Reviews

Wow, what an avalanche of emotional tidal waves crossing the small screen in our lounge room. Amidst the absolute cruelty and despicable atrocities inflicted by Nazi Germany, this is the true account of what happened to a famous Jewish pianist from Warsaw who survived by hiding from these tyrannical oppressors in various locations around the Polish capital. And just as his hope of surviving is at its lowest ebb, a high-ranking Nazi officer provides food and shelter in the most unlikely of places. Although what this movie depicts deserves a rating of 1/10, the sheer willpower and goodness of a few to help him ranks it at 9/10. This one ray of light in all of that mad darkness is the very reason I want to write my tribute to the goodness of those who hated seeing what their fellow compatriots inflicted on the Jewish race in 'Yesterday's Secrets, Tomorrow Jerusalem'. A brilliant account of a terrible time in history.

A thrilling tale of a man and a woman trying to stay alive after a plane crash in the middle of a mountain range in the dead of winter. Amidst trying to survive the harshness of this icy cold wilderness is a beautiful understory of the mountain between two people who meet by accident and the slow burning attraction resulting from being thrown together in the most desperate of circumstances. They never meant to fall in love...

This is the first time I have seen a movie without first reading the synopsis. My only knowledge was of a lighthouse off the coastline of Western Australia and a tiny lost baby. Witnessing the whole story was a glorious surprise and I found it to be the most heart-wrenching movie of all. Tears were flowing for the last twenty minutes of this tragic saga - as were the 50-something gentleman's sitting beside me. We commiserated together while the credits rolled, agreeing we were a couple of silly old softies!

For the first hour I sat in breathtaking wonder watching this touching love story unfold - a returned soldier fresh from WWI coming to terms with what he had witnessed in that gut-wrenching conflict, and a young woman living in a small town where eligible suitors were few. He is a lighthouse keeper, seeking solace in this solitary lifestyle until this beautiful young woman works her way into his heart. Their unfolding love story is every romantic's dream - caught up in the joy of first love, completely isolated so they can be as one with both themselves and nature in all of her fragile beauty and raging fury. Their home is a tiny island far off the West Australian coastline, with only the sun's rays, bitterly cold winds, torrential rain, surging tides carrying pounding waves onto the rocky shoreline, and silvery moonbeams to keep them company - along with that solitary shaft of light warning sailors to stay clear of this perilous outcrop. Every three months, a trusty vessel bring supplies and news of the outside world.

The chemistry flowing between them is every writer's dream and I sat in the darkness wishing I had been the one bringing these soulmates to life on the pages of the novel and in the movie.

Until tragedy strikes with a duo of gut-wrenching mid-term miscarriages two years apart, leaving both, but most especially the wife, shattered and distraught. And then, out of all this sadness, what seems to be a miracle occurs - a fragile row boat comes to rest on the island's sandy shore with the cold and lifeless body of a man lying beside a very small baby, crying pitifully and in desperate need of a loving set of parents.

The subsequent hour was the moving unfolding of the following four years of this trio's new hope-filled lives - the coming together of everyone's dream family, while hiding a terrible guilty secret. I won't give away any more in-depth revelations, except to say that your heart will possibly be wrenched out of your chest several times over in the concluding half hour, and for all the characters involved.

Florence Clery is the most adorable little girl playing the role of Lucy as a four-year-old, although the baby and the toddler in this same role earlier on were just as endearing with their happy natures balanced by the consequence of amazing timing for tiny tots.

Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, as Tom and Isabel, share wonderful chemistry and I found my heart plunging head first into their enfolding love story ... along with the tragic consequences that followed. Rachel Weisz is the grieving wife and mother played with all the pathos and yearning necessary, while still keeping the dignified manner of her high-bred status in this small town. Jack Thompson, Bryan Brown and Garry McDonald, all Aussie actors, add some fine touches to their lesser characters.

The ending is the gentle progression of turning full circle and breaks your heart all over again, which is why I, and this temporary neighbour of mine, ended up blowing our noses when the screen went blank. For a few minutes afterwards, we both bemoaned the tragic consequences of a momentary decision once made which then could never be changed without a mass of dire consequences for a host of people.

