THEATRE REVIEW: Dion Boucicault’s ‘London Assurance’

Posted on April 24, 2010 by admin

Richard Briers, Fiona Shaw, Simon Russell Beale, Mark Addy, Paul Ready, Michelle Terry at the National

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – First produced on the West End stage in 1841, Dublin-born playwright Dion Boucicault’s hilarious farce “London Assurance” is given its full measure in an uproarious production at the National Theatre that makes most modern comedies pale by comparison.

Set in the fanciful world of highfalutin and preposterous English life readily identifiable from the later works of Oscar Wilde and Evelyn Waugh, it combines great verbal wit with physical comedy of a high order delivered by a cast of sublime comedy actors.

Simon Russell Beale is at his incomparable best as Sir Harcourt Courtly, a rich, fat and flamboyant society peacock with a seldom-seen son named Charles (Paul Ready) whom he believes to be sober and industrious but is in fact a heavy-drinking wastrel.

Sir Harcourt (left) desires to take as his new bride a countrywoman he has yet to meet but is informed reliably that she is both comely and well off.

He heads straightway to the bucolic manor house of Squire Max Harkaway (Mark Addy), there to cement his engagement to the man’s niece Grace (Michelle Terry) while taking in some country air.

Unknown to Sir Harcourt, his son has already fetched up there in the company of a rough-and-ready London opportunist named Richard Dazzle (Matt Cross) but so distant is the relationship between father and son that the young man is able to disguise himself with the mere addition of a pair of spectacles.

Things become complicated when more guests arrive in the person of enthusiastically lusty horsewoman Lady Gay Spanker (Fiona Shaw, pictured) and her much put upon but wealthy husband Mr. Adolphus Spanker (Richard Briers).

Sparks fly when Sir Harcourt falls for Lady Gay and young Grace captivates his son. Dazzle wheels and deals between the existing and would-be partners and a snooping lawyer named Mark Meddle (Tony Jayawardena) is keen to exploit every situation.

Sir Harcourt’s ineffably smooth and cultured valet with the singular name of Cool (Nick Sampson) tries to keep a lid on everything, and under Nicholas Hytner’s witty and assured direction he ultimately succeeds. Not, however, before the audience is weeping with laughter.

Venue: National Theatre, runs through June 2; Cast: Simon Russell Beale, Fiona Shaw, Paul Ready, Matt Cross, Mark Addy, Michelle Terry, Richard Briers, Tony Jayawardena; Playwright: Dion Boucicault; Director: Nicholas Hytner; Set and costume designer: Mark Thompson; Lighting designer: Neil Austin; Sound designer: John Leonard; Music: Rachel Portman; Choreographer: John Leonard

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter. Photo by Catherine Ashmore

 

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FILM REVIEW: Ricky Gervais’s ‘Cemetery Junction’

Posted on April 16, 2010 by admin

Christian Cooke, Jack Doolan, and Tom Hughes in ‘Cemetery Junction’

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have somehow contrived to leave behind all the acute observation and wit of their TV hits, “The Office” and “Extras,” in “Cemetery Junction,” their first feature film as writers and directors.

Gervais takes a secondary role and Merchant makes one brief appearance in the film, which tells of three restless lads itching to get away from a dull and predictable English suburban community in 1973.

Sadly, the film also is dull and predictable with the youthful rebels embarrassingly feeble when compared to such cinematic icons as James Dean, whose name is shamelessly invoked, or Albert Finney, whose character in “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” would bounce these guys like a basketball. Boxoffice prospects on home territory appear slim — and even slimmer internationally.

Filmed without visual distinction, the story has familiar and tired characters and plot lines packaged cosily with any depth reliant upon what seasoned actors such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Watson, and Anne Reid, and the very promising young Felicity Jones (pictured), can bring to the supporting roles.

The trio of unlikely friends are Freddie (Christian Cooke), a likable kid who doesn’t want to grow up to be like his factory worker dad (Gervais); Bruce (Tom Hughes), a cocky thug who doesn’t want to grow up to be like his drunken layabout father (Francis Magee); and Snork (Jack Doolan), an overweight simpleton who doesn’t want to grow up at all.

