Being yourself

Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley), real estate mogul, does not have long left to live. He finds his way to one Professor Albright (Matthew Goode) where through a process called "shedding", Damian is reborn as Edward (Ryan Reynolds). Things get complicated as Damian finds that the body that he now occupies actually belongs to one deceased Mark, and Mark's wife Madeline (Natalie Martinez), has been struggling to bring up their six year old daughter, since Mark's demise. Self/ less is at the heart a simple story of heart over mind, man over machine, well constructed

14/20

Inimitable

‘Tis the Oscar season and I was wondering why The Imitiation Game, centered around one Alan Turing and his involvement with cracking Enigma – the German cipher – and greatly influencing the course of the Allies’ victory in World War II – has got some 8 nominations. After watching the movie, I ceased to wonder. Benedict Cumberbatch, not short in the sterling performances department, gives the performance of a lifetime. The relationship between Alan and Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) is strongly reminiscent of that between Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind. Here is a genius – narcissistic, lonely, estranged and utterly convinced. And he changes the world completely – ends the greatest war in human history, and basically invents the computer to boot (no pun intended). Stunning character acting. Unmissable by leaps and bounds

16.5/20

The Overseas Proposal

Anna Brady (Amy Adams) “stages apartments” in Boston – a career typical of a hard-driven city – that consists of decking up apartments that appeal to potential buyers’ fantasies, and then taking away the frills on the eve of a purchase. The ubiquitous boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) is a cardiologist, who has been deferring the “M” plan for – 4 years and counting. Up comes a business trip to Ireland, and, drawn to a tradition of proposals on February 29th (only possible in a Leap Year) that apparently never get spurned, Anna lands up in Ireland. Ireland, not Dublin, because inclement weather and a series of mishaps to follow land her in faraway Dingle, two days’ journey from Dublin, that need to be necessarily traversed with a rickety car and one Declan (Matthew Goode) for company. The countryside is breathtaking, the unfortunate delays come thick and fast, and the stranger and his country grow on Anna. So how does it all end, then? Set against the backdrop of a country that is, refreshingly, not sepia-tinted-beautiful but rugged-beautiful, watch this movie if only to get an up close look at Hibernia, and have a comely romance playing along to boot

13.5/20

The Long Watch

To do justice to a critically acclaimed movie like Watchmen one should have done one’s homework – i.e. have read the cult 12 part graphic novel series. Perhaps that in itself explains the movie’s principal failure. Throught the movie, the viewer does not for a moment doubt that he is watching a remarkable visual spectacle and possibly the most intricate character portraits of superheroes since The Dark Knight. The additional challenge being that unlike The Dark Knight and its likes, Watchmen profiles several different characters at a difficult time for America, juxtaposing their individual moral ambiguities against the tribulations facing a nation. The failing is the attempt to try to condense a 12-part series into a single movie. It is a surfeit of emotions and animation, and the viewer would find it difficult to absorb any train of thought before the movie moves on. This is not a movie to be watched over a 2 hour popcorn munching session. This is incursion into serious moral territory and at the least one should have read the related novels and braced oneself for a 3 hour

10/20