Do they or don’t they? (Relocate to the mainland / see Daniel’s bum / expand their diet beyond “gull”)? Read my plot recap and detailed ending, below (my three star review is here) Isla and Sandy are two thirtysomething siblings who have lived alone on a tiny Scottish island since their parents disappeared in childhood…. Do they stay or do they go? The ending of The Incomer Read More
The Incomer 3 stars
Two siblings on a tiny Scottish island are visited by a local council worker with orders to evict them. A brother and sister live in splendid isolation on a supposedly uninhabited Scottish island, until their hard and solitary life is interrupted by an incursion by a council-sent intruder. They try to repel him the way… The Incomer Read More
Trailer: The Incomer
The Incomer – a brother and sister living in splendidly weird isolation on a supposedly uninhabited Scottish island, trying to repel/kill a council-sent intruder on their land while dressing up as knights of old and a plague doctor / medieval Big Bird – is what you would get if you combined 28 Years Later: The… Trailer: The Incomer Read More
A Castle For Christmas: ending explained (wait, what?)
ENDING EXPLAINED? IN A NETFLIX CHRISTMAS ROMANCE MOVIE? Okay: They realise they’ve been stupid and admit they love each other, The End. The slightly longer version is here: Sophie and Myles finally become a couple thanks to Hamish the dog running off with her shoe when she’s trying on a black taffeta and tartan ball… A Castle For Christmas: ending explained (wait, what?) Read More
A Castle For Christmas 3 stars
An American author finds love when she travels to Scotland to visit the childhood home of her late father. It is a truth universally acknowledged that an impecunious British aristocrat with a freezing castle must be in want of a rich American wife, even if he doesn’t know it yet. In A Castle, A Castle,… A Castle For Christmas Read More
The film club watches Dog Soldiers – winalot or pedigree dumb? 5 stars
After re-watching Dog Soldiers it took me five days to venture back into the woods to walk the dog, and I made sure Film Club Liz came with me. I’ll not be hiking through the Scottish Highlands any time soon though, which joins the Yorkshire Moors and deserted late-night London Underground stations on my werewolf… The film club watches Dog Soldiers – winalot or pedigree dumb? Read More
Local Hero 4.5 stars
A Scottish fishing village. An American oil company. Bullied locals vs thoughtless big business. Local Hero looks as if it’s going to be a story about heavy-handed billionaires forcing idiosyncratic Northern villagers in chunky sweaters out of their birthright. Or it probably did in 1983, when it came out. Now the film has become part… Local Hero Read More
Robert The Bruce 3 stars
Angus Macfadyen, reprising his role as Robert the Bruce, is a lot older than when he portrayed the future Scottish king in Braveheart, though it fits this Robert; a man wiser, ground down, painfully aware of where his actions have led the country: “I truly believed that God had chosen me to be King. And then we… Robert The Bruce Read More
24 years after Braveheart, Angus Macfadyen is back as Robert the Bruce
*** Read my Robert The Bruce review now *** HISTORICAL EPIC: ✔️ BEARDS: ✔️ SWORDS: ✔️ SCOTLAND: ✔️ MUD: ✔️. EXCITEMENT RATING: ✔️✔️✔️✔️✔️/5 Angus Macfadyen is back as Robert the Bruce, nearly a quarter of a century after playing the Scottish hero in Braveheart – though this new film is set in 1306, just after the death… 24 years after Braveheart, Angus Macfadyen is back as Robert the Bruce Read More
The Isle 3.5 stars
*** Read my interview with Matthew (director/co-writer) and Tori (producer, co-writer and star) Butler-Hart *** I feel something of an affinity with sirens, as I too find that innocent men dash themselves on the nearest available jagged outcrop, their faces contorted in terror, whenever I start singing. The Isle, a supernatural Victorian thriller set on a… The Isle Read More
The Vanishing 4 stars
Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance. There’s a brutal scene half-way through The Vanishing, director Kristoffer Nyholm’s “what if?” take on the Flannan Isle mystery. It’s a fight between lighthouse keepers James Ducat (Gerard Butler) and Thomas Marshall (Peter Mullan), and two violent… The Vanishing Read More
Mary Queen Of Scots 3.5 stars
To shore up their throne a monarch will lean heavily on symbolism, as does director Josie Rourke; so much so that the constant allusions to the symmetry and asymmetry in the two queens’ lives sometimes threaten to overwhelm the whole movie. My advice is simply to lie back and enjoy it, as otherwise your frustrations will… Mary Queen Of Scots Read More