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nicolaj-rippon
Reviews
Lucid (2005)
A fabulous, intelligent film and a credit to Canada!
I'd like to begin this review with a warning - before watching this movie please take care not to watch any of the special features on the DVD version nor read too many reviews since several (including some of those on this site) give away important plot points that will utterly spoil any viewing for you! With this in mind I won't attempt to discuss the film's plot in great detail. There are plenty of twists and turns and the story stays gratifyingly away from clichés. All four lead actors (Jonas Chernick, Callum Keith Rennie, Michelle Nolden and Lindy Booth) put in terrific and powerful performances. (No surprise with Rennie who is most certainly one of the finest actors currently working in cinema & television although largely unsung in the US and the UK) All four characters are absolutely believable and all are multi- layered. The three latter actors (playing the former's patients) manage to convey their characters' balance of vulnerability with manipulation and make the viewer sympathetic to their individual plights whilst being appropriately discomforting to watch at times. There are some clever cinematic devices used (of which you will become more aware once you have watched the film in its entirety and studied the extra features on the DVD) but these are done cleverly and subtly and not at all self-indulgently. This is a fabulous, intelligent film and it will leave you thinking. And you'll probably be debating it for a time to come. You'll certainly find it isn't the film you thought you were watching at the outset!
Christmas on Chestnut Street (2006)
A lovely gentle, funny heartwarming Christmas movie!
OK, we don't have an Oscar-winner here, we don't even have a strikingly original plot, but what we do have is a funny and heartily enjoyable Christmas film. It's visually pleasing with the usual Chicago-at-Christmas pretty street scenes and the acting is bang on. If you've ever watched a Christmas movie before, or for that matter any rom-com then you're going to see the plot turns coming a mile off - but does that matter? Not one jot! You're not going to get stark warnings about future catastrophes, or high-octane action scenes either, but if you want that, you're unlikely to be looking in this direction! What "Christmas on Chestnut Street" does provide, and in buckets too, is a charming story, genuinely likable characters you actually care about, and a gently sentimental message about the true meaning of the holiday season. And what more do you want from your Christmas movie than that?