Da Vinci's Demons: The Prisoner Review

 

DA VINCI'S DEMONS: 

THE PRISONER

What can be more fun than demon-possessed nuns? The Prisoner makes the case that Da Vinci's Demons, removed from the more ahistorical and supernatural elements, may be more than just eccentric fantasy.

As Riario (Blake Ritson) plays a board game with a mysterious robed prisoner, we see that they may be subtly referring to the evil at a convent near Florence. There, many nuns appear to be possessed by demons, convulsing and shrieking. One managed to get to Florence, where she horrifies Guiliano de Medici (Tom Bateman) and former nun Vanessa (Hera Hilmar) by cursing the Medici family and gouging her own eye out with Guiliano's sword.

Guiliano's brother Lorenzo (Elliot Cowan) has more pressing matters on his hands: uncovering the spy within the Medici court. However, he knows that reports of demonic possessions could play into his enemies' hands, so he sends Guiliano and his weapons manufacturer Leonardo da Vinci (Tom Riley) to investigate the strange goings-on. Is it the work of the Devil or is there a more worldly, malevolent force at work? As Vanessa herself falls under the mysterious ailment, will Leonardo be able to save her before the convent and the possessed are set aflame? The answer may literally be at St. Anthony's feet, but even after the resolution, visions still hit our lusty artist.

The Prisoner is the first Da Vinci's Demons episode where the fantasy elements were mostly toned down. The end still managed to bring up some crazy visions but on the whole, it stayed close to the ground. A great deal of this is due to having Leonardo use logic to sort out what appears to be a confounding supernatural mystery.

The episode may have mostly centered on the convent of possessed nuns, but it also managed to include both the production of weapons, the continued machinations at the Vatican, and even the false allegations against the loyal Medici advisor Becchi (Michael Elwyn). These came in and out from the central story, but they never interfered with it.

The Prisoner also allowed Bateman's Guiliano his moment. He comes across as dim, hotheaded but courageous, a man of his time who would rather fight than negotiate. As he attempts to sort out the various works of the Devil around him, Bateman crafts Guiliano as the brother who while loyal cannot help feeling a bit inferior to Lorenzo. Riley and Ritson continue their strong performances as the rivals headed towards a showdown. 

I enjoyed the logical nature of The Prisoner. I will say that the overt nature of the board game between Riario and the mysterious figure being a parallel to the nunnery was a bit too on-the-nose. I also see that while I should be getting used to the graphic sex and violence in Da Vinci's Demons, I was a bit aghast at the eye gouging. The anal sex Lorenzo indulges with his secretly traitorous tramp Lucrezia (Laura Haddock) was not as graphic as some other sex scenes in the series, but it was a bit much for me.

However, I found The Prisoner the best episode yet of Da Vinci's Demons. How or if the series will improve later in this season remains to be seen. 

Next Episode: The Magician

8/10

Da Vinci's Demons: The Serpent Review

 

DA VINCI'S DEMONS: 

THE SERPENT

As we continue to delve into the myriad of mysteries Da Vinci's Demons starts serving up, I think that The Serpent is a slight though positive improvement over its pilot episode. While still hampered a bit by its penchant for exposition dialogue, The Serpent offers up more intrigue amidst the supernatural goings-on.

Leonardo da Vinci (Tom Riley) is still attempting to use his massive war machine without it killing everyone. He also wants to find the connection between himself and The Jew (Ken Bones), whose execution set off a mad search for the fabled Book of Leaves. In his unauthorized autopsy of The Jew, Leonardo finds a key that may lead him to this mysterious tome.

The nefarious Vatican group that also wants the Book of Leaves is equally at work to find the key. The Pope's nephew Riario (Blake Ritson) has a spy within the ranks: Lucrezia (Laura Haddock), mistress to Florence's uncrowned rule Lorenzo di Medici (Elliot Cowan). Riario will use any means necessary to get the key. If it involves torturing Leonardo's apprentice Nico (Eros Vlahos) or unwittingly sending his own men to die when attempting to open Leo's boobytrapped chest so be it.