They live in a bland suburb called Cemetery Junction in the south of England they want desperately to escape. It’s hard to see why because the filmmakers make it some kind of paradise for yobs where spraying obscenities on a massive real estate poster, smashing up a local club and assaulting a police office lead to just one night in the clink, thanks to the genial local police sergeant who thinks boys will be boys.

Freddie is ambitious, although his attempts to better himself by going to work at an insurance company don’t appear promising. The boss, Mr. Kendrick (Fiennes), and his brightest spark Mike (Matthew Goode) are oily and unpleasant while Mrs. Kendrick (Watson) is long-suffering and beautiful daughter Julie (Jones) seems bound to marry Mike but also dreams of running away.

It all plays out as you would expect. Worse, the film depicts families then as being entirely smug, ignorant and racist, while sneering at the folks at the insurance firm with no understanding, insight or appetite for something illuminating.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter

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THEATRE REVIEW: Mark Haddon’s ‘Polar Bears’

Posted on April 9, 2010 by admin

Polar Bears x650By Ray Bennett

LONDON – British writer Mark Haddon, whose 2003 novel “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” told of a boy with Asperger syndrome, turns his attention to a young woman with bipolar disorder for his first play, “Polar Bears,” with mixed success.

Directed with startling simplicity by Jamie Lloyd at the Donmar Warehouse on a set overlooked by a ceiling with jagged tears in it much like the woman’s mind, the play is insightful but in seeking resolution to an insoluble problem it opts for depressing pessimism.

The play’s characters never learn that attempts by a loved one to help someone whose mental state resembles the physical one of a burn victim mean that the expression of love and caring is received like a well-meant but searing caress on burned skin.

Jodhi May is touchingly credible as Kay, a woman whose grip on reality slips and slides with no seeming relation to any observable stimulus. Richard Coyle (pictured with May), as her philosopher husband John, wins and then loses sympathy as his character’s obvious love for his wife gives way to frustration and his own kind of madness.

The play begins with John confessing to his brother-in-law, Sandy (Paul Hilton), in hysterically comic terms that he has murdered his wife. Subsequent scenes over 90 minutes show what has led to this predicament.

Kay and Sandy were clearly traumatized by the suicide of their father, who hanged himself in the family home when they were young, but the siblings have dealt with it in different ways not helped by a mother (Celia Imrie) who has been left docile and needy. Sandy has turned into a brash and acquisitive businessman while Kay’s attempts to find peace of mind veer from writing children’s books successfully while painting abysmally and striving for a happy home interrupted by sudden flights of casual promiscuity.

Characters, including a former lover and Jesus played by David Leon, show up but might be only in Kay’s mind. The players all do well with Haddon’s complex lines, and May is especially skillful in conveying the woman’s dramatic mood swings. It’s a powerful piece but its failure to leave any glimmer of hope is disappointing.

Venue: Donmar Warehouse, runs through May 11; Cast: Richard Coyle, Paul Hilton, Celia Imrie, David Leon, Jodhi May; Playwright: Mark Haddon; Director: Jamie Lloyd; Designer: Soutra Gilmour; Lighting designer: Jon Clark; Music and sound design: Ben and Max Ringham.

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KVIFF FILM REVIEW: Pawel Sala’s ‘Mother Teresa of Cats’

Posted on April 7, 2010 by admin

mother-teresa-of-cats x650

By Ray Bennett

KARLOVY VARY, CZECH REPUBLIC – Polish filmmaker Pawel Sala’s “Mother Teresa of Cats” attempts to reveal why two sons murder their mother by tracking backwards from the killing. He loses sight of his objective, however, and appears no wiser at the end, or the beginning depending on which way you look at it.

With a stilted format, few scenes of intensity and no real insights to be had, the film is unlikely to make much of a dent internationally.

Starting with the arrest of the boys, titles introduce scenes one day earlier, two days earlier and so forth, although each time frame is from the arrest, not the previous sequence, which is a bit confusing at first.

By not returning to the present until the picture ends, and then inconclusively, the device serves only to distance viewers from the crime with no better understanding of what led to it.

