RIP Carla Lane

1928-2016

The A Word

Set in the Lake District, a dramatically and hilariously dysfunctional family, the discovery and subsequent journey of  having a child on the Autistic spectrum. What's not to love? It may seem like an odd concept to some but believe me, The A Word is an absolute gem; a truly moving, funny, rousing, likable and powerful piece of TV drama.
It focuses on Joe, a young boy who has always been viewed as 'different', but is subsequently diagnosed as being Autistic. What follows are the initial steps of his, and his family's ongoing journey, through life basically. We are thus introduced to these various characters who are undergoing their own ups and downs, but who are also focused on the youngest in their midst, and how their own lives now have to interweave and balance with his.

I think generally just that basic idea alone would be compelling viewing. Alongside the Autism elements we see some pretty regular aspects of TV drama too - infidelity, love and marriage, school, the generation gap. All things that we can instantly relate to, and things that we are probably not strangers to seeing on prime time drama shows. But the way in which each character and element is written, and how each character and element is engrossed (or not, as the case may be) in the life of the young boy at the centre of it all make The A Word so charming, so instantly reliable and uniquely brilliant to watch. You almost relax into it - you know you are watching compelling drama that deals with a very important, and sometimes very raw subject, but the combination of great personalities, great cast, great music, great comedy as well as drama just creates an atmosphere of familiarity which enables you to go with the flow of this dysfunction set before you, with very little compunction.

As I say, the concept alone is good, but throw in a great cast and the combination is near perfect. Familiar names such as Lee Ingleby and Vinette Robinson as Joe's dad and aunt respectively add touches of quality and different flavours of gravitas and family dynamic. Greg McHugh is a stand out for me as put-upon Eddie - he is both highly comedic and incredibly down to Earth and likable. The addition of Pooky Quesnel is a welcome face, and the debut of young Mollie Wright as Joe's teenage sister is too; I feel she carried her screen time and character chemistry superbly. We must also mention Joe himself. I am no expert at all on the ins and outs of Autism - but young Max Vento carried his character off spectacularly in my view. I have in the past bemoaned the wooden delivery and clichéd cringiness of some actors generally, yet particularly child actors , but not so here. In almost every scene he featured in, Max Vento as Joe stole the show. Lovable, hilarious, and massively compelling. He fitted in brilliantly to every situation that was written for him (which were many, varied and at times difficult I am sure for many an actor). He was brilliant; if he is this good in everything he does (and I'm sure he will get a few offers) then I feel he has a long and excellent acting career ahead of him. And I think for me, and other viewers of The A Word, the lasting image of the series will be of young Max casually strolling down a deserted mountain pass in the Lakes, headphones on and not a care in the world.
If there was one other cast member who could steal the show as well as Max Vento's Joe, then it was the great Christopher Eccleston as Joe's grandad Maurice. His character is brilliant, and he inhabits it perfectly. From the touching moments of bonding with his granddaughter, to his on/off awkward (and hilarious) love affair with his music teacher, to the brilliantly conceived moment where he shouts at a mountain (and some unfortunate passing ramblers) to - "FUCK OOOOOOFFFFFF!"
Truly, I cannot really put into words Eccleston's superb performance; just watch it.

The only cast member/character that not necessarily spoiled The A Word for me , but certainly marred it was that of Morven Christie as Joe's mother Alison. If the sole purpose of her character was to portray a totally and completely sickening, over-protective, smothering, self-obsessed, bullying, spoilt, manipulative, narcissistic, selfish, conniving bitch; then job well done, her casting and performance were perfect. But somehow I don't think that is all it was supposed to be. I'm sure that Alison was supposed to be written and performed as a deeply multi-layered figure who certainly portrayed the above qualities (again in that respect, job well done) but was also supposed to be somehow fragile and tragic in some sense or another. As I say, I can see the idea, but it just did not happen for me. Sadly the character of Alison to me stopped at being the vile mother and woman that was seen on the surface throughout the series. It is a shame because I really wanted to grasp the underlying current of her character, and I wanted her to be perfectly flawed and multi-faceted, like almost all the other characters brilliantly were in The A Word. Yet it just did not happen; and the resulting character on screen infuriated me, so much so that I couldn't even appreciate her as simply another dynamic or take on the drama, and by the end I wished someone would push her off a Lake District mountain.

OK, enough rambling about my hatred for Alison's character. Black spot though it may be, it did not wholly detract from the enjoyment I felt watching The A Word. It truly is a great piece of telly, and I hope it will return to offer more insight into Joe's world.

