A Long Way Down, Captain America - Winter Soldier and Her

I loved the Nick Hornby novel A Long Way Down so despite the, at best, moderate reviews I had to see the movie. I found that it captured the tone of the book, undemanding, humorous, poignant and silly. Hornby has adapted his own book for the screen along with collaborator Jack Thorne and they have produced something rare in the cinema these days. The acting could have done with better direction, but Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collete and Imogen Poots do a reasonable job. I'm glad I went.

The same cannot be said for Captain America - Winter Soldier. The script does not seem to interest anyone when it comes to an action filled blockbuster. I keep trying to avoid these kind of movies with no luck. When the highlight is Jenny Agutter morphing into Scarlett Johansson, that says it all.

It was another visit to The Rex Cinema in Berkhampstead, this time to see Her which has so far avoided Aylesbury. I had to see the movie that won for Spike Jonze the Oscar for best original screenplay. Not in the same league as Nat Faxon and Jim Rash's  The Way Way Back, it is still an interesting story with lots of hip dialogue.  Unlike my favourite movie in this category, there is only one main character, if you can exclude the sultry voice of Scarlett Johansson. This makes for a slightly one dimensional story centered on Joaquin Pheonix's Theodore. He is excellent but in a morose kind of way. I prefered the direction to the script, the setting in the future was realistically imagined. Although enjoyable, it just seemed too restrained and small for the big screen. But that may have had something to do with being in the back row of an old fashioned cinema.