the story begins with imelda staunton as lady sandra abbott on the eve of her retirement. she has her retirement planned out, she leads a very posh life and discovers suddenly that her husband has been having an affair. here is a clip. what the hell's going on? we were just... it's not what it looks like, sandra. sandra. sandra! sandra, wait. get off me. how long's it's been going on? let's not do this here. how long, mike? since we all went to sorrento. 0h, bloody hell. that's nearly five years ago! i've had enough of all this hide and seek, mike. how could you do this to me? you're supposed to be my friend. we even took you to the palace. i didn't mean for this to happen, sandra. oh, really? you knew precisely what you are doing! now, please calm down, sandra. rememberwhere you are. i know exactly where i am, in my own bloody home! i have spent my entire married life putting you and your careerfirst, and what got me through was knowing that when you retired we would share our golden years together. but instead, you've traded me in for a newer model. and let me tell you, mike. she's had more than one previous owner. and all her bodywork is mainly filler! you laughed at least twice! exactly, because it's funny. she walks out and goes to stay with her sister with whom she is like chalk and cheese and her sister basically tells her, this life you have been leading is an artificial life and you have to learn to enjoy things more, she teaches her to go swimming in the hampstead pond and dance lessons where she meets characters like joanna lumley and a character called charlie played by timothy spall. you know from the outset that that character is going to soften and discover more to life than material possessions and the dream of her husband's retirement. you know from the outset when she meets timothy spall and she finds him abrasive and difficult she will warm to him and you know from the outset amongst the comedy there will be tragedy and tears amongst laughs. the question is, how well this all plays out? i have to say rather better than i expected. it was charming and funny, not least because it's a great cast. they are throwing themselves into it and having a very good time. it is well directed. no cliche goes unturned. it owes a certain structural debt to nativity, the debbie isitt film, and in fact, funnily enough, it would've made more sense to release this in the run—up to christmas because there is slight christmas theme to it so it is odd coming out now. despite your reservations about the posterm, which i understand, i thought it was funny and charming and i liked the performances and my heart went with it enough that when my head kept going, hang on, my heart went, just let it be, and i did and i enjoyed it. all right. 0k. you have seen i, tonya as well. it's a good watch. margot robbie stars and also produces. she was implicated in an attack and her career fell apart. it's been nominated for awards. the film takes the structure of telling contradictory stories. at the beginning, it says, "based on the totally true and utterly contradictory testimonies of its central characters" and during the narrative we see each of the central characters talking to the audience either through faux interviews or breaking the fourth wall, turning to the audience and going, "this didn't happen." but essentially it is a story of somebody who has come through and abusive background. she was beaten by her husband. she is also attacked by her mother although the mother who is allisonjanney, says for heaven's sake, show me a family that don't have their ups and downs. it manages to balance, in my opinion, the serious subject matter of domestic abuse, which it is about, with also being filmed playing with post modern conventions in a way that reminded me of the film 2a—hour party people in which characters will turn up and go, "this didn't happen." it's a film about a story being told from lots of different perspectives with a brilliant central performance. i found it hugely watchable, i'm not going to lie, and the story is fascinating. it was that thing of turning to the camera and being veryjokey about something precisely at the moment when they are talking about domestic abuse and he hasjust punched her. she marries the first man who comes along and he beats her up for years. unfortunately that is not a subject for comedy. her mother says to her at one point, you think you deserve to be beaten, and she said, i would never be with a man who beat me, and she says, you beat up our dad, and she says that's different. there is a scene when tonya harding had a shotgun and she says, "this never happened." the triumph is it deals with the serious issues were also being entertaining and funny and sharp. essentially it gives you a kaleidoscopic portrait and says, you decide. everyone watching it would come out with the same opinion that she is a survivor. whatever else you think, she is a survivor. absolutely, and allison janney is a genius, that is the other thing you come out saying. she eats that role for breakfast. she is just fantastic. the shape of water. wonderful. dark river. i'm jumping ahead, sorry. easily confused. it deals with abuse and in different way. ruth wilson plays a character who returns to the tenant farm on which she grew up. she's been away 15 years and her abusive father has died and she comes back to the farm which she feels she has a right to take on the tenancy. her brother, however, is there disagrees. here's a clip. it's too late now, he's gone. she broke her leg. you better get out there. i haven't seen you for 15 years. i work with her. now, i am a huge fan of clio barnard, it takes its title from a ted hughes poem and has a surface similarity to the levelling, and yet it is absolutely barnard's film. it's about the way that trauma affects people's memories, about the way trauma affects people's perceptions and it's about people living with the ghost of an abusive past. it's very powerful not least because the performances are very good which is something you expect from clio barnard and also because it is a film located very much in the landscape, like the levelling it has the feeling of buried family secrets coming up from the ground. it is very atmospheric. although the subject matter is very dark, the tone is totally unexploitative, it feels like a film which wants to understand the psychology of its characters, it