However, what about recruiting Leonardo to join Rome? Will da Vinci betray the Medicis and his beloved Florence to get at the Book of Leaves? Will he instead perhaps give his attempted collaborators a literal twenty-plus gun salute instead?

The Serpent has some wonderful moments, particularly at Lorenzo's lavish celebration for Riario's welcome.  The lavishness of the celebration coupled with the nowhere near subtle comparing of Riario with the Serpent from the Garden of Eden works so well here. It manages a surprising balance between serious and camp.

There was also a great moment when da Vinci put things together by using a blind witness. It was quite a clever and logical scene that worked well. 

The Serpent also allows for some strong acting from the cast. Riley dove into his climatic speech defending his beloved Florence with almost crazed abandon, tearing at the dialogue as da Vinci tore into the Pope's soldiers. He has a manic manner that makes Leonardo more an action figure than a mere artistic intellectual. 

However, he does also show a bit of a rakish charm, particularly when working with Haddock. There is a nice interplay between them that shows them as lovers and secret rivals.

You can tell Riario is a villain due to his all-black ensemble. Ritson's portrayal is quite quiet and methodical, as someone who not only knows he is evil but enjoys it. No self-doubt or introspection for this beneficiary of nepotism. He too knows the part requires a bit of camp, but he keeps it at a minimum.

In their smaller roles, Vlahos, Cowan and Gregg Chillin as Leonardo's friend Zoroaster also do well.

The Serpent's flaws however are as the same from The Hanged Man pilot. Series creator David S. Goyer and cowriter Scott Gimple still have too much dialogue serve as basically exposition dumps. There was also a particularly odd moment when Leonardo attempts to fool the Pope's guard by claiming a snuff box was really an explosive. Granted, they had just seen their fellow guardsmen killed by an exploding chest. However, as played and shown, the sequence made it look like Leonardo was holding a Holy Hand Grenade from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

That Zoroaster knocked it down to reveal it was indeed a snuff box did not help.

Also, I was puzzled by one bit of dialogue. As part of the investigation into the Jew's capture, Leonardo surmises that the best place to hide a book is in a bookshop. "Why would a Jew be in a bookshop?", one of them asks. I was not sure if it was a joke or serious.

Apart from some clunky infodumps and the Holy Hand Grenade bit, The Serpent is an improvement, leading to hopes that Da Vinci's Demons may be moving forward well. 

Next Episode: The Prisoner

6/10

Nightmare Alley (2021): A Review

 

NIGHTMARE ALLEY (2021)

It seems at first strange that a film like Nightmare Alley could have flopped at the box office. It has been lavishly praised by my fellow critics, has major stars like Bradley Cooper and its director, Guillermo del Toro, is loved by both cineastes and comic book fanboys. However, Nightmare Alley had the misfortune to open against the juggernaut known as Spider-Man: No Way Home. It also is a noir film as well as a remake of a film a large number of people have never heard of. All those elements, I think, made Nightmare Alley a hard sell to general audiences no matter how much heavy promotion Turner Classic Movies gave it (it hosted del Toro and co-screenwriter Kim Morgan as TCM guest hosts and played the original Nightmare Alley maybe three or four times the same month). 

While I have yet to see the original as of this writing, this Nightmare Alley is slow, slow, slow, forever taking its time to get to where it needs to go and not knowing when to stop.

Professional huckster Stanton Carlisle (Cooper) has a shady past already when he weasels his way into a carnival. Here, he soon starts integrating himself into various acts, mostly that of "mind reader" Zeena (Toni Collette) and her much older husband, alcoholic Pete (David Strathairn). Unsurprisingly, Stan and Zeena have been getting it on while she and Pete continue to con the mugs.

It is not long however until Pete dies, but by now Stan has ended his fling with Zeena and turned his eyes to the virginal Molly (Rooney Mara), who is able to absorb huge electrical bolts. They go off together to start their own version of the Zeena/Pete con, but this time to the gullible elites. One of those not gullible is psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), who sees easily through their con. However, she may be something of a con herself, getting Stan to dupe a judge and his wife who lost their son during the war.

