’The Tourist’ (Season 2)

Season 2 switches to Ireland from the Australian outback as Elliot decides, with the encouragement of girlfriend Helen, to discover his true identity. Naturally enough, they walk into a whole heap of trouble.

Elliot (Jamie Dornan) is content to continue travelling with former police constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald) who had been so supportive during his search to find his identity in the black comedy that was season one. Helen decides Elliot should find out more about his true self and they set off to Ireland – with Elliot kidnapped on their first day on the soil of the Emerald Isle.

Turns out Elliot is a member of the Cassidy family and he’s walked straight back into the family feud with the McDonnells he tried to escape from. Only Elliot has no memory – not of his mother Niamh (Olwen Fouéré), Frank McDonnell (Francis Magee) nor nemesis Donal McDonnell (Diarmaid Murtagh).
Not to be outdone, Helen finds herself captive by the dodgy Garda detective, Ruairi Slater (Conor MacNeill), assigned to the case and is been stalked by former partner Ethan (Greg Larsen). He’s seen the light and is a reformed man.

If it sounds complicated, it’s not. Over the six episodes, it becomes clearer as who Elliot is and why he left (no explanation for memory loss though) as the reasons for the family feuds become clearer. Unlike season one, however, there’s little in the way of suspense or that wry, entertaining mismatch of characters and plot lines. It’s all too dull and predictable – with absolutely no reason for the reintroduction of the tedious Ethan. He was the weak link in season one so bring him back for more tedious pedantry?

Rating: 35%

’A Haunting in Venice’

A retired Hercule Poirot, now living in solitary seclusion in post-World War II Venice, is persuaded to attend a seance on Hallowe’en in a reportedly haunted palazzo. Murder most foul calls upon the famed detective’s sleuthing skills.

The arrival of murder mystery author Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey) leads Poirot agreeing to attend a seance at the home of opera singer Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly). Twelve months earlier, Drake’s daughter had fallen to her death. Fakery aplenty with medium Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) and her entourage only part of the mysterious goings-on as a terrible storm isolates the party. In locking the doors, Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is only too aware the murderer is among them.

Visually and atmospherically capturing the shadowy story as the storm rages, the weak part of A Haunting in Venice is its narrative. With little in terms of suspense and plenty of red herrings, a stellar cast merely go through the motions in a camp, gothic spectacle.

Rating: 55%

Director: Kenneth Branagh (Belfast, Murder on the Orient Express)

Writer: Michael Green (Logan, Murder on the Orient Express) – based on a novel by Agatha Christie

Main cast: Kenneth Branagh (Oppenheimer, Murder on the Orient Express), Tina Fey (Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, Date Night), Kelly Reilly (Calvary, Flight)

‘The Fall’ (all 3 seasons)

Powerful and intense, The Fall is a totally gripping three season, 17 episode procedural police drama set in Belfast. Temporarily posted from the MET to Northern Ireland to head up an internal review, Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson (a mesmerising Gillian Anderson) quickly finds herself leading the investigation into a serial rapist and sadistic killer.

It’s an extraordinary television series superbly written by Allan Cubitt. There’s no sudden reveal as to the identity of the killer. From episode one, Paul Spector (a scarily convincing pre-Shades of Grey Jamie Dornan), a bereavement counsellor and married with two young children, stalks his victims in and around the city. All victims are professional women similar in age and appearance.

A psychological thriller, a cat and mouse narrative unfolds between Gibson and Spector as each try to out guess the other. Both are determined, driven individuals and Cubitt skilfully explores the similarities in character of the two. It’s a stark reality with The Fall unafraid to go into dark, dark places. Juxtaposed with the towering central performances are the subplots and bylines of gender politics, teenage obsession (a convincing byline from Aisling Franciosi as the 15 year-old babysitter of the Spector family), Irish cultural politics and predatory sexual behaviour.

Gillian Anderson has said that Gibson is her favourite role and the powerhouse of a policewoman, tough yet vulnerable, proceeds to find the evidence we as viewers already know. But it’s not easy – the manipulative and charming Spector is no fool. The Fall is 17 episodes of compulsive and intelligent television.

Rating: 87%

‘Belfast’

A rose-tinted Belfast childhood from writer/director Kenneth Branagh (Death on the Nile, Hamlet) creates an intimate and deeply personal family drama but which misses the grit and sense of foreboding ever-present in the city wrenched apart by sectarian violence.

