Lesley Manville

Midwinter Break

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Gerry and Stella consult a map

Unfashionable and not particularly worried about it, Midwinter Break is a showcase for the acting talents of Lesley Manville and Ciarán Hinds, who play a long-married couple taking a city break in Amsterdam. She bought them both the trip for Christmas and if he’s being honest he probably didn’t want to go but is not saying so. Because? That’s your film. A bit of infill. Stella and Gerry are originally from Northern Ireland but relocated years before to Scotland, after she got caught by a bullet during the Troubles. She was pregnant at the time. The child survived, but her ability to have more kids was taken from her. Now, Stella’s daughter is … Read more

Cold Storage

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Travis and Naomi investigate

Cold Storage is lo-fi sci-fi done on a decent budget, it’s written by David Koepp, who did the original Jurassic Park the first Mission: Impossible. And it is stacked with actors of the calibre of Lesley Manville, Vanessa Redgrave and Liam Neeson, though none of them is the star. Smartly made, well acted, it’s entirely enjoyable and not very demanding and is the sort of film you might once upon a time have brought home on VHS from the local video shop. In fact Redgrave is in it so little that I wondered if her presence was some kind of joke. Neeson and Manville get more of a shake, especially in the opening … Read more