It has fine performances and a gritty sensibility but while writer-director Sala has taken the story from real events and he touches on social pressures including war, he has neither answers nor solutions.

As the oldest son, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz has the intense bearing of a cocky young man who thinks he’s smarter than most, and his eyes can twinkle with mischief and shift abruptly to something deeply sinister. Filip Grabacz plays the younger brother with the right air of gullibility and eagerness to please.

Ewa Skibinska (pictured) shows that the mother’s attractive domesticity and concern for a house full of cats get off track when she must deal with temperamental sons. As the father, a soldier returned from serving in one of the world’s hotspots, Mariusz Bonaszewski conveys a genuine sense of being lost.

But the roles are underwritten and the further back in time the picture goes, the more banal becomes their life. That might be Pawel’s point, but it’s not terribly satisfying.

Venue: Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Official Competition; Cast: Ewa Skibinska, Mariusz Bonaszewski, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Filip Garbacz; Director, writer: Pawel Sala; Director of photography: Mikolaj Kepkowski; Production designer: Katarzyna Jarnuszkiewicz; Music: Marcin Krzyzanowski; Editor: Agniezka Glinska; Producer: Slawomir Rogowski; Production company: Rozwoj Film Production; Sales: Rozwoj Film Production; Not rated, 95 minutes.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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New release scheme for ‘Paris Connections’ by Jackie Collins

Posted on April 7, 2010 by admin

Nicole Steinwedell as Madison Castelli with Anthony Delon in ‘Paris Connections’

By Ray Bennett

Take veteran top-level Hollywood producers, add the UK’s leading supermarket and mix with some of the most popular novelists in the world and you have Amber Entertainment, which founder Ileen Maisel describes as a new paradigm for bringing entertainment to a mass audience.

Amber is a production company making a series of movies that will be sold exclusively on DVD online and in-store at Tesco. Beginning in early summer with “Paris Connections” by Jackie Collins, the films will have bright stars, exotic locations and expensive production values, Maisel says.

The former New Line executive says that budgets for the films will range from £1 million to £3 million but the money will all be on the screen. “Our pitch to Tesco was that they will smell, taste and look like feature films,” she says.

Maisel with partners Mark Ordesky, Jane Fleming and British documentary filmmaker and television producer Lawrence Elman set up Amber Entertainment last year with offices in London and Los Angeles.

Elman says that Maisel developed the idea while at New Line when she realised the paradigm of making films was changing: “She had spent a lot of time in Europe the last 20 years and knew there are so many authors who are overlooked. She’s an avid reader and she had forged relationships with them over the years, so the idea was to create a new media company that would find new ways to get that creative content out there.”

Maisel says the notion came from a complete love of books. Brand-name writers have been involved with TV in the past but not in a way that gave them control: “Jackie Collins did her early works on TV but it had not been done with DVD premieres, and not with authors as branded entertainment. I asked myself, why didn’t somebody think of it? These authors deserve to have their books made into films but the business is constricting. TV is constricting. We needed a different outlet. We’re not trying to compete with the cinema or TV. The choice we made was that this is the primary place for this.”

She sees the tie-in with Tesco as empowering the retailer with content: “People will always want to go to theatres but they also enjoy their entertainment at home. It’ll be a fun experience with maybe a Jackie Collins hen party with all the stuff from Tesco. Kids can go to Tesco and invite their friends over. Audiences benefit and we care about reaching audiences in as many ways as possible.”

The same is true for the other authors that Amber has lined up including Dick and Felix Francis, Philip Pullman, Judy Blume, Karin Slaughter and Anne Perry. Collins says, “It’s a really exciting project for me. I’m on Twitter and lots of my fans tell me they would love to see DVDs of my books so this will give them the opportunity.”

“Paris Connections”, which is drawn from Collins’ book “L.A. Connections”, stars Nicole Steinwedell (“A Single Man”, TV’s “The Unit”) as investigative journalist Madison Castelli involved in a murder mystery in the French capital.