Captain America: Civil War

Yes I know I'm probably biased when it comes to Marvel movies, and yes I know I have been praising of some of them on this blog before (see the BLOG ARCHIVE) but I don't care. To my mind, they've done it again. This movie is just cool in the extreme.

Taking one of the stories from one of Marvel's most iconic and epic comic sagas: Civil War, this film takes the all the elements of the Avengers universe we as an audience think we now know pretty well, shakes them up and then hurls them at each other.

As with the comic, it's Team Cap vs. Team Iron Man; Team Law vs. Team Outlaw, Avenger vs. Avenger. Some may see it as natural progression. After 8 years and a lot of films seeing the origin, creation, integration and exciting progression of all these different characters; they had to clash at some point. And clash they do! They clash with a lot of power, and with no small degree of style.

As well as having fits of excitement as a fan when seeing these characters battle it out, once again I was impressed greatly with just how much humanity, gravitas and character this latest outing served to go with the fighting. 

Yes there was almost non-stop action, epic battle scenes with diverse and brilliant power sets, superb CGI moments abound and plenty of exciting sequences to get stuck into and enjoy. Fans of Marvel films, indeed of any film of this genre expect nothing less now. I would go as far as to say that this alone isn't actually enough to completely hold attention over the course of a film today. But what I feel Marvel does so well over others (sorry DC) is the way in which they temper all the action with great human moments. What holds an audience when they go and see an Avenger/the Avengers roll out to save the day is not only the epic visual and comic book action, but also the huge amounts of diverse and compelling character, and the sheer ultimate brilliance of the acting performances that convey that character to the audience.

As a result, for me for the majority of the time there were no real bad performances. Almost all cast members, old and new, seem perfectly fitted into their roles and inhabited them very well. Having said that, I cannot believe they headlined this film as a Captain America sequel. It is not. It features a great many Avengers; it is an Avengers film. I can only imagine the exec bosses didn't want to roll out an Avengers film out too soon after Age of Ultron, and in trying to tilt the balance of screen time and emphasis on the side of Captain America slightly mars the overall effect for me, which I'll come to later. The massive ensemble we got in Civil War rivals any Avengers film, which is only right, and whilst there were many pleasing performances throughout (I frankly was just happy to see them all come together again) there were some stand outs for me. As with the Iron Man films, and to a certain degree the Avengers movies, Robert Downey Jr. damn nearly stole the show again as Tony Stark/Iron Man. It is very gratifying that despite being the most exposed member in terms of his longevity to date and screen time, the great man and the great character only seem to get better. What's more, this film was proof that Downey Jr's Iron Man can fit perfectly comfortably in any other hero's corner of the great Marvel universe.

Also the progression of the likes of the great Paul Bettany as Vision, and  Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch was good to see, as was the induction of Paul Rudd's Ant Man into the Avengers for the first time. The likes of Don Cheadle's James Rhodes and Anthony Mackie's Falcon didn't seem to resonate as much, for whatever reason, nor did the return of original Avengers Hawkeye or Black Widow (despite Scarlett Johanssson's sass and charisma). Don't get me wrong I am glad they were included and they certainly contributed to the plot, I just didn't feel as drawn to their arcs as much this time. Though it must be said with so much going on and so many characters, not everyone can hope to pack the same punch, yet a good job was done by all.

We were also treated to a few new faces, which were woefully obvious as set ups for their own standalone films, but they were enjoyable nonetheless. In fact, if anyone could potentially steal the show further apart from the likes of Robert Downey Jr. it would be new faces Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther and Tom Holland as the new incarnation of Spider-Man. Yes the introduction of the Black Panther story was done in a bit of a clichéd fashion, but there is no denying the exciting new edge and degree of bad-ass that Boseman's Black Panther brings to proceedings, or how easily he seemed to fit within the dynamic, bringing his own sense of origin, motivation and power.

When I heard that the next time we would see the Avengers in Civil War we would also see Peter Parker/Spider-Man I was thrilled. When I heard that they were going to once again totally re-vamp and re-cast the role...less so. Not only because I enjoyed Andrew Garfield's take on the wall-crawler (and I feel his dismissal was quite unfair) but also because this new version would be the third Peter Parker in a generation, and I was craving a bit of solid consistency. However, I needn't have worried. From the moment we see Holland as Parker, let alone before we see him put on the suit, I knew that he was perfect for the part. All the right elements of physicality, vocal inflection, awkward teenage angst, humour and Spider-Man presence that is required, not to mention exciting new element like his relationship with Tony Stark and with the new version of Aunt May (excitingly played this time by Marisa Tomei).