Young Buddy (Jude Hill) innocently observes the world around him as, with his father (Jamie Dornan – Fifty Shades of Grey, A Private War) mostly absent working in London, Ma (Catriona Balfe – Ford vs Ferrari, Money Monster) struggles to raise the kids. There’s plenty of advice from Granny (Judi Dench – Skyfall, Red Joan) and Pop (Ciarán Hinds – Red Sparrow, The Woman in Black) but debts and threats of violence slowly wear her down.

Engaging as it is with a wry sparkle of a script and solid cast adding depth to its narrative, a touch more darkness is needed to elevate Belfast into something more substantial.

Nominated for 7 Oscars including best film, director, supporting actor (Hinds), supporting actress (Dench), won 1 (original script).

Rating: 69%

‘Wild Mountain Thyme’

Pleasant, undemanding romantic drama surprisingly underachieving considering it’s pedigree.

Adapted from his own play (Outside Mullingar), director John Patrick Shanley (Doubt, Joe Versus the Volcano) pits Irish farmholders in a dispute over a small tract of land. Rosemary Muldoon (Emily Blunt – Sicario, A Quiet Place) refuses to sell as the neighbouring Reilly property seems to be heading for an American (Jon Hamm – Baby Driver, TV’s Mad Men)) purchase. She is looking to the only Reilly son, Anthony (Jamie Dornan – Belfast, TV’s The Tourist) not only to inherit but take a more romantic interest in his willing neighbour.

Dialogue-heavy, Wild Mountain Thyme emphasises its early beginnings with some enjoyable (albeit occasional) wry humour but it’s also somewhat underwhelming. Lots of shots of a verdant Irish countryside but a lethargic pace creates certain charm but which soon tests the patience.

Rating: 47%

‘The Tourist’

A fun if far-fetched Australian outback adventure as The Man (Jamie Dornan) wakes up in hospital without a clue as to who he is. But we have already witnessed the cat and mouse chase with a truck that caused the accident, an accident that was intended to leave him for dead. Something is obviously not quite right. But as far as trainee police constable Helen Chambers (Danielle Macdonald) is concerned, she just needs to help Dornan find his identity. Juxtaposed is her own self-discovery of self worth as she struggles with weight loss and a condescending partner (Greg Larsen).

What unfolds over this six part miniseries is a wry, entertaining mismatch of characters, unexpected (for The Man) revelations, intrigue, police corruption and murder as Dornan tries to discover his identity – and why someone is out to kill him. His past will eventually catch up with him, no question. The phone calls he receives from a man buried underground testify to that. And then there’s Luci (Shalom Brune-Franklin), a waitress in a local cafe who, wholly out of place in such a backdrop, knows more than she’s letting on.

A black comedy with a high level of understated absurdity makes The Tourist an engaging, self-assured deflection with Dornan unexpectedly vulnerable and charismatic.

Rating: 66%

‘A Private War’

With a distinctive eyepatch, Marie Colvin was a fearless war correspondent and something of a legend within journalistic circles. She covered Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka (where she lost the use of her left eye) and whilst she interviewed the likes of Ghadafi and Arafat, it was in the cry of the voices of the innocent, the powerless that Colvin excelled.

Equally at home with hard-drinking London corporates as hunkered down in a war zone, Colvin (Rosamund Pike) inevitably suffered emotionally and physically. Documentary filmmaker Matthew Heineman, in his feature debut, explores both sides from early days to the lead up to the Syrian conflict and the besieged city of Homs.

A Private War is something of a mixed bag. Targeted by snipers or fearfully trapped with families in the rubble of constant bombing, the film is at its harrowing best. It’s time in London that sees the tension and impact drop. The result is an odd distancing, a lack of soul that is carried into battle. Pike ultimately fails to convince, creating an imbalance to a film that is both a personal and a universal experience of war.

Rating: 58%

Director: Matthew Heineman (City of Ghosts, Cartel Land)

Writer: Arash Amel (Grace of Monaco, Erased) – based on the magazine article in Vanity Fair by Marie Breener

Main cast: Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl, A United Kingdom), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones, Road to Perdition), Jamie Dornan (The Siege of Jadotville, Fifty Shades of Grey)