Changeling (Cert 15, 141 mins, Universal Pictures UK, Drama/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, John Malkovich, Devon Conti, Jason Butler Harner, Denis O’Hare, Gattlin Griffith.

Single mother Christine Collins (Jolie) raises her nine-year-old son Walter (Griffith) in ’20s Los Angeles by working long hours as a supervisor at the telephone exchange.

Unexpectedly called into work one weekend, Christine arrives home to find that Walter has disappeared without trace. After months of fearing the worst, Captain JJ Jones (Donovan) contacts Christine with incredible news: Walter has been found safe and well. Overcome with joy, the mother races to the train station to meet her son, except the boy (Conti) who claims to be Walter is an impostor. When Christine threatens to expose the lie, Captain Jones dispatches her to the mental asylum. Just as all hope seems lost, Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) and his allies launch a campaign to release Christine from her cell and expose corruption in the LAPD. Elegantly adapted from the Los Angeles police files by J Michael Straczynski, Changeling is a cautionary tale about the abuse of power and the extraordinary influence of one individual on a corrupt system. Jolie was deservedly Oscar nominated as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who screams and shouts for justice, fearful that she might not get the answers she wants. We share her sense of outrage, shedding tears as the asylum’s insidious head doctor (O’Hare) threatens to destroy Christine’s resolve with electro-shock therapy. Donovan is equally compelling as a chauvinistic bully determined to restore his department’s tarnished reputation. Eastwood directs at a typically leisurely pace, underscoring Tom Stern’s flawless cinematography with his own mournful orchestral score.

DVD Extras: “Making Of” featurette, “The Common Thread: Angelina Jolie Becomes Christine Collins” featurette.
Rating: ****


Body Of Lies (Cert 15, 123 mins, Warner Home Video, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £26.99)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Golshifteh Farahani, Mark Strong, Alon Aboutboul.

CIA supervisor Ed Hoffman (Crowe) is a key player in his country’s overseas operations to quash terrorist activities. From the comfort of his suburban home where he adopts the mantle of doting father, Ed co-ordinates the day-to-day activities of agent Roger Ferris (DiCaprio), who is on the trail of the elusive Al-Saleem (Aboutboul), the mastermind of numerous bombings across Europe. To achieve his goal, Roger aligns himself with Hani Salaam (Strong), the slippery head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID), but lets his guard down to spark a tentative romance with Jordanian-Iranian nurse Aisha (Farahani).

The relationship leaves Roger dangerously exposed and Al-Saleem seizes the opportunity to strike back against the infidels. Opening with a devastating explosion on British shores, Body Of Lies channels timely fears about the fight against terrorism into a routine spy caper, enlivened sporadically by the directorial brio of Ridley Scott. The British filmmaker grafts some impressively robust, adrenaline-pumping action sequences onto a disappointingly linear plot, including the bombing of a Dutch market place. DiCaprio is lacklustre in a predominately reactive role but Crowe impresses, carrying 50lbs gained specially for the role to portray a portly family man, who effortlessly juggles energetic children with decisions of national importance. The romantic subplot is a crude plot device to facilitate a pivotal torture scene, during which DiCaprio’s right hand is smashed to a pulp in gruesome close-up. Scott’s forte as an action director shines through, including a desert hideout fire fight and a thrilling helicopter chase. Marc Streitenfeld’s orchestral score keeps time with the erratic pacing, delivering bombast to accompany the pyrotechnics.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette; Blu-ray: Director commentary, “Behind The Story” featurette, “Actionable Intelligence: Deconstructing Body Of Lies” featurette, “Interactive Debriefing” featurette, additional footage, deleted scenes with optional director commentary including alternative ending, free digital copy of the film.
Rating: ***


The Secret Life Of Bees (Cert 12, 105 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Drama, also available to buy DVD £19.99)

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys, Paul Bettany, Nate Parker, Tristan Wilds.

When her nursemaid Rosaleen (Hudson) endures a beating at the hands of local bigots in ’60s South Carolina, plucky teenager Lily Owens (Fanning) vows to spirit her friend away to a safer place, leaving behind her hard-drinking father T Ray (Bettany).
The travellers seek refuge with the Boatwright sisters – August (Latifah), May (Okonedo) and June (Keys) – who produce some of the state’s finest honey. The sisters, it transpires, are directly linked to Lily’s dead mother and as the young woman explores her tortured past, she learns to harness the courage to stand up for what she believes in, and even stand up to T Ray. The Secret Life Of Bees is an affecting and well-crafted rites of passage story, adapted from Sue Monk Kidd’s acclaimed novel. Cinematographer Rogier Stoffers beautifully captures beatific scenes of sisterly solidarity and honey gathering in sun-dappled landscapes. These moments of pastoral splendour contrast starkly with occasional explosions of violence, including scenes of racial and child abuse, and the death of one character guaranteed to pluck the heartstrings of most viewers.
Fanning anchors the picture with another emotionally raw portrayal of tainted childhood, crying her heart out on cue as her brittle heroine comes to terms with the grief and guilt that forbid her from chasing her dreams. Latifah impresses as a clucky mother hen and Okonedo and Keys are excellent in wildly different roles. Bettany is poorly served as the film’s one clearly identifiable villain. Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s script is perhaps a little emotionally manipulative and sickly sweet – rather like the bees’ golden nectar.

