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I was a bit sceptical about this movie before I watched it; it's all too easy for these films to tip over into cloying mediocrity and leave you clutching at your windpipe desperately trying to yank it free from its corporeal prison and thereby loosing a tremendous life-ending spray on any hapless bystanders, assuming that is they haven't beaten you to the punch. So I was pleasantly surprised to retain some measure of a will to live at the end of Half-Nelson.

In a nutshell the film is about a free-basing, crack-addicted history teacher who is nevertheless able to inspire his pupils with his unique perspective on the subject and quirky didactic style. Which is, frankly, a pretty good starting point for a film like this. And crucially, for me at least, the director (Ryan Fleck) avoids cliché and moralising by leaving it to the viewer's imagination to decide what happens Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling).

As is well understood from anyone having read anything about this film the central story revolves around the relationship between Dan and one of his pupils, Drey (Shareeka Epps), their respective problems and most interestingly how they each handle Drey's discovery of Mr Dunne, how shall I put it, whacked out of his mind on crack in the changing rooms after a basketball game. We're not talking about having had a a bit of a smoke and feeling a bit squiffy, he was in the throes of a fairly serious hit, on the floor trying to keep it together but not really succeeding.

As you might imagine that scene, being pivotal to the film, was very well executed and Ryan Gosling was careful to preserve the teacher/pupil relationship throughout, a feat not easy to carry out whilst maintaining any degree of believability. In fact I'd say that for most of the film this fine line was successfully trodden.

What makes this film interesting for me was the fact that what develops in the story is the relationship between the two main characters, not the characters themselves. This might seem obvious but in most films the story arc of the main protagonist is clear cut and by and large it involves some highs and some lows before tying any loose ends up in a neat little bundle. But we leave this film not knowing how either of the main characters will fair; Dan's drug addiction is still a big problem and as I suspect Drey's nascent career in crime will become.

I like film to reflect life; it's not simple, everyone isn't nice and things rarely end up well. This film is filled with moral ambiguity, what do we think about a teacher being high on coke whilst teaching our kids? What do we think about a teacher forming a strong bond with one of his pupils? (another good thing about this film is that the relationship never comes across as inappropriate). And Dan does some things that few of us would be proud of. But as he says to Drey, "Just because you know this one thing ... one thing doesn't make a man". And that sums it up, we're all good and bad and when we find good friends we should keep them.

How wonderful to come out of a film feeling happy!  After last week’s viewing of ‘No Country for Old Men’ this is indeed a different feeling.  I can go to bed with a feeling of contentment, a pleasant evening spent laughing; an element of hope.  I won’t have to wake up tomorrow feeling like I’ve come out of a strangely disturbing dream; I won’t have images of spurting carotid arteries popping into my mind throughout the day; nor will I be wondering whether or not the next stranger I have to interact with is a psychopathic killer (incidentally I can’t believe this actor, Javier Bardem, is going to play the main romantic hero in ‘Love in the Times of Cholera’, one of my favourite novels, how am I going to make the switch? Such an inconsiderate choice.)  I must have spent three days chewing over the plot, the images, the feelings.  As much as I left the film feeling miserable, it did allow much thought and discussion.  ‘Definitely Maybe’, did definitely not provide such musings, but I don’t care; it was just what I wanted.  The joy of the rom com: I can see it, enjoy it and forget it!  

‘Definitely Maybe’ was a little quirky in its structure, the interesting framework of a father explaining his pre-marital relationships to his ten year-old daughter, Maya (Abigail Breslin from the delightful ‘Little Miss Sunshine’) provided humourous interjections as we are aligned with her in trying to guess who the mother is. Admittedly he does end up telling his daughter some pretty weird stuff (such as her mother’s lesbian affair) which makes you question his parental role… still New York children are pretty mature these days.   Cleverly timed, the Clinton presidential campaign provides an interesting early context with the Lewinsky affair mirroring the main character’s disillusionment with politics and life. 

 The film is charming but ultimately forgettable.  It doesn’t really try to be realistic: it doesn’t dwell on the pain of divorce or separation, and the way stunningly beautiful, amusing and clever women seem incredibly easy to come by may well infuriate single men.  More appealingly to us thirty-somethings, the characters don’t seem to age from 24 to 33.  The main message seems more to be you just end up with the right person at the right time without it being very much in your control.  This film is one for an enjoyable night out; the silver screen can lure you into its world and leave you with a happy sigh and a pleasant sleep, maybe. 

I went to see this I wouldn't say eagerly last Friday at the Watershed and I have to say I found it an enjoyable film on the whole but nothing spectacular. There was a schism in our group between those that found the whole thing perfectly interesting and enjoyable and those who found the last twenty minutes so disjointed and irritating that they came away hating the whole thing.

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For me whilst the last section of the film did seem somewhat choppy, basically from the point where the Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is killed, but I felt this wasn't incongruous and the pace of the film did need to change at that point. One thing I did feel was that it was interesting to lose the (a) main character like that in mid flow, I certainly didn't expect it, but it did make me feel a stronger connection with his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald), only to have her killed off at the end of the film, which was irritating.

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And flirting with irritating even when in the cause of exploring themes of chance and self-determination is a dangerous thing for a film to do. I found the existential musings in the film quite agreeable on the whole, enough to overcome the irritations but others didn't.

I did like Tommy Lee Jones' performance, it is what he does best after all, but I particularly liked him as the lawman without a purpose other than to act as a kind-of narrative counterpoint to what's going on. A literary device to add depth to the story he only exists in the film to comment on what's going on in the broader sense and ends up more or less helplessly following the events with a kind of resignation that everything will turn out badly regardless of what he does. At one point he even has to ask a neighbour to call the police because he has no jurisdiction. But his voice is important and helps the film a great deal.

So on the whole I thought it was a decent film, nicely written, nicely filmed with good performances all round. Worth watching a second time to get into the subtleties a bit more. And hopefully not get lulled into a dream by TLJ's final monologue like I did the first time!

I spent a typical Friday night debating with myself whether to play with razor blades, eat some paracetamol or watch a film. In the end I decided to watch L'Enfant. Which was a good decision as it goes. L'Enfant is good. Very good in fact, especially after a spat of films that, as Monty might put it, set in... like a vulgar little tumour. L'Enfant falls into the category of cheeky 90-minuter...

(ok, so it's 100 minutes but fuck accuracy, hey, la la la,  look at me, I'm a journalist, I'm the king of the fucking world; one day I'll write about the time I went to the Frontline Club in London to see John Fisher Burns speak, the west's longest standing journalist in Iraq, he works for the Washington Post, but I need to work up a fucking head of steam for that).

Back to the point, so after the recent epics that are "Lust, Caution" and "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Crawford" (the former, meh, the latter yeh), this film is vivacious with performances that had a palpable and infectious energy. I was even reminded at times of Goddard's A Bout de Souffle (Breathless), such was Jeremie Renier's performance as Bruno, albeit L'Enfant is nowhere near as cool. It's timing was impeccable throughout, though,  with everything moving along at a brisk pace without feeling rushed, it even ended at precisely the right moment, which is more than can be said of some of the longer films that I've watched of late.

You should see this film - it's the best thing to come out of Belgium since C'est Arrive Pres de Chez Vous (Man Bites Dog).