The Wolfman

Laurence (Benucio Del Torro) is called home from exile by a letter from his brothers fiancée Gwen(Emily Blunt) to investigate the disappearance of said brother and reunite with his overbearing father(Sir Anthony Hopkins).

With that casting I had wondered if a more cerbeal investigation of the monster lurking inside us all might be on the cards. Have no fear, the film cares not a bit for such fripperies when it can busy itself throwing limbs and guts across the countryside. It does so with a liberal abandon that will keep you entertained if you enjoy a good lynch mob being torn apart. I do.

This is very much monster film by numbers though. Woods, Check; Crumbling Mansion, check; Lynch mob, check; Gypsy Caravan, Check; Maiden in distress, Check. Tension? Well they forgot that bit and it undermines the effectiveness of the film. There's no real sense of the hunt before limbs start to fly nor any sense that the Wolfman can be stopped. Not even by Hugo Weavings Inspector Aberline whose main role is to raise a credulous eyebrow at the villager until witnessing the transformation for himself.

If you like monster films it's diverting enough though not scary. Enjoyable but not essential.

An Educucation

Jenny, a school girl starts to question all her aspirations and the point of her education after the arrival of an older man in her life.

Carey Mulligan has rightly received many plaudits for her extremely convincing portrayal of a 16 year old growing up. I would have believed her 16 if I hadn't known otherwise. The performance brings to mind the breakout performance of Abbie Cornish in Somersault.

In the fasion of all the best British films though, the cast is largely the mainstay of British acting and each performance is excellent allowing the tone to shift seamlessly as Jenny flits from school to home to her new found social life.

Also notable is the script by Nick Hornby which tells more story in a brief 1h45 than many films achieve with much longer running times. He also has a great talent for giving stories a moral core with weight without being preachy or seeming worthy and critically, while continuing to be entertaining.

Unmistakably British in the best way, this is excellent drama worth a viewing.

Che Parts 1 & 2

Benicio Del Toro plays the titular revolutionary Che Guevara made popular by t-shirts the world over. Part 1 covers his part in the Cuban revolution, part 2 his revolution in Bolivia.

With the Bolivian campaign being markedly less successful than the Cuban, part 2 makes an interesting counterpoint to part 1, pointing at conditions that allowed the Cuban revolution to succeed where so many others fail.

What the films don't really do is cast much light on Che himself. His motivations are barely hinted at, his politics rarely shown. The result is a film that seems more "Guerilla warfare 101" than real biopic. What there is is interesting and well put together but lacked the substance that would really have engaged me.