Things, however, take an ugly turn when despite warnings from everyone from Molly to Ritter to Zeena herself, Stan decides to do a "spook show" and claim to be a medium. This brings him to the attention of wealthy Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins), who asks to have his former mistress Dory summoned. Using information secretly recorded by Ritter, Stan concocts a wild scheme. However, that scheme takes shocking and deadly set of turns, leading to death and a fall for Stan into geekdom.

I have developed somewhat of a fixation with running times in film. Dune seems to be the standard to which I'm judging all 2021 films with regards length. Nightmare Alley runs a stunning six minutes shorter than the first half of an epic space opera. As such, there is such a bloat to Nightmare Alley that you wonder why it takes so long to get where it is going. 

Del Toro could easily have trimmed much of the first hour where we are at the carnival to get to Stanton's long con. However, that would mean taking away a lot of the atmosphere that del Toro clearly loves. Nightmare Alley is heavy on atmosphere but not much in terms of story, at least again until Stanton and Molly leave for the bright lights of Buffalo. 

Once we leave the carnival, Nightmare Alley seems to wake up, bringing up a more interesting story and building on itself. However, by then many audience members might be dead-asleep from how long the film is. You do feel as if you are waiting for something to happen while del Toro indulges in carnie nostalgia.

It is a shame that Nightmare Alley opted for giving us atmosphere because it has some surprisingly good performances. I would not count Bradley Cooper among them though, even though he did try. His Stanton Carlisle was a bit hemmed into himself trying too hard to be either charming or mysterious. He gave it a good go but somehow, I did not see him as either charming or mysterious. He did manage sleazy well, so there is that.

Blanchett went perhaps a bit too strong on the femme fatale manner, but it works well here. Mara conversely did not make it work well when she played the polar opposite of the virginal Molly. She came across as sleepwalking. Collette and Willem Dafoe as Zeena and a freak show carnie were better. Jenkins seemed to be from a whole other movie altogether and to my mind seemed a bit forced as the mysterious and ultimately dangerous villain.

Nightmare Alley has a positive in its excellent production work and cinematography. Here we do see the sense and feel of the early 1940s, or at least the idea of the era.

If not for its seemingly endless first hour that drags the film down, I would have thought better of Nightmare Alley. It might be worth looking at versus watching, to enjoy the aesthetics for the first hour, the story for the second.

DECISION: C-

King Richard: A Review (Review #1573)

KING RICHARD

At first, I was confused as to why people opted to make a biopic not of the tennis stars and siblings Serena and Venus Williams but of their father, Richard. Not being versed in tennis lore, I was unaware of who Richard Williams was, let alone how he impacted the game. King Richard doesn't make the case that his life story deserves to be as long as it is. It is, however, a properly pleasant hagiography that should entertain people seeking inspirational stories.

Richard Williams (Will Smith) has one goal in life: to have two of his five+ children be tennis stars. They are his daughters Venus (Saniyya Sidney) and Serena (Demi Singleton), whom he has drilled probably since before birth. Richard's wife Oracene (Aunjanue Ellis) quietly supports his plans though she also disapproves of Richard's bulldozer manner with family and coaches alike.

He hustles to get Pete Sampras' coach, Paul Cohen (Tony Goldwyn) to train Venus for free (Serena, alas, will have to wait her turn). Even here though, Richard can't help interfering, his superiority pushing everyone around. Richard makes the controversial decision to pull his talented daughters out of Junior tournaments. He then gets another coach, Rick Macci (Jon Bernthal), eager to train the exceptional Venus but also displeased at some of Richard's manner. Finally, it is time for Venus to turn pro at 14 and take on the Number One female player, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, where Venus loses and wins.

There is one long problem with King Richard. It is close to two-and-a-half hours long. For comparison, Dune is only eleven minutes longer than King Richard, and it should be remembered that Dune is meant to be a massive, epic film. King Richard's length forces us to endure long scenes that add little to what story it is trying to say. 

Take for example Venus' first Juniors competition. We get treated to endless montages of sore losers and spoiled sports, girls always scowling and yelling about losing. I figure their antagonistic reactions are meant to be a counterpoint to the Williams sisters more confident, upbeat manner. However, you felt that the editing could have cut down the time. Same with the road trip from Compton to Florida.

