2007 #36
Charles Dance | 100 mins | DVD | 12 / PG-13
Charles Dance | 100 mins | DVD | 12 / PG-13
Judi Dench puts in her fourth appearance in this list (far and away the most represented actor, I should think) in Charles Dance’s first film as writer and director.
Dench and her long-time friend Maggie Smith play believable sisters in a beautiful Cornish setting who discover a young Pole washed up on their beach. The story progresses from there in a gentle but engrossing fashion, and the cast of experienced Brits are as excellent as ever.
While it might not be in quite the same league as 
I seem to recall reading that Secretary attempts to depict a realistic and sympathetic dominant/submissive relationship. Unfortunately this seems to come a bit unstuck with the feeling that the relationship is initially based in an emotionally (and physically) abusive act against a clearly vulnerable character, leaving the following events and mutually loving resolution tinged with a hint of something akin to Stockholm Syndrome, in my opinion.
To be fair to The King and I, I was a little sleepy through most of it, and, thanks to some slightly cheesy bits at the start, my mind was occasionally locked in a spoofing mode.
2007 #32
This loosely satirical comedy from the director of such diverse fare as 
Judi Dench is clearly having a whale of a time in this 1930s-set comedy about a 70-year-old widow who starts up a nude revue.
People will tell you this is a comedy, when really it’s a comedy-drama. A TV critic once said, not wrongly, that a comedy-drama is something that isn’t especially funny nor especially dramatic so tries to do both.
Empire gave this film 
100Films.co.uk 