The Grand Seduction

Director: Todd McKellar
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Taylor Kitsch, Liane Balaban

Not only have the Gleesons arrived, they have most certainly taken over. There was a time when we, as a nation, worried that Hollywood would not realise the full potential of Brendan Gleeson as the amazing actor that he is but those days are long gone. Gleeson appeared not only in massive franchises like Harry Potter but was winning audiences over with leading roles like The Guard. They’re a talented family that we are exceptionally lucky to call Irish and Gleeson is in a league of his own, arguably one of the finest actors of our generation and an actor who still has a lot more to give.

Reinforcing the idea that all you have to do is simply add the name Gleeson to the bill and you have a winner are films like the wonderful About Time which starred his son, Domhnall, his other son Brian who appears (terrifyingly) in Love/Hate and Gleeson himself in the monumental Calvary. The Gleesons excel in art house, indie films, roles where they are allowed to shine and Gleeson senior’s latest role is no different from that.

A remake of a French-Canadian film entitled Seducing Doctor Lewis, The Grand Seduction revolves around a sleepy former fishing village in Newfoundland. Once proud and prosperous, the village has been left behind by the advent of big business but this leaves the inhabitants in a difficult position, the men are barely employed and with the prospect of a factory moving into the town, they must ensure that there is a doctor in employment in the area.

Thankfully, due to a bribe, a doctor arrives to work for one month in the village but has decided he won’t stay any longer. Tied to his old job and his fiancee, Dr. Lewis (Kitsch) will need to be sweetened up by the local people in order to make him consider staying past his time. However, during his time among the village people, Lewis begins to develop a fondness for the area while they, in turn, begin to develop a fondness for him. But can they convince Dr. Lewis to stay and more importantly, does he in fact want to stay?

Despite the fact that this film isn’t exactly going to change your life, it is incredibly charming in parts and is shot beautifully. Like Dr. Lewis, you can’t help but fall in love with the sleepy little village and their desperate attempts to make the doctor stay. The various attempts also lead to moments of great humour and sweetness. Basically, this is a film you will find difficult to not like.

Gleeson’s performance holds the entire project together. A man who is left to his last devices needs this to work more than anyone else, not only to get back his respect but to win back his wife who has moved on due to the lack of employment and the stubbornness of her husband to leave.

This is a sleepy Sunday film but one that is most certainly worth a watch. A real charmer.

As Above, So Below

Director: John Erick Dowdle
Cast: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge

Horror as a genre is in flux. While directors like James Wan continue to get audiences in to cinema seats, there still hasn’t been any great change from using all the tried and tested methods of scaring the living daylights out of people. Cinema audiences are completely au fait with extreme scare tactics, where certain ghosts are going to jump out, what doors may close unexpectedly and what might happen when you look at that mirror. As a genre, horror is the most difficult to re-invent and find new directions for. Interestingly, it’s weighed down by its fanbase who constantly require new ways to prevent sleep.

With this in mind, horror films have increasingly turned to historical events or historical myths for their plots. That’s not to say that this particular type of film has not been seen in the past, it just seems that now it is old ground to go over anew. With productions like The Conjuring (supposedly based on actual events) and upcoming The Pyramids, directors and writers are increasingly looking for inspiration in fact.

As Above, So Below revolves around Scarlett, an academic who is on a quest to find the Philoshopher’s Stone. Following her father’s suicide, Scarlett does everything in her power to try to track down the one thing that managed to elude him over the years. However, Scarlett is more than willing to put herself in dangerous situations in order to find out more information about where the stone is located, a mission that leads her to the Catacombs in Paris.

Using an illegal guide and his band of friends, Scarlett enlists the help of her friend, George, a friend she abandoned on their last adventure. The further they go into the Catacombs, the closer they feel they are to finding something. However, when they do make a discovery, they soon find out this is something that would have been best left alone.

As Above, So Below is a strange horror. It should be absolutely awful in theory, the script is literally laugh-out-loud in parts, the acting a little below par but this somehow proves to be the perfect combination. Lulling you into a false sense of security by being hilarious in parts, you will never see the actual horror about to hit and there are quite a few jumps over the course of the film. Safe to say you will probably never visit the Catacombs or in fact go underground at all after watching this.

By using the old Philosopher’s Stone tale, a myth which is a substance said to be capable of turning metal into gold, the film soon gets bogged down in its crazy plot. While the filmmakers think they’re actually being quite smart, they slip up on a few occasions, making the plot ridiculous and the series of tunnels and adventures all the more ludicrous.

Inexplicably, it all works and provides some amazing entertainment. This is actually worth seeing.