It should be noted that King Richard is produced in part by Will Smith and the Williams sisters. As such, we won't be getting many if any hints that Richard is anything less than a great man with a smidgeon of flaws. There is brief mention about Richard's other children, a detail that comes out of nowhere and is not mentioned again. Few people if any appear able to stand up to Richard, and worse, King Richard does not make the case as to why non-tennis fans should care about Richard's life.

Acting-wise, it becomes something of a guessing game to see which part of Smith's performance is meant to be his Oscar clip. From the very beginning Smith is very "actory" in his manner. By that I mean calculating, methodical, not so much playing Richard Williams but playing a man aiming for Academy Award recognition a la Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything (albeit less overbearing). It is still showy in manner, with his curious accent and speaking manner. You can't help but cringe a little when swelling music starts to play as Richard respectfully tells off a Child Protective Services agent who came to their house.

As to why their neighbor apparently hates them so much for her to do such a thing is unanswered.

For some reason, when he tells an agent he suspects is racist "I just ax a simplified question", it sounded peculiar separate from the curious syntax. To me, it came across as forced, as if Smith was not so much trying to sound like the real Richard Williams but some version of a "less-educated and cultured" man. To be fair, I do not know what Richard Williams sounds like and Smith may be accurate (though given the requisite real-life clips at the end I didn't hear much if any similarity).

In some ways, King Richard makes him less heroic than the film would like us to see. He was close to killing a man and comes across as a bullying Little League parent. It isn't until late in the film that we get a reason as to why Richard picked tennis to be his daughters' future. For most of the film, it seemed he just picked that sport at random.

It is a shame that Will Smith is taking up so much Oscar talk, for if there were any justice it would be Aunjanue Ellis who would and should be the focus. She has her own requisite Oscar clip (when she quietly but firmly tells her husband that he is too overbearing to mask his deep-seeded fears that he may be a failure). However, it is the quiet strength she communicates that holds the viewers' attention.

Berthal does well in playing against type as the more chipper Macci. Usually cast as a more brooding figure, it is nice to see Berthal playing less intense man who is eager to please and generally happier.

The story of the Williams Sisters and their impact on both the sport of tennis and greater inclusion is worth knowing. King Richard, while almost harmless, does not make the case as to why their father is of such great importance.

Born 1942

DECISION: C+

Great Expectations (2011): The Miniseries

 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

While my experience with Charles Dickens' Great Expectations is only through the various adaptations, I think I am safe in saying that this is one of his bleaker novels. Even by those standards however, I was surprised at how bleak and despairing the 2011 BBC adaption was. While in some ways sumptuous, in other ways dull, Great Expectations has some good performances but one awful one in the midst of it that brings the project down.

Young Philip Pirrip better known as Pip is forced to help escaped convict Abel Magwitch (Ray Winstone). Magwitch may be a criminal, but he curiously is nicer than either Pip's sister or Orlick (Jack Roth), the apprentice blacksmith to his uncle Joe (Shaun Dooley), the only kind person in Pip's life. Pip's life however takes a few strange turns.

First is when he is called to serve at Satis House, home of the wealthy recluse Miss Havisham (Gillian Anderson). Havisham is haunted by her jilting at the altar to where she still wears her wedding dress and keeps the rotting wedding feast intact. Pip is made the playmate of Estella, Havisham's adopted daughter, but this is part of Havisham's crazed revenge plot.

A second turn is when seven years later, the adult Pip (Douglas Booth), now apprentice to Joe, is made heir to a great fortune by a mysterious benefactor who wishes him to "live as a young fellow of great expectations". Now off to London to live the lush life, he becomes friends with Herbert Pocket (Harry Lloyd), Havisham's nephew whom as a child he once punched. Their purse strings are controlled by Jaggers (David Suchet), an efficient lawyer who deals with young men of privilege. 