Maisel says that Collins is a producing partner on the project and was involved in the script and casting from the start: “Jackie loved Nicole. She’s strong and sexy, intelligent and vulnerable. The idea was to mix up an American and European cast.”

Anthony Delon (“Frenchman’s Creek”) plays photographer Jake Sica with Charles Dance as Russian oligarch Aleksandr Borinksi, Trudie Styler as his assistant, Hudson Leik (Callisto in “Xena: Warrior Princess”) as a fashion designer and Caroline Chikezie (“Footballers’ Wives”) as Madison’s best friend.

Maisel says the films will reflect the mood of the writers involved: With Blume, it’s about the angst, under-standing and compassion of teenagers, so that’s what will happen. With any adaptation you’re turning it into a visual piece: ‘Paris Connections’ will have extraordinary romance, glamour, and fun. That’s what Jackie C’s readers want.”

The veteran producer confesses, though, that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to make the film in Paris, where it is notoriously expensive to shoot: “Many people choose to shoot in Prague or Romania, but Jackie didn’t write ‘Prague Connections’, she wrote ‘Paris Connections’. When I asked her, Jackie said, ‘Of course Paris.’ I didn’t think it would be that easy.”

This story appeared in Cue Entertainment.

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‘It’s like picking up Rupert Murdoch’s dropped wallet’

Posted on April 6, 2010 by admin

Panel of young consumers speaking candidly at the PEVE conference

By Ray Bennett

Lots of so-called experts claim to know what young people think about entertainment these days, but a panel at Screen Digest’s recent PEVE Digital Media Conference in London provided some genuine insight. Describing how they consume screened entertaintment, six anonymous twentysomethings left the industry audience intrigued, surprised and appalled.

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OLIVIER AWARDS: Rachel Weisz, Mark Rylance big winners

Posted on March 21, 2010 by admin

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Rachel Weisz was named best actress in a play as Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (for which Ruth Wilson, pictured left with Weisz, was named best supporting actress) and Mark Rylance (pictured below) won as best actor for “Jerusalem” in the 2010 Laurence Olivier Awards presented Sunday evening.

“The Mountaintop” saw American Katori Hall become the first black female playwright to win the Olivier for best new play while Broadway transfer “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” was named best revival.

Weisz Wilson Oliviers x325In musical honors, Broadway hit but London flop “Sweet Awakening” was named best new show with the production’s Aneurin Bernard winning as best actor and Iwan Rheon for best supporting performance.  “Hello Dolly!” won as best musical revival with Samantha Spiro named best actress in the title role and Stephen Mear best choreographer. “Wicked” picked up the audience award for most popular show while Michael Wynne’s “The Priory” won the best new comedy award and Tim Whitnall’s “Morecambe” won as best entertainment.

The British equivalent of the Tony Awards came as West End theater celebrated its best ever year in 2009 with box office receipts topping £500 million ($751 million) for the first time with attendance breaking records at 14.26 million, up 5.5% from the previous year.

The awards, presented by the Society of London Theatre, were handed out a gala banquet at the Grosvenor House Hotel with presenters including Jude Law, Kim Catrall, James Earl Jones, Rupert Friend and Rosamund Pike. Two-time Academy Award winner Maggie Smith received a special award and the evening included performances from hit shows “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” “Sister Act,” “Blood Brothers” and “Les Miserables,” celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Mark Rylance x325Oscar-winner Weisz was honored for the Donmar Warehouse revival of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” which also earned Ruth Wilson (2008 Golden Globe nominee in the title role of BBC miniseries “Jane Eyre”) the prize for best supporting performance, playing Stella. Rylance, who won the 2008 best actor Tony Award for “Boeing-Boeing,” won as the patriarch of an unruly family in Jez Butterworth’s comedy “Jerusalem.”

The play, which is sold out at the Apollo Theatre following an acclaimed term at the Royal Court, was heavily favored to win for best new play but lost to Hall’s second play, “The Mountaintop.” It follows Martin Luther King on the night before his assassination and had a nine-week run at London’s Trafalgar Studios.