is i saw it twice, first on a small screen a second time projected and i have to say it is a film you have to see in the cinema because so much of it is to do with the immersive atmosphere of it. on dvd, you want to see it in the cinema, it is a cinematic experience and she is a really brilliant film—maker and i thought it was a very powerful piece dealing with difficult subject matter but dealing with it very intelligently. i can't wait and i love the levelling and god's own country. there is a whole theme going on. the message seems to be not to be a farmer can because it will be really tough. the shape of water. this is my favourite film in the cinema at the moment. i love this film, its guillermo del toro's best film since pan's labyrinth, and i think pan's labyrinth is the best film of the 21st century so far. the shape of water is on one level, the creature of the black lagoon meets splash, which sounds like it shouldn't work, and yet it does. there is something magical about it. super performance by sally hawkins, doug jones is brilliant as the creature, and the thing guillermo del toro always does is he has this great love of what other people think of as monsters. the real monster in this film isn't the amphibious man, it's a very human character, it's set against the backdrop of cold war paranoia and the space race, there are moments when it bursts into song and there is a song and dance routine suddenly in the middle of this. i just loved it, it made me laugh, it made me cry, i thought it was beautiful. i think guillermo del toro is a modern—day orson welles and i love this film to pieces. and to look at as well, it is stunning. you should see it on a big screen because it is such a treat visually. how amazing that you could take a story that is apparently so bizarre and strange, and yet give it such mainstream appeal. it is a film that will work for pretty much everyone because it's a fairy tale but also grounded in a strange reality. sally hawkins's performance is wonderful. terrific. curious but fabulous. i will accept that. i liked your choice of dvd. the party. it's the party from hell, it has a political backdrop, a group of people together where this political thing is happening and they have secrets that suddenly get revealed. what i love about it, it is a sally potter film, black and white, stripped to the bone, it is 71 minutes long, there isn't an ounce of fat on it, but it is sharp, the dialogue is very acerbic. timothy spall who is in finding your feet and is terrific in almost everything. it has a real brittle humour to it. i thought at the beginning i would find it a bit insular and claustrophobic because it's pretty much in one location. but it really made me laugh. i thought it found its darkly comic tone. yes, it is a good watch. it's like a play for today. and so brief, literally, a five—star running time. thank you, mark. it is a cracking week. a reminder that before we go, you will find the film news and reviews on the bbc online and all of our previous programmes are on the iplayer of course. enjoy your cinema going. bye— bye. good evening. i'm desperately trying to stay positive with the weather. there will be a lot of sunshine this weekend but it will be cold and frosty. this has been the story earlier. in shropshire, some beautiful sunshine around. into the weekend, we will keep the sun but there will be a cold wind and that will make it feel really quite raw out there. throughout the day today, we did see a little bit of cloud crossed eastern england and to the southwest end into northern ireland but there was some beautiful blue sky and sunshine as we've already seen and that is going to continue with some clear skies through the night, which means that temperatures are going to fall away very sharply indeed. we will see a widespread frost particularly to the western half of the uk. we keep the cloud into northern ireland so here, temperatures staying above freezing but that frost will take its time to clear away. a as the frost first thing in the morning. eventually the frost will lift, that's when we get to see some sunshine. we will keep the cloud into northern ireland and maybe into parts of cornwall but elsewhere, hardly a cloud in the sky but feeling chilly, top temperatures of 47 celsius. —— four 27 celsius. there will be a hard frost forming and those temperatures will fall away. there will be bits of cloud from time to time but as it breaks into northern ireland, the frost is quite likely first thing on sunday morning. another cold and frosty start, that frost will take its time to ease away but as the sunshine comes through it will melt away and then crisp blue sky and sunshine. more sunshine on sunday for northern ireland, perhaps just a more sunshine on sunday for northern ireland, perhapsjust a bit ireland, perhaps just a bit of cloud onto the shores of the northeast through the afternoon and highs of around four to six celsius. factor in the wind and it will feel much colder, particularly on sunday, temperatures perhaps feeling freezing below many —— feeling freezing for many of us. wrap up warm because the cold weather is set to stay with us, they are coming all the way from the arctic, it will get colder still into next week and there is a risk of starting to see some snow showers around so you have been warned, very cold, bit of winds, some snow at times, frost and iis winds, some snow at times, frost and i is continuing as well. —— frost and ice. fine, dry but chilly with highs of 4-7. this is bbc world news today. our top stories. the un security council prepares to vote on a new ceasefire in syria — as government forces continue to target eastern ghouta, these are live pictures from the united nations in new york. the vote has been postponed several times. one of donald trump's former campaign aides omits to conspiring and lying to investigators. a blunt assessment from the european council president of the uk's plans for a post—brexit relationship with the european union. if the reports are correct, i am afraid that the uk's position today is based on pure illusion. were you the mastermind that cheated the olympics? yes.

Related Keywords

Ghouta , Dimashq , Syria , United Kingdom , Northern Ireland , Craigavon , New York , United States , British , Sally Potter , Sally Hawkins , Ruth Wilson , Jane Hill , Sandra , Joanna Lumley , Clio Barnard , Timothy Spall , Margot Robbie ,