Father Geek here with a Christmas present from our guys across the Atlantic at Euro-AICN... Coolness abounds sooooo dig in... and Enjoy the holidays... see you on the other side...

Hi folks. Merry Christmas to all of you. Robert here...This week, the column is 99% provided by our great James Bartlett and his reviews, but we have also a few interesting items by Julez.

Enjoy!

Hi,

Some fantastic Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King goodies up on icLiverpool's site including great pics from the UK premiere and World premiere of Return of the King, a cool interview with Elijah Wood and a great review.

Check it out right here

Great interview with Liverpool-born actor and baddie extraordinaire Jason Isaacs up in icLiverpool's site talking about life, career, Hollywood and Peter Pan.

Its all just a click away

Also nice interview with Anthony Minghella talking about Nicole Kidman and Cold Mountain.

Find out what he thinks here

Regards, Julez

Reviews by James Bartlett

The Virgin Of Liverpool

Director: Lee Donaldson; Starring: Ricky Tomlinson, Imelda Staunton, Johnny Vegas, Katie Ellen Jones; 91 mins

Screened as part of the Foyle Film Festival in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland, The Virgin Of Liverpool centres around the chaotic Conlon family, with dad Frank (Ricky Tomlinson) and Sylvia (Imelda Staunton) at the head.

When the local church undergoes repairs, the Virgin Mary statue is thrown on the dump - much to the consternation of their daughter Joanne (Katie Ellen Jones) who promptly brings the statue home. Which is when things start to go a bit wrong: Frank finally gets the kick from his job, Sylvia starts a new job and her boss - an old flame - starts sniffing around - and it goes on from there. The statue, despite being handed round and taken out of the house, always ends back up in the front room.

There was lots of potential here for comedy; Tomlinson is always good value and the concept promised much, but sadly it soon sunk into a messy middle ground, weighed down by its too many undeveloped sub-plots, none of which were given enough time to breathe and never convinced; Joanne falling in love, Sylvia's supposed two-timing that never even comes close to happening - all a clear case of trying to do too much.

It never really involves on enough levels beyond giving us a few laughs and some cracking sequences and I'm not sure if this will see the light of day on the silver screen.

Northfork

Director: Michael Polish; Starring: Nick Nolte, James Woods, Darryl Hannah, Duel Farnes, Mark Polish; 103 mins, Certificate: PG, Released: 23rd January 2004

Screened during the Foyle Film Festival in Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland, this film is set in 1955 and is about a town in remote Montana that is about to die - all the inhabitants have been moved out in advance of a new dam and the flooding of their homes. As Father Harlan (Nick Nolte) would say: the end is nigh.

But the good Father does not get the chance to leave, as a couple on their way to a new beginning return the child they adopted; Irwin (Duel Farnes) is just too ill and sickly to be part of their future. In another place, a group of angelic-like men in black are given their assignments - to remove the last stubborn inhabitants of Northfork.

Among these agents are father and son Walter and Willis O'Brien (James Woods and Mark Polish), who are also torn about leaving as Northfork is their home town and their wife/mother is the last body left in the cemetery - all the others have been dug up and transferred - and they disagree about whether she should be moved.

As Irwin falls in and out of a fever, we see some of the last inhabitants; a man who has built his house into an ark and even has two wives, a gun-toting man staying on his porch and a strange bunch of what seem to be marionette angels. This odd bunch - including Flower Hercules (Darryl Hannah) - seem to be mythical spirits of the plains; spirits that are going to be washed away without finding their missing friend.

Irwin meets Flower and a discovery is made; the scars on his back and the marks on his head suggest that Irwin was an angel himself; perhaps now he can finally be given to a loving family - but are they truly convinced?

Written by brothers Mark and Michael Polish and made for under $2million dollars, Northfork is without doubt an original and different piece of work - it looks amazing, is written so well that it never feels forced or contrived and is ultimately a deep and thoughtful story.

That said, it's overlong, ponderous and very complex and concentrated; you can see why the actors wanted to be involved (Woods helped produce), but you do walk a thin line between pretentious confusion and some real imaginative and interesting work.

It divided the critics and I have to say that it's in no way a crowd-pleaser - it's more Lynch than Lynch - but as an original project in a year of bluff, remakes and sequels, something as original as this should be applauded and persevered with if you can stand it.

My Life Without Me

Director: Isabel Coixet; Starring: Sarah Polley, Scott Speedman, Mark Ruffalo, Deborah Harry; 106 mins, Certificate: 15

Ann (Sarah Polley) and her husband Don (Scott Speedman) are childhood sweethearts who are married with two daughters and living in a mobile home in the garden of Ann's mother (Deborah Harry).

Life could be better for them, but the kids are healthy, they're still madly in love and when Don gets a new job that should last over a year, things seem on the up. But when Ann visits hospital to have her stomach pains examined, she gets some news that she cannot believe: she has terminal cancer and only a few months to live.

She vows to tell no-one of her plight - figuring the biggest present she can give her friends and family is not to see her fade away in a hospital bed - and makes a list of things she wants to do before she dies; sleep with another man, record Birthday messages for her daughters for the next few years and find Don a new wife.

A simple concept, My Life Without Me is a moving and engaging experience; steering a successful course between believability and mawkishness without slipping up is a tough one and it's down to two things: primarily the beautiful writing and intimate direction of Coixet. It's no wonder that Pedro Almodovar, another master of writing female-based emotional stories to great effect, was on board as a producer.

Secondly, the performances are exceptional - in particular, Sarah Polley as Ann. Her performance - both as a loving mother and when she is thinking about her imminent death - really grabs hold of you. As all her friends and family use her as their sounding board and confidante, the fact that only the audience knows her fate makes the story far more compelling - as does the careful use of voiceover.

You could say it finishes rather abruptly and too perfectly, but aside from that, it has rightfully been winning rave reviews. This is one worth catching - but you may need some tissues when you go!

James Bartlett

That's all for today See you next week

Robert Bernocchi

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