Hall’s play also triumphed over John Logan’s “Red”, a hit Donmar production about artist Mark Rothko, which opens at Broadway’s John Golden Theater on April 1, and Lucy Trebble’s “Enron,” about the company’s financial meltdown, which is in a sold-out run at London’s Noel Coward Theatre and opens at the Broadhurst Theatre on April 27.

Eddie Redmayne (Angel in the BBC’s 2008 miniseries “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”) won the Olivier for best supporting performance for “Red” and he joins Alfred Molina in the Broadway production while Rupert Goold, who directed “Enron” in the West End and also on Broadway, won the Olivier for best director.

“Cat On a Hot Tin Roof” closes at the Novello Theatre on April 10 following a successful run with some of the Broadway cast including James Earl Jones as Big Daddy and Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama.

Best new musical “Sweet Awakening,” which picked up eight Tony Awards as a Broadway hit, earned great critical praise in the West End, but it closed after a short run at the Novello. Best musical revival “Hello Dolly!” had a hit summer run at the Regents Park Open Air Theatre.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

WINNERS OF THE 2010 LAURENCE OLIVER AWARDS

BEST ACTRESS

Rachel Weisz for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at the Donmar

BEST ACTOR

Mark Rylance for JERUSALEM at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court and now at the Apollo

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Ruth Wilson for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE at the Donmar

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Eddie Redmayne for RED at the Donmar

BEST NEW PLAY

THE MOUNTAINTOP by Katori Hall at Trafalgar Studios 1

BEST NEW COMEDY

THE PRIORY by Michael Wynne at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court

BEST MUSICAL REVIVAL

HELLO DOLLY! book by Michael Stewart, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, based on the play ‘The Matchmaker’ by Thornton Wilder at the Open Air

BEST NEW MUSICAL

SPRING AWAKENING music by Duncan Sheik, book and lyrics by Steven Sater, based on the play by Frank Wedekind at the Novello

BEST ENTERTAINMENT

MORECAMBE by Tim Whitnall at the Duchess

BEST ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT

Samantha Spiro for HELLO DOLLY! at the Open Air

BEST ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT

Aneurin Barnard for SPRING AWAKENING at the Novello

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL OR ENTERTAINMENT

Iwan Rheon for SPRING AWAKENING at the Novello

BEST DIRECTOR

Rupert Goold for ENRON at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court and now at the Noel Coward

BEST REVIVAL

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF directed by Debbie Allen at the Novello

BEST THEATRE CHOREOGRAPHER

Stephen Mear for HELLO DOLLY! at the Open Air

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN

BURNT BY THE SUN designed by Mark Henderson at the Lyttelton

BEST SET DESIGN

JERUSALEM designed by Ultz at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court and now at the Apollo

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT- THE MUSICAL designed by Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner at the Palace

BEST SOUND DESIGN

SPRING AWAKENING designed by Brian Ronan at the Novello

THE AUDIENCE AWARD FOR MOST POPULAR SHOW

WICKED music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Winnie Holzman at the Apollo Victoria

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN AN AFFILIATE THEATRE

• The Royal Court for COCK at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs

BEST NEW OPERA PRODUCTION

• The Royal Opera’s TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Royal Opera House

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN OPERA

• Nina Stemme for her performance in the Royal Opera’s TRISTAN UND ISOLDE at the Royal Opera House

BEST NEW DANCE PRODUCTION

• GOLDBERG: THE BRANDSTRUP ROJO PORJECT, ROH2 at the Royal Opera House

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DANCE

• Rambert Dance Company for an outstanding year of new work

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

• Michael Codron

SOCIETY OF LONDON THEATRE SPECIAL AWARD

• Dame Maggie Smith

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THEATRE REVIEW: Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ‘Love Never Dies’

Posted on March 15, 2010 by admin

Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo at the Adelphi Theatre

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Unlike lightning, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Phantom” does strike twice. More than 23 years after “Phantom of the Opera” became a worldwide sensation, the British composer has delivered a sequel in “Love Never Dies” that is as handsome as the original and filled with infectious melodies, startling images and wonderful performances.

The sequel is set in the early years of the 20th Century a decade after the ending of the original, with the key players from the first show caught up in a Gothic drama set in a spooky theater on Coney Island.

