• Friday 2 December for 1 week

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (12A)

(UK/US 2005) dir.Mike Newell 157m.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith.

“The golden age of innocence at Hogwarts is over. Puberty has sunk its claws into Harry Potter (Daniel Ratcliffe) and sexual jealousy haunts his friends. The 14-year-old hero has sprouted from a bespectacled geek into a shameless poster boy. And his loyal chums – Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) – have followed suit. Adolescence is Harry’s new foe. And it brings the kind of challenges that most parents hate. The young wizards are much more comfortable wearing grungy jeans than capes; and their tastes run to muddy Glastonbury rather than tea and cakes. The irony is that our valiant trio are more terrified of securing a date for the Yule Ball at Hogwarts than they are tackling the latest dastardly threat to their potty lifestyle. That knowing comedy keeps this episode sharp. Mike Newell, a self- confessed ‘computer generated image’ novice, is the first British director to pick up the baton in the Potter franchise. His considerable triumph is to keep the thrills up to exhilarating scratch. One of the perennial joys of J. K. Rowling’s addictive series is the ability to generate ever spookier shades of evil. Here, the fear comes in the shape of scary dragons, a poisonous vision of Lord Voldemort. Ralph Fiennes’s whispy ghost is a lot chillier than the previous incumbents. The plot hinges on a famous Tri-Wizard Tournament. It’s an international wand-flexing competition starring the shapely girls from France, the Beauxbâtons; and the butch Durmstrangs from Bulgaria. What’s fresh about the GOBLET OF FIRE is the intriguing tension between the feeble and the strong. This has always been Rowling’s tug of war. The playground duels between Harry and his peers are as bitter as ever, but there’s a delicious sense of anarchy about boarding school life. For the first time we sense what makes Harry tick under pressure. There are plenty of old familiar staples for fans: the unsporting cut-and-thrust of a Quidditch World Cup; a maze that stretches for ever; and a mission impossible at the bottom of a lake. Brendan Gleeson’s Mad-Eye Moody is the latest loose cannon on the staff. It’s impossible to fault the shades; I’d like to bid for the marble eyeball.”
(James Christopher, The London Times)

• Friday 9 December for 6 days

MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS (12A)

(UK 2005) dir.Stephen Frears 103m.
Judi Dench, Bob Hoskins, Will Young, Kelly Reilly, Thelma Barlow, Christopher Guest.

“Oh, what a lovely, horrible war! Just as Stephen Frears’s half-true, half-imagined account of the birth of topless musical entertainment at Soho’s Windmill Theatre in the 1930s and ’40s threatens to float off on the back of one of its own breezy showtunes... boom! The Second World War starts, and we’re treated to almost as fine and sensitive a vision of the defiant wartime spirit as Humphrey Jennings himself could have crafted. It’s this mix of escapism and harsh reality, theatre and real life, that defines MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, a film that just about walks on the right side of sentiment and nostalgia. The effect is both moving and terrific fun. Before the arrival of the bombers, Frears’s film breathlessly recounts the beginnings of the unlikely partnership between recent widow Laura Henderson – a wealthy septuagenarian who buys a derelict West End theatre because she is ‘bored with widowhood’ – and Vivian Van Damm, a respected theatre impresario who she employs to manage the place. Van Damm has the wizard idea of staging all-day, non-stop entertainment, to which Henderson throws nudity into the mix. As their theatre kicks into life, we witness plenty of gutsy performances; Kelly Reilly shines among the chorus girls as Maureen, a non-professional persuaded by Van Damm to strip in the name of art. Off-stage, we are party to a near-romantic clash of two distinct personalities: Van Damm, experienced and no-nonsense, and Henderson, a headstrong woman of no theatrical experience but plenty of forthright opinions. In the latter stages of the film, images of war have a sobering effect. Grief and secrecy add weight to gentle pantomime. The outbreak of war exposes equally these personal traumas and the compassion at the heart of Frears’s superb new film.”
(Dave Calhoun, Time Out)

• Friday 9 December for 6 days

THE CONSTANT GARDENER (15)

(US/UK 2005) dir.Fernando Meirelles 129m.
Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Danny Huston, Bill Nighy, Hubert Koundé, Pete Postlethwaite, Gerard McSorley, Richard McCabe, Archie Panjabi, Donald Sumpter, Anneke Kim Sarnau, Rupert Simonian.

