2007

The year that Ben Affleck’s Oscar nominated Gone Baby Gone (2007) was postponed (following the tragic disappearance of British born Madeleine Mccann) there were a number of other films who premises audiences found a little hard to sit through including United 93 (2006) and Al Gore’s extraordinary environmental documentary An Inconvenient Truth (2006). Though these were hard times for some there were also a few more uplifting films released.

Such were the loveable children’s picture: Happy Feet (2006), along with Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest (2006) film and The Break-Up (2006) which were all popular comedy rentals that year, but the one comedy film that truly stood out for this reviewer was British cop-comedy Hot Fuzz (2007).

The second film from collaborative trio Edgar Wright, Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, Hot Fuzz is the second in the now completed Cornetto trilogy and sees Pegg starring as a successful Metropolitan police officer who is relocated to a sleepy village in the country. Once again accompanied by a myriad of well-known British faces including Bill Bailey, Bill Nighy and Martin Freeman this film effectively reuses the formula already set up by Shaun of the Dead (2004).

Sticking with what they know Hot Fuzz once again relies on spoofing genre stereotypes and even mimicking and mirroring incidents from Shaun, the sight of Pegg easily scaling a garden fence tickles audiences who remember how pitifully his previous character struggled with such a feat as he was pursued by zombies. This time however it is Pegg who is in pursuit and his role in this modern mockery of 1973’s the Wickerman is evocative of many an ill-fated cop/conspiracy film.

Having grown up listening to the gorgeous and gravely tones of Johnny Cash the next film to be included on this list I initially greeted with some concern; like many other Cash fans I was not at all sure about the idea of having River Phoenix’s little brother star as the man in black, let alone Reese Witherspoon as the vibrant June Carter; it would only take a few scenes however before all my fears were assuaged.

Walk the Line (2005) has since become one of my favourite films, rarely a fan of musicals and always a sceptic at bio-pics the performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon – whom I had hitherto thought of only as the one from Legally Blonde (2001) – brought to life the people whom I had only ever known as scratchy voices on my parent’s records. The chemistry between the on-screen couple burned like a hot but steady flame, casting a light throughout the entire film and drawing both characters and audience ever onwards.

A few excellently executed scenes, most notably Cash’s infamous performance at Folsom prison, stand out in particular for me – Phoenix’s dark looks and wonderful vocals reaching out from within the screen, giving me the same shivers that I experience when listening to the man himself. Though in all honesty I admit that Phoenix’s attempt at imitation lacks the same depth and sorrow that one hears when Cash sings there are nonetheless echoes of despair – whether Cash’s or his own – that roll out of Phoenix, like thunder, when he sings.

As a film reviewer I am forced to watch a great many features and as such I feel that my taste and opinions have become more refined over the years, some may even call it snobbery but there is not a film on my shelf that I am ashamed to own, though there are many that are simply too vast, too emotionally explosive, too off kilter to watch time and time again; however within my surprisingly meagre collection of the world’s cinema I often find myself drawn back to Walk the Line. Time and time again it stands up to repeat viewings, never fading or wavering in my esteem; the characters are still real, loveable, believable and the music still brings to my heart that special ache of childhood.