Film Reviews by CH

Embarrassingly bad hippy saga with some nice photography, and tantalising snatches of raw Pink Floyd. Not enough to make it worth sitting through though.

The film manages to be both inanely sentimental and amateurish, a waste of Penelope Cruz's talent. It presents a very sanitised view of cancer and terminal illness, in fact it could be very upsetting for anyone who has experience of this and knows the messy and miserable reality of serious illness. I began to wonder whether it is supposed to be a magic reality fantasy after the style of Lorca, but it does not work. Well worth missing.

The other reviewers have covered most of it. There are gaps, and the part of Landy is overdone and crude when he did probably save Brian's life. But the film is a delight to watch, if you like music and musicians the studio scenes are excellent, and you have to be very hard-bitten not to enjoy the ending. I watched it 4 times for the pleasure of it.

I watched to the end hoping it would get better but it did not. I wasted 98 minutes of my life. Bel Powley is a good actor but she deserves a good film. The adult characters are cardboard images of feckless shallow individuals. I can't tell whether its trying to be a satire on the 70s or some kind of "women winning through" transcendent story, but to me it's just light porn with a few mildly amusing jokes. And I would not want my teenage grandchild to see it, it is so cynical. I think she would see through it but she deserves better.

Very charming, moody filming gives a great sense of place. The main characters are portrayed with fine sensitivity and the whole film is gently moving. One of my all-time favourites.