Soprano Christine (Sierra Boggess) arrives for a special performance bringing along her gambler husband Raoul (Joseph Millson) and their 10-year-old son Gustave. Unknown to them, the show’s impresario is the Phantom (Ramin Karimloo).

It is revealed in the first act that the scarred composer and his muse shared a night of passion before she got married and went away, and the question of who is the boy’s father drives the story.

Further complications come from the current star of the Phantom’s show, Meg (Summer Strallen, pictured), whose mother Madame Giry (Liz Robertson) fears that Christine’s arrival will lead to their being abandoned.

Lloyd Webber gives credit to comedian/writer Ben Elton for coming up with the plotline for the show and he brings not the guile of “Blackadder” but the simplicity of another hit stage musical he wrote, the Queen show “We Will Rock You.”

It’s pure romantic melodrama but the lack of complexity leaves Lloyd Webber free to concentrate on the music, which he does with extraordinary vigor. His melodies radiate immediately and Glenn Slater’s no-nonsense lyrics don’t get in the way at all.

Iranian-born and Canada-based Karimloo has the strut and posture the Phantom needs and he has full command of a rich and subtle voice. Colorado-born Boggess’ delivery of the title song alone is worth the price of admission. Its simple lyric becomes heart-rending as Boggess caresses and sculpts the song in a spotlight moment that in times gone by would have been called a showstopper.

Millson, Robertson and Strallen also have their moments to shine as Lloyd Webber shakes up the musical tone with lively dancing girls and even some prog-rock. His rousing and moving orchestrations with David Cullen lean less to his traditional keyboards and more toward strings and brass with exceptional playing by seasoned professionals including one of Britain’s top flugelhorn players John Barclay, familiar from many James Bond movie scores.

The whole thing is rendered in a magnificent design that combines video projection; smoke and mirrors; beguiling illusions; and mischievous devices to create a vital atmosphere where love, jealousy and death can play out with sumptuous musicality.

Venue: Adelphi Theatre, runs through Oct. 23; Cast: Ramin Karimloo, Sierra Boggess, Joseph Millson, Liz Robertson, Summer Strallen; Music: Andrew Lloyd Webber; Lyrics: Glenn Slater; Book: Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton with Glenn Slater and Frederick Forsyth; Director: Jack O’Brien; Producer: Andre Ptaszynski; Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell; Set and costume designer: Bob Crowley; Lighting designer: Paule Constable; Sound designer: Mick Potter; Orchestrations: David Cullen and Andrew Lloyd Webber; Music supervisor: Simon Lee.

This review appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.

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THEATRE REVIEW: Jonathan Pryce in ‘The Caretaker’

Posted on March 11, 2010 by admin

Jonathan Pryce and Peter McDonald in ‘The Caretaker’

By Ray Bennett

LONDON – Harold Pinter’s masterpiece “The Caretaker” mirrors life in that it’s not entirely clear what’s going on but the joy, pain and despair are real.

Not that there’s much joy in the late Nobel Prize-winning playwright’s tale of a tramp and his two masters but Jonathan Pryce in the title role makes full use of everything else with masterful skill.

As Davies, the down-and-out scavenger who stumbles upon a job looking after a ramshackle apartment, the Welsh actor speaks mostly with his native accent but he deliberately lets it slide over the British landscape and up and down the social scale as the situation requires.

Pryce contrives to have Davies turn on a dime from pathetic neediness to sulky insolence to buoyant high spirits and back again. Vocal adroitness matched by physical agility combine with a palette of nuanced expressions with which he creates an unforgettable portrait of pitiful adaptability.

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PREVIEW: James Purefoy stakes a claim for action stardom

Posted on February 21, 2010 by admin

 

James Purefoy up to his neck in blood and guts in 'Solomon Kane'

By Ray Bennett

British filmmaker Michael J. Bassett likes rain, mud and gore. Making his third feature film, the sword and sorcery epic “Solomon Kane” due for release by Entertainment on Feb. 19, he tested his star James Purefoy to the limits shooting in deep winter in the Czech Republic. Continue reading →

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