David Ranger

Oh dear! This is truly awful, and so sad that a book that has so much humanity is reduced to a hammy cold A list celebrity love in. It makes Midsomer Murders look like high art. There’s nothing right about it. For starters, that house is way too grand. Who believes anyone could afford to live in that grandeur in their retirement. The story is all over the place - it felt like they were trying to squeeze as much of the book into the 2 hours as possible without any care. Joyce’s voice is the glue to the story in the book and sadly missing in the movie. The script is missing Osman’s charm, subtlety and humanity. This would have made a great miniseries in the right hands, but it’s clearly been made for an American audience who like gargantuan cakes and A list celebrities.

One of the best and most consistently good tv series I’ve seen in years. Excellent cast and the writing is superb. Highly recommended!

Reading the Google AI summary before the reviews shows how badly AI summaries miss nuance. The same can be said for this film. Terrible terrible writing. The topic was handled without subtlety or sensitivity and the storyline was clumsy and completely unconvincing. Oddly detached performances from Tilda Swinton - the second as her daughter almost made me laugh. Julianne Moore is very watchable but the dialogue throughout is so bad it made me cringe. I wondered whether AI had a hand in the translation. So sad, as I love Almodovar’s work and will usually watch Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in anything, but good ingredients don’t always make a good meal. I feel generous giving this movie one star coz that’s two hours I ain’t getting back.

The cast, direction and music were amazing, but it felt like a 2 hour therapy session with Elton John. Thumbs up anyhow.