Pip pursues Estella (Vanessa Kirby) now that he is a gentleman, but she has been trained to be cold towards men. Her coldness is perfect for wealthy Bentley Drummle (Tom Burke), who cares nothing for her but only for her future fortune. Once Pip discovers whom his secret benefactor is, things go full speed as he tries to sort out his own life while attempting to help Herbert and his secret benefactor. As much as both Havisham and others attempt to thwart out pair, circumstances bring Pip and Estella together over all their obstacles.

In some respects, this Great Expectations has a wealth of great acting. At the top of the list is Suchet as Jaggers. Cold but efficient, blunt but aware, his Jaggers is frightening in how he makes sense even as he appears coldhearted. He does not tolerate fools and executes his clients wishes with efficiency, and Suchet dominates everyone who shares the screen with him.

Anderson, the only American in the cast, takes a different tact with her Miss Havisham. She has a singsong style to her delivery, childlike that makes her version more sympathetic. Anderson still makes Miss Havisham into a totally creepy figure, but we see the haunted woman behind the cray-cray. Her Miss Havisham does not appear to be the bitter jilted spinster of lore. Instead, she appears more haunted and lost, a broken woman suspended in a living death. Her first appearance makes her look like a literal ghost, giving her a haunted quality. It is as if she were a walking corpse.

She is also more manipulative, fixated on bringing misery to others as vengeance for having misery visited upon her long before Estella or Pip were born. It is an exceptionally strong performance that is to be commended.

Another standout is Harry Lloyd's Herbert Pocket. He is somewhat diminished in this adaptation, but Lloyd makes Pocket into a good man, reformed from his youthful arrogance into someone who is motivated to do good and love well. Cheerful but serious when needed, one wishes for a Herbert Pocket spinoff where we see him and his wife in Cairo.

What sinks Great Expectations a great deal is the central character. It is not Douglas Booth's fault that he is exceptionally pretty. It is his fault that he cannot act, at least not in Great Expectations. One already finds it laughable that such a delicate looking, almost porcelain like figure such as Booth would plausibly be an apprentice blacksmith. He in actuality looks like he's never done a single day's worth of manual labor in his life, let alone something as labor intensive as a blacksmith. 

Booth's delicate features and elegant manners are already difficult to overlook to be seen as a working-class hero. It is his total blankness as Pip that dooms him and Great Expectations. No matter what the situation, Booth gives the same disengaged expression. He is like many people who have film/television careers based more on their looks than their acting prowess. His lack of reaction when his benefactor reveals himself should elicit howls of laughter. It does not matter whether he is trying to con an old hand like Jaggers, express ardor to Estella or feverishly work to save Herbert. Booth gives the audience the same facial expression throughout Great Expectations.

I once commented that Jaime Dornan's performance in Wild Mountain Thyme was more that of a good- looking man who can speak than of someone who could actually act. As a side note, I still feel this way about Dornan regardless of the praise he's gotten for Belfast. When it comes to Booth's performance in Great Expectations, I'm not sure he could even get past the speaking part. It is just so blank and empty. Worse, it makes Pip look less naive and more eternally stupid.

Perhaps Booth's weakness as an actor is why Kirby seemed to match him in the blankness of her own performance. While not as bad as Booth, Kirby looked neither like the cold woman or the simmering woman underneath. 

Great Expectations also, I think, went overboard in its Gothic trappings. The miniseries is dominated by endless shades of grey to where you wonder if sunlight even exists. It is as if the production wanted to encase you permanently in Satis House. Such dour looks and heavy greys work when we venture into Miss Havisham's ruined home, but why do so when entering the magic world of cosmopolitan London? 

Despite having more time to develop the Dickens story than other versions, this Great Expectations seems almost rushed. The heaviness of the production and Douglas Booth's lack of performance pushes the project down. It has the saving grace of strong performances from others (Suchet and Anderson in particular) but I found it a terrible disappointment. My expectations were not met.

5/10 

Churchill's Secret: The Television Movie

CHURCHILL'S SECRET

Sir Winston Churchill once wrote that history would remember him kindly, for he intended to write it. Few Britons have been as, if not beloved at least as remarked and remarkable as Churchill. When was the last time biopics have been made about Edward Heath? Churchill's Secret chronicles a time when the Twentieth Century Lion in Winter almost came to an end.  With strong performances and more focus on his family life, Churchill's Secret does not deify or demonize this historic titan.