“In adapting John le Carré’s novel, Meirelles more than lives up to the promise of his brilliant debut CITY OF GOD. This is one of the most gripping and powerfully moving thrillers in memory; absolutely everything about this film works perfectly. Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) is an unassuming British diplomat in Kenya who loves working in his garden. When his activist wife Tessa (Rachel Weisz) is murdered, he sets off to find out what happened to her. Along the way he discovers things about his wife he never knew, and uncovers the conspiracy she was tenaciously trying to expose – poverty, Aids, government inaction and drug company greed. Soon Justin's colleagues (Danny Huston and Bill Nighy), a company owner (Gerard McSorley) and a spy (Donald Sumpter) are all warning him to stop digging. Due to Meirelles' thrillingly inventive direction, the story's three layers balance flawlessly – conspiracy thriller, romantic drama and global-political exposé. Cinematographer César Charlone captures the vivid, raw character of every setting, as well as the emotions experienced by the cast. Editor Claire Simpson assembles the story out of sequence to maximum impact – the film echoes and swirls as it builds to several gut punches. We also get the very best out of the cast. In addition to being a gripping thriller and a stirring love story, the film highlights events and situations taking place right now – injustice that slips beneath the radar of public conscience. It's a rare film that deserves all the attention – and awards – it gets.”
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Thursday 15 December for 3 weeks

KING KONG (12A)

(US 2005) dir.Peter Jackson 187m
Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis, Jamie Bell, Kyle Chandler, Lobo Chan, Thomas Kretschmann, Evan Parke, Colin Hanks, John Sumner, David Dengelo, Stephen Hall, Richard Kavanagh, Louis Sutherland.

Peter Jackson moves his sweeping cinematic vision from Middle Earth to Skull Island in this truly fantastic reworking of the legend that is KING KONG. Naomi Watts plays Ann Darrow, a struggling actress, just another no-luck story of the 1930's Great Depression, until her encounter with celebrity-seeking filmmaker and adventurer Carl Denham (Jack Black) and screenplay writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) ignites the explosive adventure of a lifetime. For this magnificent remake of the classic 1933 KING KONG, Jackson has gathered his longstanding collaborators from THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Joining Watts, Black and Brody is an accomplished international ensemble cast. German star Thomas Kretschmann portrays Captain Englehorn while Andy Serkis (Gollum in LOTR) provides both on-set performance reference and motion-capture performance for the ape. Certainly more than a series of CGIs, one of the film's qualities is to create two widely diverging worlds – the urban jungle of 1930s Manhattan and the primordial environs of Skull Island. Ultimately a story of survival, love and empathy, the film is deeply rooted in reality. Whether or not it really was Beauty that killed the Beast, Jackson has created a fabulous modern version of one of the screen's most enduring classics and one of the greatest filmic adventures of all time.

• Friday 6 January for 2 weeks

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (15)

(US 2005) dir.Ang Lee 134m.
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway, Randy Quaid, Linda Cardellini, Anna Faris, Graham Beckel, Scott Michael Campbell, David Harbour, Kate Mara, Roberta Maxwell, Peter McRobbie.

