Three films I want to see this autumn

One of the reasons I like September, and autumn in general, is that after a long, hot summer (ok, perhaps not in the UK) it's again time to go to the cinema. During the summer months it doesn't somehow seem right to step into a darkened room and spend two hours watching a large screen. But when the schools go back, and the evenings draw in, there's nothing better than to settle into a plush seat and let moving images take you away from the impending cold and dark winter.

There are three films which I'm really looking forward to this September.

Number One is Hope Springs with my eternal favourite, Meryl Streep. It also stars Tommie Lee and Steve Carrell.

Many years of marriage have left Maeve wanting to spice things up and reconnect with her remote husband. When she discovers a famed relationship guru she persuades her skeptical husband to get on a plane for an intense week of marriage and sex therapy. A bit of a job to say the least! And if getting there wasn't hard enough… having to shed their bedroom hang ups, learn some new moves and rediscover their youthful spark is when the real adventure begins.



Second is Barbara, a German film directed by Christian Petzold, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld and Rainer Bock. Barbara is set during the paranoid times of the GDR. I love this period (even my book, The Englishman is set during the Cold War), so this film is right up my street.

Nina Hoss is Barbara, a young doctor starting a new job at a small hospital in the provinces. It transpires she has been transferred there by the government as punishment for applying for an exit visa from the GDR. Her aim is to escape to the West to join her boyfriend Jörg who has been planning her escape via the Baltic Sea. Barbara, detached and self-contained, keeps her head down and gets on with her work, despite being subjected to random home checks and intrusive body searches. However, as the weeks go by, she becomes both beguiled and confused by the attentions of her new boss, Andre. Can she trust him, or has he been assigned to keep tabs on her?




Number Three is Arbitrage, a thriller starring Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon and directed by Nicholas Jarecki. You just can't go wrong?

A troubled hedge funder desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire makes an error that forces him to turn to an unlikely person for help.



What films are you looking forward to seeing this autumn?

Headhunters DVD

I enjoyed the book Headhunters by Jo Nesbo much more than this Norwegian author's other titles, which include the debauched (and a little tiresome) detective, Harry Hole. Headhunters is a more grounded story set in 'normal' Oslo business world rather than in the murky Norwegian criminal underworld. (Bearing in mind we are talking Nordic crime fiction which itself seldom has much to do with reality).

So as a fan of the book, and having missed the film at cinema, I was looking forward to the release of the Headhunters DVD. I was also pleasantly surprised when I discovered it was a Norwegian production, rather than a Hollywood one, and one which stays fairly true to the book in its plot and characters.

The vertically challenged Roger Brown is a high-flying Oslo headhunter, with a beautiful (and expensive) wife and a dangerous art habit. Just as he's beginning to run out of money he runs into a charming, tall businessman who he thinks will solve all his overspending problems.

The film, just as the book is fast, furious, funny and completely unbelievable. But as Sunday night viewing, or as a hangover flick when you really don't want to tax your brain too much, it's perfect.



Axel Hennie as Roger Brown is excellent, his portrayal of the ambitious, desperate, mad, and at times hapless lead, is spot on. Both Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Synnove Macody Lund are equally good as the two 'lucky and beautiful' people. I also particularly like the two country policemen, who being used to policing drunken locals are more than out of their depth with the prevailing headhunt.

Have you seen this Nordic crime flick and if so did you enjoy it?

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

I was very sceptical about watching a Hollywood version of the first book in the wonderful Millennium trilogy by Stieg Larsson.  Although I felt the Swedish films left a lot to be desired, mainly because the plot of the books was completely mixed up between the three films, they had some authenticity as films made in the country where the crime novels originated from. Watching the whole action in English would surely take a huge amount away from the Swedish atmosphere?

I also absolutely loved Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander in the three films by Oplev. She seemed to capture Lisbeth's complicated character - and she spoke Swedish. (As aside, I've yet to forgive the actress for leaving her lovely husband, Ola, just because she's become the more successful actress - or at least this is what the gossip magazines in Sweden cite as the reason for the couple's marriage breakdown and I believe them...).

But as the opening credits rolled on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, I got a feeling that this version by David Finch could be quite good.



And I was right. The relatively unknown actress who portrayed Salander, Rooney Mara, was absolutely brilliant. She completely nailed Lisbeth as the distrustful, vulnerable, yet talented and confident modern sleuth with some serious issues with the 'perfect' Swedish society she inhabits. Lisbeth's apparent lack of social graces became both tragic and funny in Mara's skilled acting hands. There is a moment when watching Blomqvist work his laptop, she shuts her eyes in frustration at his slow speed at the keys. It was both funny and sad.

Just as when reading Larsson's first book, during this first film we all completely fell in love with Lisbeth. We felt sorry for her, we admired her, we worried for her.

The rest of the cast - apart from a couple of dodgy, faintly German-sounding, accents - weren't bad either. Daniel Craig is on top of his game; he totally sold his version of Blomkvist to me. My only beef with the accents was a minor one. Although I wondered why the director felt the need to have any accents at all - neither Craig as Blomkvist or Mara as Salander have Swedish accents. Perhaps the Swedish cast, led by Stellan Skarsgård as Martin Vanger, couldn't do the mid-Atlantic English? I highly doubt it.

In any case, the story's authenticity did not suffer from this lapse in accent discipline, especially as the film was obviously shot in Sweden. In the final scene we even get to Blomkvist's Stockholm stomping ground in Söder, something I was gladdened by.

I now cannot wait for film two in the trilogy. Larsson's second book, The Girl Who Played With Fire is my favourite, mainly I think because it's set in Stockholm, near Blomkvist flat on Bellmansgatan. There is nothing like reading a book, or watching a great adaptation of a favourite book which is set in a city where you grew up. And I hope the disappointing viewing figures in the USA aren't going to stop the sequels. Now that really would be a tragedy.

So if you, like a few other million readers, loved Stieg Larsson's books, do go and see this film. It won't take away from the magic of the novels, on the contrary, it'll add another dimension to the story.

A bit of girly star-gazing

I know people are very 'sniffy' about chick flicks - I even know a book shop where they'd rather not stock the genre in book form at all, but I tell you what, a little bit of silly romantic comedy can really cure the January blues.

Having an evening to kill, Daughter and I took advantage of the man-free time and went to see Love and Other Drugs last night.

As is often the case, the trailer doesn't do justice to this film. It's much better than it appears, funnier and less cheesy. Of course it's not an intelligent commentary on society's ills, but at the same time, it's not totally empty-headed romantic nonsense either.

Briefly the film is about a successful pharmaceutical salesman who falls for a girl with an incurable illness. Sounds rather bad, doesn't it? And I'll let you guess whether there is a happy ending or not...

But, but. Both Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal give strong performances, as the 'will they, won't they' couple. The supporting cast are good too, I especially liked Oliver Platt as Jake Gyllenhaal's 'mentor', as the older, cynical salesman.

Oliver Platt

The film is based on Jamie Reidy's memoir 'Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman', a book I haven't read. This may be the reason why I liked it so much, since usually if I love the book I hate the film. I might seek the book out, especially if it is a true memoir.

Both Daughter and I came away from the cinema with not so small crushes on Jake Gyllenhaal, though Daughter pointed out, 'He's far too young for you, anyway.' I didn't want to mention the word cougar...