My only criticisms were in no way to do with the story itself, purely because they were simply a lack of attention to detail: the mispronunciation of the town of Albany – said as though uttering the word 'All-bany" rather than its actual clipped form as in the name "Alan"; the German had a full Australian accent, even though his distinct German accent was mentioned by the townsfolk earlier; and because of the many hours I sat through court cases, the questioning of Isabel had a glaring error when the answer was already included in the question put to her.

My favourite quote from the movie had a beautiful sentiment and something we can all take into everyday life ... "You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day." The second time it is quoted makes your soul sigh for the teller...

With a stirring score that captures both the romance and tragedy of the story, along with the rugged beauty of the windswept setting; mood lighting and cinematography that captures glorious seascapes, including sunsets that take your breath away; and all enhanced by a descriptive script oozing with pathos, this film has everything a movie lover with a romantic heart could want.

I am so glad I saw the movie first as the suspense was fully spellbinding through the most crucial and heartbreaking portions. It also means I will be able to picture all the locations and expressions of those involved, and enjoy all the parts that needed to be left out due to the time constraints associated with a movie when I bury my head in its pages.

And the most fitting conclusion to this whole experience happened when I walked outside: a huge thunderstorm was in progress, as though the heavens were crying with me.

This truly was the perfect story-line: a heaven-sent love story for two lonely souls, the quintessential family unit every person dreams of and the most heartbreaking tragedy you could ever imagine.

Small Spoiler Alert:

Over the last few weeks, I have read conflicting reviews for this movie, though they didn't put me off wanting to go and see it for myself. It appeared that most of the naysayers were people who have already read the book, while those who hadn't delved into Paula Hawkins' novel mostly seemed to enjoy the cinematic experience.

As a published author, I much prefer seeing the movie first and then follow it by reading the book. It seems that by using this means, I can enjoy the film without having a full understanding of the storyline and conclusion, especially if it is of the thriller genre where I undergo the full climatic intrigue. By reading the novel afterwards, I then get the entire experience, including those sections necessarily omitted from a movie due to the restrictions that come with thick tomes condensed into a mere 90 to 120 minutes duration, along with the thought processes of each individual character, which can often be left out of a film version. Being able to picture the characters and locations, even if may they differ to the author's description to an extent, often adds to the enjoyment of each scene.

This week I went along to the cinema and wasn't at all surprised to find I enjoyed this psychological thriller set around a young divorcée with a shocking drinking problem that stems from a broken heart. Rachel is obsessed with her ex-husband, Tom, along with Anna and Evie, his new wife and baby, and a seemingly very much in love young couple – Scott and Megan – who live only two doors away from the home she once shared with Tom. Every day, twice a day, she spies on both couples from the third carriage of the train she catches to her supposed job in New York City – anxiously peering in on their activities and then dealing with the aftermath of witnessing their happiness through the comfort of a long drink bottle filled with Vodka.

One night, following Rachel discovering Megan in a compromising position earlier that very day, the attractive young female neighbour goes missing. Arriving at her home that same night, drunk and with bloodstains, cuts and bruises, and no memory of whether she was involved in the young woman's disappearance, Rachel is terrified as well as fascinated to get to the bottom of what may have occurred. Consequently, she sets off using her own detective skills to find out what exactly happened and where she fits into this awful event. When the police become involved, she manages to wheedle her way into the lives of both couples by using detailed lies and subterfuge, along with a truckload of guts and determination while facing her own set of demons.

The ending is completely unexpected and a ghastly and vivid insight into what truly went on in the minds of several of these characters – and most especially one. Watching the storyline unfold took me back to my court reporting days when I sat transcribing proceedings from a desk on 'the other side of crime' while listening to the gruesome and cruel things supposedly sane people do to each other.

The Girl on the Train is well worth a look if you can handle seeing humanity in all of its horribleness and gruesome brutality when hatred and revenge are let loose. Emily Blunt played the role of the young heartbroken alcoholic brilliantly, while the other characters involved fed her terrors and sadness with excellent portrayals of life in the suburbia she still longs for.

