Esther McCarthy reviews 'Wild Rose' and 'Hellboy'

Wild Rose (15A) ****

Jessie Buckley is so astonishingly good in Wild Rose that’s it’s difficult to imagine the film with another leading lady in it, and director Tom Harper, who’d worked with her on Taboo, wisely only signed up when she did.

She plays Rose-Lynn, a brassy young woman from Glasgow who’s just been released from prison. Her mother, Marion, (a very good Julie Walters) despairs at her feckless ways and her apparent inability to show up and bring some stability into the lives of her two young kids, who gran has effectively been raising.

After losing her regular gig at a local club, Rose doubles down  -  becoming more determined than ever to realise her dream of travelling to Nashville to become a country star.

She’s got the talent but can this volatile woman bring the life skills?

When she gets a job cleaning a house for the well-off Susannah (Sophie Okonedo), the kindly woman takes a shine to her, and  -  not knowing Rose has been selective in revealing details of her life  -  sets about helping make her dream a reality.

Hellboy (16) *

THE LATEST HELLBOY is a flat and joyless affair, with an up-for-it cast grappling with a barely coherent story.

In the story, Hellboy (David Harbour) is tasked by his adopted father (McShane) with travelling to England to take on three giants.

But there are even bigger forces at play  -  a sorceress known as Nimue, The Blood Queen, who was betrayed by her coven centuries earlier and her body parts scattered around Europe, has been resurrected by a warthog named Gruagach.

His job is to reunite her with her body parts so that she can take revenge and wreak havoc upon the general population.

She wants Hellboy to join forces with her, and aims to appeal to the dark side of his personality. Will the demon side of his personality kick in? Or will humanity come through? A bland disappointment.