The Paperboy.

The very charming Charlotte Bless.

Directed by Lee Daniels, best known for the award-winning Precious (2009), The Paperboy (2012) has had very mixed reviews but most agree that the best thing about the film is Nicole Kidman. In it she plays Charlotte Bless, a deliciously trashy 40-year-old blond who falls for a prisoner on death row that she has been corresponding with and although she has never met the man they are engaged to be married.  Her role certainly deserved some recognition for Best Actress at the big award ceremonies but as usual she didn’t get it.

Ward Jensen interviews Hillary von Wetter.

Based on a novel of the same name by American author Pete Dexter it’s mainly located in the simmering sun drenched swamps of Louisiana in 1969. Hillary van Wetter (John Cusack) is on death row for the murder of Thurmond Call an unscrupulous local sheriff who it is alleged killed a cousin of van Wetter. Charlotte Bless requests the help of two Miami Times investigative journalists, Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) and the Englishman Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), to prove that her beloved is innocent and should be released from prison so she can marry him. Ward, who is determined to get to the truth, is back on his home turf were his father and brother Jack (Zac Efron) are still living. Jack, who is to drive the two out of town reporters, has fallen in love with the sexpot Charlotte, which, as usual with matters of the heart, complicates things.    

Charlotte Bless pleads van wetter's case.

Its not as if this gothic thriller is not enjoyable, as I have already pointed out the acting from our leading lady is, as Peter Bradshaw put it in his Cannes review, “terrifically good, funny, sexy, and poignantly vulnerable” Macy Grey is very amusing at Anita the family’s maid who also narrates the story. John Cusack is scary as van Wetter and the other three main stars play their parts effortlessly. But, yes there is a but, the film is flat, and by that I mean it does not move you, its unemotional, but if you like your movies to be fun and somewhat raunchy then give it a try.

Who's taking who for a ride?

Precious.

50 year old, wild haired, Lee Daniels best known for producing Monsters Ball (2001) and The Woodsman has now directed one of the most impressive films of 2009, to give it its full title, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. The film has been adapted from the best selling 1996 novel by Ramona Lofton a writer and performance poet who styles herself Sapphire. Set in Harlem in 1987 it’s the story of Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones an obese 16-year-old illiterate black girl who is abused emotionally and physically by her mother and has a daughter with Downs’s syndrome by her father. He constantly rapes her with her mother’s knowledge and she is now pregnant by him again. Precious gets a chance to transfer to an alternative school which offers the chance to change her life around. The film marks the superb acting debut of Gabourey Sidibe who plays the very likable lead character Precious. Mary Lee Johnston, Precious verbal and abusive mother, is played by Mo’Nique who won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. Paula Patton (Déjà Vue 2006) plays the brilliantly named alternative school teacher Ms Blu Rain. Daniels also cast two well known American singers in major roles, Mariah Carey as a social worker and Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse who befriends Precious. It’s a very powerful and at times, shocking experience, tough to watch but ultimately very rewarding and surprisingly uplifting considering the subject matter. It gives a glimpse of a world we would probably refer to pretend does not exist. The final showdown between Precious and her mother is a tremendous example of acting at its best. It’s almost a crime not to see this film. The DVD will be available from the 24th May 2010.