Valkyrie, My Bloody Valentine 3D and Revolutionary Road

The oddest part about Valkyrie, apart from knowing the ending, was watching the American Tom Cruise surrounded by a supporting cast of the cream of British acting talent. They were the best thing about the film. Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh, Terence Stamp, Kevin McNally and Eddie Izzard do the business. The director, Bryan Singer, does well to ramp up the tension as the plot to kill Hitler unfolds. The cinematography is excellent, as are the sets which capture the period perfectly.

I just had to see My Bloody Valentine when it was shown in 3D in Milton Keynes. It is rather like a fun ride you might get in an amusement park. And it is really the 3D that makes it fun. The settings in the mine are quite ingenious for the format. Most of the objects, such as flying pickaxes, are telegraphed. But a thrown handgun caught me out.

I cannot understand why Sam Mendes wanted to direct Revolutionary Road as a movie. A play I could understand, but the novel by Richard Yates does not translate to the big screen. It is sombre and dull. There is nothing about the main characters to like, so I felt no emotion from their imagined plight, stuck in nineteenfifties Connecticut. It may have been an intelligent and worthy piece of film making, but the only high point for me was the introduction of Kathy Bates' mentally disturbed son played by Michael Shannon. He really does deserve the Oscar for best supporting actor, even though it will go to Heath Ledger. My abiding memory, though, was when towards the end of the film, when Kate Winslett's character seems doomed, I just thought of The Ballad of Lucy Jordan sung by Marianne Faithfull, and used in the film Thelma and Louise. Forget the movie, just listen to the song.