Interestingly in a supposedly Captain America film, the characters that fell the most flat for me were Chris Evans as the man himself and Sebastian Stan as Bucky/ The Winter Soldier. Cap is still Cap, and Chris Evans is still solid in his deserved title role, but he does not give us anything new. He is almost still the man out of time who is still just a very moral, and at times obstinate guy, who also happens to be leading the Avengers, or at least for some of the time. In terms of character and development he does not offer anything fresh, which I think for a third sequel is not what is required, and for a movie which is this grand and powerful in scale I think this is a massive oversight. However Evans as Cap just about gets away with it because he is surrounded by the ever-changing dynamics of his fellow Avengers, and because like it or not he has a big part to play in the phenomenon that is Civil War.

However, as I said when reviewing Cap 2 (see the BLOG ARCHIVE) Sebastian Stan's Bucky does not work at all for me as a long-term character. Yes OK, make him the main antagonist of the first sequel but leave it at that. Once again they seem to have made Bucky's plight the be all and end all of Captain America, again trying to tilt this movie in Cap's favour which is simply futile. Mostly because this arc, or lack thereof gets lost in the epic scale of the film, and also because, as with the previous sequel Stan's performance and the writing of the character of Bucky Barnes is not nearly fleshed out, well thought out, multi-layered or progressive enough to carry any real importance. It is almost as if they just said - "ah here's the guy from Cap's past who now has a metal arm and is sometimes a brain-washed psychopath, but sometimes he's his best buddy like it's 1940; he'll do as a kind of bad guy again - throw him in there!"

I'm sorry but they should have limited Bucky's involvement to two films at best, and once again the result of almost all of Bucky's screen time falls woefully flat.  

That leads me on to my dissapointment in seeing them try to tilt this film toward the Cap flavour too much. Its not just the heroes, its the villainous antagonistic elements. I feel the main thrust of conflict should have been within the heroes themselves, over the Superhuman Registration Act (or the 'Sokovia Accords' in this film - which I did not like as a title) and what the legislation means for them all. That was the catalyst of the comic book, and that was what gave us most of the more compelling, and lets face it insanely cool moments in Civil War, and that should have been the main focus, led it has to be said by the welcome return of William Hurt and the welcome new face that is Martin Freeman which I thought were inspired.

Instead by going overboard and throwing these new and at times poorly conceived antagonists in the mix, they just blurred and confused the plot and the overall tone of Civil War. Rumlow's character was sort of only good for the action he brought at the beginning, but he was woefully and obviously a re-heated Cap 2 left-over villain and the effect he had on the film merited that. Daniel Bruhl's Zemo was pretty much a sneaky admittance that this was an Avengers movie as his background and villainous origin stemmed from Age of Ultron. And whilst he as a devious, slithering villain was solid enough, why oh why did he have to be tied with the idea of yet more Winter Soldiers I will never know. In the end, without giving much away the idea of multiple Winter Soldiers (as if one disappointment wasn't enough!) deflated as soon as it began, and Zemo's apparent true motivation stemmed from the idea of Cap vs. Iron Man and Avenger vs. Avenger. Which is the whole basis of Civil War!

On the face of it all the action and kick-ass moments were still brilliant, but if you actually look deeper and start to think about and dissect all the antagonistic elements that were thrown into this film to try and mute the ensemble and Avengers themes and tones and try to highlight often lackluster solo Captain America ones...then the result is often frustrating and leaves you with a slight sense of anti-climax. And it also leaves you wondering at the potential lasting impact, or lack thereof that Civil War should have. At least it did for me.

All that said, I reiterate what I began with: this film is so insanely cool it was almost unbelievable. If you take away the Captain America part of the title, then I think you'll agree that for the most part this is still very much a fitting piece of the Avengers/Marvel cinematic canon. Of course for a while now it has been a case of constant one-upmanship with one film after the other trying to be bigger and better. It is obvious and at times it is unsubtle, but we still see the films and we mostly love the result. To my mind, 9 times out of 10 Civil War nailed it. Barring a few issues of tone and emphasis, this was definitely a good moment in the Avengers world. So whatever faults you or I might find, I say this time just sit back and enjoy the epic ride that is Avengers: Civil War edition!