Sadly this movie has made it to one of my all time worst movie experiences and not because of the acting or locations - acting was good when you think of the script they had to deal with and the locations were just spectacular - but the script and believability for the drama happening, as well as the research done into the location, was absolutely appalling and laughable. I've been to Alaska in summer - mainly along the coastline and up into the interior mountains into the Yukon - and even then it was freezing a lot of the time. The movie was supposedly filmed in the middle of December - midwinter - but there was no snow along the coastline and not even full snow inland when the ocean should have been teeming with iceberg chunks from when a glacier carves and pockets of snow along the shoreline. Added to that, there were full days of sunlight when in reality there is very limited sunlight in the dead of winter in that part of the world. The character of Denise surviving a winter snowstorm in a tank top, along with falling through fresh snow into a freezing lake and being in it for several minutes as she fights her way from the bottom back to the surface while coming out pink, still yelling and able to move quite freely was absolutely ridiculous. The script having him just standing metres away while she's thrashing around was another unbelievable occurrence. There were far too many instances where the stupidity of the script and continuity for the situation and locations were lacking. I am aware this is a true story and I'm so glad they survived but the creative team should have gone to a lot more trouble to ensure they did their research on the location and the weather for that time of year so that the story was believable instead of farcical. Apart from all that, how two people could go to one of the most remote and coldest locations on earth so ill prepared and with no idea how to survive the forces of nature of that part of the world shows the idiocy of a gungho pair of young Americans who think they are invincible. Sorry, but having been an Assistant Editor I am amazed that this even made it to TV.

When I first read the synopsis for this film in the movie guide, I was intrigued but sceptical, wondering how something this profound could even be possible: "A year after Johan accidentally killed Anna's daughter, they meet in a Stockholm East train station. She doesn't recognise him and the two begin a passionate relationship built on solace." Yet as the storyline unfolded, I could feel myself empathising with the main characters. Anna and Johan would quite probably never have met in normal circumstances but because of a split second moment in time neither of them should ever have had to experience – an event neither of them had any control over – their destinies were already intensely linked. I could sympathise with Anna's lies – the only way to keep harsh reality from her door and that dream alive after her husband's refusal to speak of what happened – and understand Johan's silence after her first revelation – that overwhelming desire to be there and somehow make it up to her when anyone else in his position would have run the other way. I found myself walking in their shoes over and over again and could fully understand why they felt drawn to one another – and why such a scenario was even possible. The dialogue at both the beginning and the end was a delightful silhouette of Johan's thoughts whilst he was processing that dreadful guilt. Watching it unfold, I found the chemistry between them was almost tangible and being a true romantic and a published writer of contemporary women's novels based along similar tragic story lines, I found my heart crying out for them both during those two separate monumental choices each was faced with towards the end of the film. I thought it was a gentle film showing two people with deep-seated hurts finding solace in a tender friendship that took them down a road to love and eventual healing. I could only ever rate it as a 10 after coming away with an ache in my heart and a deep-seated satisfaction in my soul.

I am from Australia and had never heard of the great flood of 1953 in Zeeland so this was not only a movie I enjoyed for the content but also made me aware for the first time of such a tragic event for so many people. As a mother and grandmother, the storyline was very heartfelt as I think losing a baby, no matter in what circumstances, would be something you would never recover from fully. Even though several reviews are critical of the movie and its title, I can see where the director and writer were coming from. Not only was it about the infamous storm of 1953, the main character also lived through her own personal storm whilst searching for her baby. This storyline took the viewer inside one story out of thousands from that period and personalised it by showing the event itself, a mother's maternal instinct to protect and do everything to find her baby, as well as the culture and moral expectations of the 1950s which were maintained even through such a catastrophe. I enjoyed the movie - as much as you can enjoy watching such a tragedy - and as the version I saw used sub-titles the dialogue and out-of-sync moments didn't affect my viewing of it.