Nurse Millie Appleyard (Romola Garai) is somewhat reluctantly preparing for her move to Australia where her fiancée has gone on ahead of her. She then finds herself called to serve in the most secret treatment of a mystery patient. That patient: Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Michael Gambon), who has suffered a pair of strokes, the second an especially critical one. 

The Prime Minister is spirited away to Chartwell, his private country home at the insistence of Winston's wife Clementine (Lindsay Duncan). The Conservative Party leadership wants to keep Churchill's condition as secret as possible, fearing that news of an ill, possibly dying Prime Minister will bring down the government. Churchill's likely successor Antony Eden is himself recovering from surgery and there is no one to take Churchill's place. 

While Nurse Appleyard, no supporter of Churchill, does her duty to care for her patient, she warms to the curmudgeonly Prime Minister. She also observes the dynamics of Winston's families political and blood. Some Conservatives would be happy to see Winston quickly retire, some are fiercely loyal. The Churchill children: son Randolph (Matthew Macfayden) and daughters Diana (Tara Fitzgerald), Sarah (Rachael Stirling) and Mary (Daisy Lewis) in turns bicker with and love each other and their parents.

Will Sir Winston recover to lead his nation once more? Will Nurse Appleyard opt to follow the loving sacrifice of her own career for that of her fiancée's or will she forge her own life in Churchill's Britain? 

Churchill's Secret has the benefit of some exceptional performances. Gambon, I think, did well in opting not to try to sound much if anything like Sir Winston. Instead, he focused on Churchill the man: one weakened by health but also determined to return. One is moved when seeing this volcanic figure stumble and mumble I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles in an almost childlike manner. 

Duncan is his equal if not superior as his beloved Clemmie. We see the mix of support and irritation at having to deal with being The Great Man's Spouse. She wants him to retire, to have the few remaining years to herself. She also knows in her heart that retirement will metaphorically if not literally kill him. As she struggles with that delicate balance of support and independence, she also has to deal with their children and their various failings. 

The interplay between her and Gambon show the complex yet totally loving couple Winston and Clementine were. The scene where Clementine finally speaks of the death of her daughter as Winston secretly overhears her conversation with Appleyard is heartbreaking, the buried pain finally exposed. Both Duncan and Gambon deliver exceptional performances.

Macfayden is a true actor who sadly has never been the star his talent should have made him. His take on Randolph from the moment he first appears makes one wonder why Randolph's story has not been made. He is in equal turns filled with rage and regret about his tumultuous relationship with his father. He is unpleasant from the start: blunt to the point of rudeness, almost cheering at the thought of his father dying. Yet behind this there is a deeply hurt man, forever haunted by his inability to live up to his father's image or expectations, the bitter man who numbs his pain with alcohol. 

While Macfayden is on screen for a relatively short time in Churchill's Secret, he makes the most of his screentime, dominating his scenes with a blend of fury and lament at the state of his life. The best scenes in Churchill's Secret are not those of the various machinations over possible succession or news suppression. Rather, they are when the Churchill family has an unofficial wake for their legendary husband and father. The Churchills come across as a genuine if highly dysfunctional family: one moment joyfully giggling with each other, the other viciously snapping at each other.

Garai is not left out as the fictional Nurse Appleyard. While her story about whether to stay or go is a bit lost in the shuffle, she too does excellent work as the nurse who sees the man behind the legend, flaws and virtues. It was a wise decision to not make her a Conservative supporter, which allows for another viewpoint. She does her job as a nurse, but she also sees how people gather around an old man for reasons benevolent and self-serving.

Churchill's Secret allows for seeing the human behind the legend. Strong acting all around move the story along well, and on the whole, it does humanize this massive figure. 

1874-1965

8/10

The Lion in Winter: A Review (Review #1572)

 

THE LION IN WINTER

Peter O'Toole once said that he could make a career out of playing Henry II. He had done so already on film in Becket and would in essence pick up where he left off in The Lion in Winter. This tale of the machinations of succession is a towering achievement, with magnificent performances and a gripping if long tale.

