Digby Atkinson

Don't bother! Really, don't bother!! Appalling dialogue, hopelessly factually inaccurate, music far too strident and wardrobe too full of bling. Olga Kurylenko was the only member of the cast that didn't appear to be reading from an autocue and demonstrated that when called upon, she was able to show 'emotional moments' far better than the supporting cast. The cinematography was OK, but at an early part of the film there was a single arial shot of a hamlet for no reason at all... A production that film students should watch to see how not to relate what could have been an interesting and as yet, fairly unused period of history. A bit of a stinker!

A sad reflection of the state of todays script writing. Much of the efforts to establish the earlier life of principal the characters of The Soprano's cast was not helped by crude jump-cuts and poor dialogue. The first half of this production could have been time better spent in the second half, to establish who was who. Michael Gandolfini, despite the above gave a brilliantly under-stated performance, though as many others have commented, he wasn't given enough screen-time. The rather crude insertion (for it was nothing more) of the diversity characters, though giving good performances, had nothing to do with the original story, and were a complete distraction. Wether through love of a particular character/actor, nostalgia for The Sopranos series or just curiosity of the genre, we'll all see it differently!

The film Amina seems to be very loosely based on a female version of Macbeth. The whole production is a bit amateurish, but has some redeeming features such as the wonderful costumes and stylised examples of North African architecture of the period. It was the visual element that had me watching the film through to the end - rather than the content of the script or the edit, both of which were rather disjointed. The night time lighting sequences were technically very convincingly handled - which is not always the case in many productions. Bravo to those involved for showing an interesting, little-known bit of African history - but next time pay more attention to the skills of script writing, editing and direction.

I was about to completely slate this production until the last twenty minutes or so. To begin at the beginning. The story line has potential, but because the script is woefully weak in the many 'talking head' cuts, the dialogue lives up to the title of drag! Messers Gibson, Vaughn, White, Kittles and are good performers and do their best with the characters they portray, but Jennifer Carpenter was for me the stand-out performer amongst the cast, in dealing with an otherwise standard verbal script. Photographically, the director seems to have favoured the school of low-light cinematography almost throughout, giving the editor an easy job of putting the endlessly slow, laborious duologues clips together. The very later part of this film brings a much needed bit of dramatic action for the viewer together with a charming twist at the end. The one thing I can praise this film for is that there were no special FX!

I found this a very watchable film. It was a well photographed costume drama based on actual events. The storyline is a good old 'Boy's Own' adventure in far flung parts. Much of the dialogue may appear a little stilted, but it was trying to portray a period when people spoke more concisely than the present day. The father and son's ending was very gently handled, and unlike many productions doesn't try to leave with a bang - but rather an inconclusive memory that stays with you... If you enjoy good film-craft (without the help of SFX) this might be for you.