Tag: Bill Nighy

Emma

Rated: PGEmma

Directed by: Autumn de Wilde

Written by: Eleanor Catton

Based on the Book Written by: Jane Austen

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czemin

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn, Bill Nighy, Mia Goth, Miranda Hart, Josh O’Connor, Callum Turner, Rupert Graves, Gemma Whelan, Amber Anderson, Tanya Reynolds, Connor Swindells.

Love knows best.

Or, Emma (Anya Taylor-Joy) knows best.

Living in Highbury Park with her widowed father, Mr. Woodhouse (Bill Nighy), Emma spends her days indulged as she plots to match and make those around her, careful never to fall in unnecessary matrimony herself.

That’s what she tells herself and others, including the insufferable and righteous Mr. Knightly (Johnny Flynn), the brother to her new brother-in-law.  Mr. Knightly’s always on hand to point out her vanity.

Yes, Emma tells herself she doesn’t want marriage as she uses her influence to partner her new project and friend, Miss Harriet Smith (Mia Goth) with someone she thinks Harriet’s equal, the local vicar Mr. Elton (Josh O’Connor) (and not the besotted farmer Robert Martin (Connor Swindells), whom Harriet really cares for).

But underneath a cool demeanour Emma can’t stop the flutter of her heart when she hears of the return of the very handsome, Frank Churchill (Callum Turner).

Can you sense the period drama?

Based on the novel penned by Jane Austen (published in late December 1815), there’s plenty of lace and bonnets and piano forte playing and performance.

I admit, I could not have been in less of a mood to watch pomp and ceremony.

But despite my sigh of boredom at the beginning of the film, I found there was a sweetness and intrigue that I was slowly drawn into, helped along with the dry wit of Bill Nighy as Emma’s cantankerous but really warm-hearted father who considers a day at a wedding a truly awful day.

He’s always searching for that cold draft determined to flow through the house from some crack or cranny.

It’s really the comedy that saves this film, subtle, shown in a glance, a tsk, or a flummoxed, energetic jump from stair to floor.

So yes, sweet and funny with, Anya Taylor-Joy well-cast as the handsome, clever and rich Emma.

But this is a long movie (117 minutes), dragging with a yawn and watch-check in the first half hour, and then again when approaching the two-hour mark.

You’ve got to be in the mood for the period romance that is Emma – hence the release in time for a tolerable viewing on Valentine’s Day.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu

Rated: PGPOKÉMON Detective Pikachu

Directed by: Rob Letterman

Story by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Nicole Perlman

Screenplay by: Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit and Rob Letterman and Derek Connolly

Based on: the “Detective Pikachu” video game developed by Creatures Inc.

Produced by: Mary Parent and Cale Boyter

Starring:  Ryan Reynolds, Kathryn Newton, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Rita Ora, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy.

Based on the worldwide phenomenon of, Pokémon and video game, “Detective Pikachu”, this film literally features the beloved Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) wearing a detective hat.

Tim Goodman (Justice Smith, whom you’ll remember from, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)) lost his ambition to become a Pokémon Trainer when his mother died and his father, Detective Harry Goodman, moved away to Ryme City; a place where Howard Clifford (Bill Nighy) has created a city, not just with Pokémon living in it, but with humans and Pokémon working and living, side-by-side.

After finding out his father has gone missing, Tim travels to Ryme City to discover there’s more to his father’s past than he realised.

Junior journalist, Lucy (Kathryn Newton), with a nose for a good story, seeks the answers to Detective Goodman’s disappearance, only to find Tim without a Pokémon partner – ‘Why does everyone keep asking me that!’.

When a Pikachu appears in his father’s apartment, instead of the characteristic Pokémon stating their own name, like, “Psy-Duck.  PSY-Duck?”  Or in this case, “Pika Pika” – Tim can understand this mysterious Pikachu: this  little guy is talkative, coffee addicted and a self-proclaimed detective.

So the somewhat lonely 21-year-old (not so much with Pikachu dancing on this shoulder), nosey journalist and talkative Pokémon investigate the mystery surrounding Tim’s father.

POKÉMON Detective Pikachu is a combination of animated puppets and live actors – the Pokémon critters brought to life so you just want to reach out and give Pikachu’s fur a scratch, setting his back-leg twitching.

The kids in the audience, ooo’d and ahh’d, particularly at the beginning and introduction into the world of Pokémon (and before the action ramped up): this is a kid movie.

I don’t know why I expected the humour to be more adult.  Probably because Ryan Reynolds does the voice-over of Pikachu.  And although the script doesn’t have that edgy satire I’ve grown used to from Reynold’s characters, this is brilliant casting as he voices some genuinely funny moments like Pikachu making decisions based on ‘feeling it in his jellies.’

There are many amusing moments like the Cubone baby with the bad temper reminding Tim’s best mate Jake (Karan Soni) – would have like more of this character in the film – of his mother.  But the jokes were more of the PG variety: cute and sweet.

The action and effects ramp-up as the story progresses, giving the film some suspense and creating some drama with the hope Pikachu and his human, Tim, make it out of yet another scape.  And we get the conflict between Tim and his father with the breakdown of their relationship after his mother died, and of course the romance between the two human investigators.

So, not the edgy clever I was hoping for, but we get the expected cuteness with some good laughs and action along the way.

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