Film Reviews by MW

I thought that Doris Day was wonderful in this film - good acting, lovely singing voice. Unfortunately in my view she was rather overshadowed by the disgusting behaviour of James Cagney's character! If I'd been there I would have thrown him out of a top-floor window!

I think it was amusing, but but I'm still not sure. I found myself thinking 'Why did these big names sign up to what seems to be a very ordinary film?' No harm in it - OK, I think I enjoyed it!

I think of this film as a surprise because to begin with I didn't expect to enjoy it. I tried to, as it had been recommended to me, though I certainly found myself enjoying Tom Hanks' versatility with an unusual role. After a while I forgot that it was Tom Hanks!

It was only after the film had ended that I surprised myself by realising that I had enjoyed it after all. I would suggest that if viewers have doubts to begin with then persevere - there's something very special about Tom Hanks' portrayal of Mr Rogers just as there must have been something very special about Mr Rogers himself.

I rarely write film reviews, but this time I had to! I ordered 'The Hireling' as I'd just read the book and really enjoyed it. I found that the film was one of the worst adaptations of a book that I've ever seen. It began well enough, but the interesting relationship between the two main characters was sadly ignored, especially towards the end of the film.

I believe that L P Hartley died just before the film was released, or maybe he watched it and then died. It's an insult to a beautiful book with a sensitive story.

I had heard of Emily Dickinson, of course, and had read a few of her poems, but to put myself more in the picture I looked her up and found her described as shy, unassuming and educated. Something seems to have happened in the making of the film as it gave me quite the opposite impression. I watched it right through and gave it my full attention, and had no quarrel with the acting or the interiors, but although it began well I generally found the film boring, the subject obnoxious, her family uninteresting and her poetry miserable. It must be one of the few films that I have really disliked - or maybe it was just this portayal of Emily Dickinson that I disliked!

After the film arrived, but before I watched it, I read some of the reviews and was prepared to be disappointed. Having watched it I was very pleasantly surprised. I don't want to give the game away, but I felt that the storyline, though which as some other reviewers have said possibly had various historical innacuracies, gave us a good impression of the social behaviour of the upper middle classes of the day. Add to that the fact that CR's father was suffering from the effects of having fought in WW1 and I think that it all comes together very well. Thoroughly recommended.

When I first sat down to watch this film I was unsure what was going on and unusually, didn't watch more than half of it. When a friend told me to persevere with it as all would be revealed towards the end I did watch it right through, but I didn't find any real explanation, other than that Florence was rich woman with no talent who believed that she could sing! Nobody appeared to want to disabuse her of this idea!

However, being a true story, one has to accept this and thereafter I enjoyed the performances of the actors. They were all brilliant! It's an unusual part for Hugh Grant and he plays it very well indeed! The pianist, played by Simon Helberg, was amazing and I was stunned to discover that the playing was all his own! David Haig was excellent as Florence's voice coach, but the star in every way is Meryl Streep, admittedly my favourite actress. It was easy to forget that it was indeed her, her singing was so bad!

Overall I would recommend it and even if the story is rather odd, enjoy the acting! And also try to imagine how on earth it's filmed in Liverpool, masquerading as New York!

As a huge fan of Michael Palin and sharing, as I thought, the same sense of humour, I was looking forward to watching 'The Missionary' and surprised that I hadn't seen it before.

In the event I have to say that I really didn't find it funny at all. There were numerous incidents which should have been funny, but somehow did absolutely nothing for me! Maybe it caught me on a bad night!

This must be the worst film I've ever seen! A bunch of grubby, foul-mouthed characters, most of whom seem to have Glasgow accents, wandering around pointlessly and posing. I could see no point in it and found it totally boring. How many times can you use the F-word in one film?