Television: Great Expectations (BBC1)

Miss Havisham- fair play to the production team for trying something different but for me it just didn't work. Some critics are suggesting she (Miss Havisham, played by Gillian Anderson) is too beautiful but the problem is that she is not convincingly evil.

I wasn't a fan of the decision on Havisham's first appearance. She leaves the bedroom, to which she normally keeps, and walks down the stairs, barefoot, towards Pip. She has a fairylike quality and is not the Havisham that I remember from the book.

The power of the character lies largely in her mystery but she has become a cartoon character in this adaptation. Her appearance is extreme white. The interpretation lacks subtlety. She cranes around Pip, leans into him in an exaggerated manner where the dialogue should speak for itself.

That said, touches such as the scratching of the skin did bring the character to life.

Film: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

Within the first thirty seconds Taylor Lautner (wolf boy) has torn off his shirt to reveal that taut, toned torso, setting audience members' pulses racing and prompting rollicking laughter from yours truly. The film knows its audience, that much can be said of it, and, I have to admit, I was quite excited by the prompt flash of Taylor's torso.

The film continues in a similar vein. An unintentionally comic vein, that is. Not long after a Bella-style dramatic dream in which the party of wedding guests have been massacred and their bodies piled high (by her undead husband-to-be??), the pair are in an exotic location happily honeymooning. Reading between the lines you may gather that I am not what they call a 'Twi-hard'. 

The long awaited consummation finally arrives in this instalment of the saga and following a night of vampiric lovemaking the pair awake to find their bridal bed destroyed. The sex scenes however are decidedly tame especially when compared with the graphic birth scenes towards the close of the film. Another stand out comic moment is when Bella is offered a plastic cup of human blood to drink through a straw in order to help restore some of her strength and feed her unborn child. I could not watch this film without continually asking myself if the producers were aware of just how funny it is.

Film: The Shawshank Redemption

I've long waited to see this film having been told by many just how fantastic it is. They weren't wrong. Or, in any case, they know me well. The other day I found myself walking into the local music store and walking out with a copy of  Shawshank.


The film reserves judgement on the central circle of inmates of Shawshank prison and draws our attention instead to the atrocities of the prison guards and the warden. The warden is the film's vision of evil epitomised. He uses Andy to pursue his corrupt money-making ends and hides behind the veil of religion. We realise, however, to what lengths Warden is prepared to go midway through the film. On learning of Andy's innocence, he tricks and subsequently kills the young inmate, who leaves a wife and child on the outside, in order to keep Andy imprisoned and his own corruption under wraps.


The group of inmates, whom Red deems are not homosexual because "you have to be human first", are the single truly demonised group of prisoners, in their relentless treatment of Andy; those who are entirely lost. Red, however, after thirty years inside, is a repentant soul who gives a compassionate narration of Andy's prison time.


The men describe themselves as having been "institutionalized". They are no longer able to function in the outside world, with the freedom which it brings, having spent so many years under the jurisdiction of the prison officers, as Red puts it:"Forty years I been asking permission to piss. I can't squeeze a drop without say-so." However, it is Red's friendship with Andy and the family which the men create within the walls of the prison which serve as the emotional heart of the story. It is the loss of this family which makes it near impossible to cope on the outside.


The inevitable tears came as the film drew to a close and I found myself agreeing with a commentator on the DVD's 'extras' who suggests that this film has helped many through some tough times. Shawshank is a powerful story of human spirit, resilience and hope, and, I can imagine it doing just that.