Henry II (O'Toole) is still vigorous but knows that he will die. He favors his youngest son John (Nigel Terry) to succeed him, his fatherly love mostly blinding him to John's idiocy and weakness. His oldest living son Richard (Anthony Hopkins) has a champion in his imprisoned mother Eleanor of Aquitaine (Katherine Hepburn), though their relationship is frayed. No one considers the middle son Geoffrey (John Castle), though at their peril due to his plotting mind.

Henry allows Eleanor out of her imprisonment for Christmas court, and all their sons will be in attendance too. A Christmas Court guest is Philip II (Timothy Dalton), the young King of France, whose sister Alais (Jane Merrow) is betrothed to one of Henry's sons to be determined later. She is also Henry's current mistress. On this dark Christmas Eve, the various royals plot and counterplot over the succession. Henry, enraged that he cannot get his way and finding all his sons lacking, decides to dump Eleanor via annulment, disinherit his treacherous sons and marry Alais to father real sons. 

For once though, this scheme is too much for both Eleanor and Alais, and while the succession itself is not settled, the tempestuous Henry and Eleanor manage to hold on to yet another day, delighting in their cold war.

What The Lion in Winter manages is to make words more cutting than swords. Seeing these noble figures tear at each other with sharp remarks and careful plotting makes for almost fiendishly delicious viewing. James Goldman's adaptation of his play gives the actors strong, fierce dialogue with which to wield at each other. Some of the monologues are extraordinary.

Of particular note is when Hepburn declares that war does not come from outside forces such as religion but from within themselves. It gives her a chance for a bravura performance, one where Eleanor is filled with equal parts rage and regret. She loves Henry, perhaps even her own children despite her protests to the contrary. However, she also knows what vipers they are.

Director Anthony Harvey draws excellent performances from the whole cast. Hepburn, the only American in the cast, is fierce as Eleanor, able to show affection and duplicity with equal ease. She tears at Henry for his plots, but you also see the deeply hurt woman when he plans to cast her aside or taunting her with freedom in exchange for her ducal lands. 

Peter O'Toole is more than her equal, his Henry a man filled with rage but a powerful lust for life. He too shows vulnerability when he sees how hated he is by his sons, at point declaring "all my sons are bastards". It is when Eleanor more than suggests that she had been his father Geoffrey's mistress (and she delighted in Geoffrey's body) that we see that this fierce, proud, arrogant man can be reduced to a weak one.

Each of the royal sons is a standout. Anthony Hopkins in an early role makes Richard both a warrior prince and a hurt ex-lover to Philip. Whether Richard is more hurt by his "outing" or Philip insisting their affair was not genuine love we cannot tell. Terry's dimwit John is appropriately pathetic and silly, forever flailing about being king when he appears unable to form a thought. Castle as Geoffrey does not have as showy a role as the others, but in his quiet and still manner he shows the dangers the middle son poses. 

As Alais, Merrow uses subtlety to communicate her delicate position. She loves Henry but detests how she in her own words is the only pawn in this game of kings, queens and knights. She brings a gentleness to Alais but also an awareness that the old monarch does not have. She, like Eleanor, knows that Henry's mad plan to annul his marriage and father sons through Alais will put her and whatever child she has in danger. She knows it is dangerous, and that there is no logic to it all. However, like the pawn that she is, Alais is powerless. Not even her half-brother Philip can help her. 

Dalton uses his youth and soft voice to great effect, making Philip less of a master of plots that Henry is, though as Henry observes, not bad for a beginner. 

The Lion in Winter is enhanced by Douglas Slocombe's cinematography and the art direction, which gives the film an almost "you-are-there" look. The various castle corridors feel lived in, as if it were less film and almost documentary. John Barry creates a masterful score, evoking the medieval era and being appropriately grand and intimate when necessary.

The Lion in Winter is a true game of thrones, showcasing actors at the top of their game and delivering a strong, sharp script. You do not feel the film's length though it is a long film. "What family does not have its ups and downs?", Eleanor observes to herself. In The Lion in Winter, we see that the Plantagenets were a really screwed up family, but it makes for fascinating viewing.

DECISION: A+