Reviews

This must be a great movie because I keep coming back to watching it every time it's on TV!

Overlooking the henious crime that is Travolta's hair-piece, this is actually an engrossing, well-paced, action-filled movie with great performances in the key roles.

*Spoiler* What doesn't sit right is that the babysitter gets shot, which is shocking yet gets no further attention in the story thereafter. It's basically ignored.

The film portrays the meeting of Lennon with Elvis in 1965 (27th August). Based on the original story: "Our Night with Elvis".

Elvis and Lennon are seen driving down a highway at night with Elvis at the wheel and 'Trouble' (performed by Henrik Aberg) playing over the opening credits. We have to wait until 1:37 before we see the lead characters which in a 12 minute film is too long.

I wanted to like this but unfortunately what spoiled it for me was the laughable attempt at a Liverpool accent by Max Hughes. It really was awful. Plus I don't think I've ever heard John Lennon say 'man' which is used repeatedly in this film short.

The mood of the film is mainly downbeat apart from the ending. Lennon is pretty one-dimensional, showing little of his charm or Goon-style wit. He mainly berates and torments Elvis for the duration and comes across as wholly unpleasant. Alex Pappas does a better job with his role as Elvis showing a degree of humility and boisterousness.

The make-up and costumes were acceptable for the era and the addition of the classic American car adds authenticity and atmosphere. This is diluted by the inconsistent sound quality of the unequalised audio between Elvis and Lennon as we here them speak to each other inside the car.

What does come across is Elvis' awareness of his fading popularity and his feelings of intimidation and resentment of Lennon and the Beatles. This is balanced by the pair reflecting on the death of their respective Mothers and we observe a connection between them at this point.

The film ends after we witness the reaction of a waking stowaway female fan from the back seat of the car who feints from over excitement leading to Elvis and Lennon sharing an all-too-brief and the only light-hearted moment in this film short.

The one thing that really weakens this otherwise compelling film, is the main character, Otto (Brendan Gleeson) who displays the same expression and mood throughout. An overly measured performance devoid of passion, excitement, rage, love, sorrow - just about anything. There are several instances where you would expect to see traces of emotion in Otto: When he learns of his son's death - no reaction; His neighbour commits suicide - no reaction; And when he gets caught for his crime - no reaction.

Luckily, we see more depth in the film's other characters; Otto's wife, Anna (Emma Thompson) and the multi-dimensional Police Detective, Escherich (Daniel Brüh). Both provide much of the colour and contrast absent from Gleeson's character: The moving scene where Anna discovers Otto's wood carving of their dead son's face; And Escherich's final moments when he contemplates the significance of the evidence collected and the consequence of his actions.

The usually brilliant, Brül gives an entertaining performance as the Detective who becomes increasingly desperate and ruthless. Let down only occasionally by a lack of authority, vocally. However, this lends itself to a later scene in which Escherich is humiliated and beaten by the results driven, SS Officer Prall (Mikael Persbrandt) who has all the necessary menacing and oppressive qualifications.

Overall, this is an intriguing and often tense film and succeeds to reflect the tyranny and cruelty of the Nazi regime during this period in history and the lengths that some (without and army of their own) will go to, to thwart, infuriate and distract it.

This works as a short sketch only. It is a single gag that is repeated ad nauseam and after only three episodes I could take no more. It is painful to watch and frankly not worthy of fine actors, Hugh Bonneville and Jessica Hynes. For example, the conference suite scenes have the same structure and outcome every time - only the dialogue (such that it is) varies. The Head of Security character is unbelievable and just isn't funny, the Intern is just annoyingly hopeless. Several scenes are just a waste of time and banal in the extreme. It's altogether unbearable and unfunny.