DVD Extras: Director, producers, actors and editor commentaries, 8 deleted scenes with optional director and editor commentary, “Adaptation: Bringing The Secret Life Of Bees To The Big Screen” featurette, “The Women And Men Of The Secret Life Of Bees” featurette, “Inside The Pink House With Sue Monk Kidd” featurette, “A Day In The Life” featurette, The World Premiere.
Rating: ***


Lakeview Terrace (Cert 15, 106 mins, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Thriller, also available to buy DVD £17.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington, Samuel L Jackson, Jay Hernandez, Regine Nehy, Jaishon Fisher.

Loving couple Chris (Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Washington) excitedly move into a new home and clash with LAPD officer Abe Turner (Jackson), who lives next door with his children Celia (Nehy) and Maurice (Fisher), and strongly disapproves of interracial marriage. Chris’ efforts to broker peace in the cul-de-sac fall on deaf ears and he becomes the butt of Abe’s mean-spirited pranks. “You scared the hell out of me!” shrieks the young husband after one startling, late night encounter. “How else are you going to learn?” retorts the cop menacingly. As cracks appear in the Mattsons’ relationship, Abe resorts to extreme tactics to scare Chris and Lisa out of their new home, with help from his buddies on the force, including partner Javier (Hernandez). Lakeview Terrace is a predictable game of cat and mouse between vulnerable newlyweds and a man in authority, who seems untouchable by dint of his badge.

LaBute strains credibility to crank up the suspense, abandoning common sense for the sake of narrative twists. Harsh words lead to bloodshed and a climactic showdown set against the backdrop of flash fires raging uncontrollably throughout the state – an obvious and somewhat heavy-handed metaphor for the fiery emotions pitting one homeowner against another. Jackson chews the scenery before it goes up in flames as the bigoted bully, while Wilson adopts a permanently furrowed brow.

The overwrought finale restores the LAPD’s image but not before Jackson has one final opportunity to bellow and bluster and roll those eyes wildly.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, behind the scenes featurettes, deleted scenes.
Rating: ***

The Children (Cert 15, 81 mins, Vertigo Films, Horror/Thriller, also available to buy DVD £15.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: , Stephen Campbell-Moore, Hannah Tointon, Rachel Shelley, Jeremy Sheffield, Eva Sayer, Jake Hathaway, Rafiella Brookes, William Howes.

The snow is deep and crisp as Elaine (Birthistle) and her husband Jonah (Campbell-Moore) travel by car with their kids – truculent teenager Casey (Tointon), Miranda (Sayer) and Paulie (Howes) – to spend Christmas with Chloe (Shelley), her beau Robbie (Sheffield) and their tearaways Nicky (Hathaway) and Leah (Brookes). One by one, the brats fall ill and experience disorienting visions of carnage and mayhem. As bloodlust takes hold, the urchins strike out at the adults with terrifying consequences.

The parents, and an increasingly distraught Casey, try to keep the demonic whippersnappers at bay, hastily planning an escape route from their remote, snowbound location. Yet, every way the uninfected turn, a possessed poppet waits to strike. Director Tom Shankland’s gruesome follow-up to WAZ conjures a hellish vision of the festive season, pitting two couples against the cherubic offspring they have raised their entire lives. The Children poses a thorny moral dilemma – in order to save your own life, would you harm the one thing in the world that is most precious to you? – but the film doesn’t deliberate in any real depth, erring on the side of campy as the zombified offspring start wielding sharp implements with ghoulish intent. Older cast members are immobilised in the order you expect with a sticky ending involving a sled for one unfortunate soul. A frenzied scene in a greenhouse culminates in a reflex, life or death decision guaranteed to have those of a nervous disposition covering their eyes.

DVD Extras: “The Making Of The Children” featurette, location featurette, “Paul Hyatt Talks Prosthetics” featurette, snow set design featurette, deleted scenes, Tom Shankland’s On-Set Lair, “Working With Children” featurette.
Rating: **

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