Film Reviews by AF

Charming and gentle story, of an American lady who buys antiquarian books from a book shop in London's Charingcross Road, in an era before "on line shopping"

beautifully acted insight into a world which has sadly disappeared

As an Irish woman living in England for over 40 years, I seem to remember that "Ryan's Daughter" was slated by public and critics alike when it first came out.

But having recently re-watched both Lawrence of Arabia and Dr Zhivago, and been reminded what a wonderful director and cinematographer David Lean was, I thought I'd give it a go. Well what a waste of time, and apart from lovely shots of a coast line I know well, (we had a cottage there) I could see no reason for Lean having wasted his talents on this drivel.

Did he want to give local employment ? which he certainly did, (I think he too had a property in the area ) and why no Irish leading actors. Fidelma Murphy, would have made a lovely "Rosy" and certainly no shortage of Irish actors to play Irish priests ! Given the challenge, Robert Mitchum didn't do a half bad attempt at the accent, but no, I can now see why I never saw it in the day.

This epic and beautifully acted film, gives an unbiased and easy to understand "potted history" of the run up to Indian Independence and the problems of "Partition". I enjoyed it as much this time as I did when it first was released. Ben Kingsley is outstanding in his role as Gandh.

I would recommend it to anyone interested in modern history.

Charming gentle story of the life of a well known children’s t.v. Show presenter .Brillant preformance by Tom Hanks,who managed to impersonate Fred Rogers to perfection.

My own daughter was among those children who loved Mr Rogers and his “cardie” back in the eighties  

I never did see this film when it first came out, and understood that I had missed one of the "best films ever" and so was delighted to be able to catch up and right this error ! Well, talk about dissapointed, and unless you are a born Robert Redford addict , don't bother, its boring and if you think about it, they were actually, two pretty nasty blokes who get their just deserts in the end, are we really interested ? Also what is the bicycle scene all about ? I think I fell asleep on the sofa, thats how exciting it was.