Fi movies where a brain is alive when the rest of the body is dead. In Cold Lazarus, for example, Dennis Potter’s final play for television, a preserved head is tapped for the brain waves it generates.

In the recent movie, Transcendence (a turkey by all accounts) starring Johnny Depp, there is a similar theme of a scientist’s brain surviving the death of his body.

Hawking’s case is different in one crucial respect, however. The fact that he has still been able to father three children is proof that his ‘muscle of life’ is unaffected by the motor neuron disease. Bizarre tabloid reports of him attending sex clubs and enjoying the attention of lap dancers also shows that his sex drive remains high. Continue reading →

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THE PRINCE AND THE SEX GODDESS

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March 25, 2012

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN directed by Simon Curtis (UK, 2011)

This movie is based on Colin Clark’s memoir  ‘The Prince, The Showgirl And Me’  and tells the story of what happens when an Eton educated 23 year old toff seeks gainful employment in the glamorous world of movies.

Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne) is so hooked on all things cinematic that he is prepared to do the most menial tasks to get a foot in the door of the industry. He rises from tea boy and gofer to a role as the third assistant to the director on the 1957 film ‘The Prince And The Showgirl’ . This may not seem the most inspiring of jobs but since it involves working at close quarters with Sir Lawrence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe he’s not complaining.

Olivier is the archetype luvvie and is played to perfection by Kenneth Branagh – it takes one to know one.   ‘Larry’  is eager to prove that he can translate his theatrical achievements  to the big screen.

Marilyn is not a great actress but as one her American team points out “with tits like that you make allowances”.  Olivier is frequently exasperated with her unreliability and ineptitude (“it’s like teaching Urdu to a badger”) but is forced to concede that despite her lack of training or craft, she shines in front of the camera in a way he can only dream of.

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BIRDSONG: LOVE AND SLAUGHTER

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February 26, 2012

BIRDSONG directed by Philip Martin (BBC Television drama, 2012)

Clémence Poésy (Isabelle) and Eddie Redmayne (Stephen)

The last WWI veteran Harry Patch wrote the following in his memoir, The Last Post:
“We were soon back in the trenches …..our living conditions there were lousy, dirty and unsanitary….. there were rats as big as cats, and if you had any leather equipment the damn things would gnaw at it. We had leather equipment – and they’d chew it. If you stood still long enough they’d chew your boot laces”.

How can you hope to capture such horrors of warfare for TV or cinema and still make it watchable?  The answer is that  you can’t. The most you can do is suggest the kind of atrocities the soldiers had to endure and leave the rest to your imagination.

Nevertheless the lack of a single rat in this otherwise impressive three-hour BBC adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ much-loved novel set during WWI is suspicious.  It may be reasonable to eliminate such ugly details but there is no doubt  that what remains is a sanitized version of reality. Continue reading →

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