“This achingly beautiful drama deserves to be a big hit and garner many awards, but the ideas it explores will prevent that from happening. Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet in the summer of 1963 when they both herd sheep on Brokeback Mountain in Wyoming. These two are a dying breed, and alone in the mountains they discover a camaraderie that extends into the sleeping bag. But since this is unacceptable back down the mountain, they go their separate ways. Ennis marries his childhood sweetheart (Michelle Williams) and has two kids; Jack moves to Texas and marries a rich girl (Anne Hathaway). Four years later, they meet again. As the story continues over nearly two decades, it deepens and resonates in unexpected ways that are raw and revealing. As usual, Lee directs with subtle attention to detail, capturing both the awesome grandeur of the scenery and the telling flickers of a character's eye, from small outdoor adventures to heaving internal yearnings. The actors pour their souls into these roles. All four central cast members have moments of transparency that shake us to the core. Ledger is the standout, with an open-hearted performance that catches us in the back of the throat. His interaction with every other character is what drives the plot forward with relentless force.”
(Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall)

• Friday 20 January for 1 week

MATCH POINT (12A)

(UK/US 2005) dir.Woody Allen 124m.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton.

“A change of scenery does Woody Allen a world of good in MATCH POINT. Making his first film in the UK with a story originally conceived for New York, Allen once again takes up issues of morality and guilt in what amounts to ‘An English Tragedy’, as in Theodore Dreiser. Well-observed and superbly cast picture is the filmmaker's best in quite a long time. With the action set squarely among Britain's young upper crust, the tale has the debonair Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode) taking on Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) as a tennis coach at his exclusive club. Chris is fresh off the pro tennis circuit, where he did well but never broke through to the winner's circle. Although identified as Irish, the terribly attractive athlete speaks with an impeccable posh accent that allows him to fit in seamlessly with Tom and his set. With Chris's road to success now all but paved with clover, there's got to be a snake in the underbrush, and it comes in the dazzlingly sexy form of young American Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson), who's Tom's girlfriend but who strikes immediate sparks with Chris, which steers the story straight on a collision course toward tragedy. One immediate advantage of the film's English setting is that it effectively prevents the young male lead from doing a Woody Allen imitation, as has so often happened in the past. Beyond that, there is an evident refreshment and restimulation that's resulted from Allen's immersion in a new milieu, a rarefied one not often depicted by English filmmakers these days. The cast is terrific. Rhys-Meyers, who has been flitting about the margins of real recognition for the past few seasons, comes further into his own with an excellent performance in the central role, one which requires him to be both genuinely ingratiating and entirely repugnant. More of a blond bombshell than ever, Johansson combines strong elements of sexuality, self-doubt and emotional insistence in an indelible portrait of tragic beauty. Emily Mortimer aptly pinpoints Chloe's over-availability as the initial source of her husband's growing disinterest, while Goode nicely rounds out the young quartet as a smooth chap whose great looks, wit and intelligence seem virtual birthrights. It's amusing to see Brian Cox, so often associated with threatening or dicey characters, so smoothly essaying a generous man of means.”
(Todd McCarthy, Variety)

• Friday 27 January for 2 weeks

HIDDEN (Caché) (15)

(Fr/Aust/Ger/It 2005) dir.Michael Haneke 118m.

Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Bénichou, Annie Girardot, Lester Makedonsky, Bernard Le Coq, Walid Afkir, Daniel Duval, Nathalie Richard, Denis Podalydès, Aïssa Maïga, Caroline Baehr, Christian Benedetti.

“Georges (Daniel Auteuil) hosts a TV literary chat-show, and discovers the drawbacks to celebrity when he and his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche) start receiving videotapes of their comings and goings filmed outside the house and wrapped in childlike drawings evocative of bloody violence. Even when the tapes’ contents suggest the anonymous sender has some intimate knowledge of – and murderous intent towards – Georges’s life, the police insist they can do nothing, and the tension begins to take its toll on his family, not to mention his sense of justice… Haneke uses this relatively straightforward story to explore a complex range of issues to do with contemporary life: celebrity and social inequality, the erosion of privacy, the fear of the Other, the weight of the past, the relationship between responsibility, repression and conscience, voyeurism and technology. It’s a spectacularly intelligent movie, but it also succeeds superbly as suspenseful, gripping and emotionally affecting drama, thanks in no small part to the uniformly excellent performances. A film of many splendid ambiguities; the final shot is just the icing on the cake.”
(Geoff Andrew, Time Out)