Amélie's Report from the UK:

The organisers certainly went out of their way to find cinemas in parts of London not usually involved in the free screenings programmes; this one was at the Vue cinema in Fulham Broadway.  The A-Z shows the cinema next to the underground station, in fact it is on top of it.  The whole thing is set up like a mini shopping centre, so you could do the whole ‘watch a flick, have a nice meal afterwards’ if you wanted.

There was a short delay before people were allowed into Screen 1, as I have been having the week from hell thanks to my lords and masters I decided to stuff the diet and stuff my face with chocolate and full-fat, sugar laden Coke.  The foyer in the cinema had lots of televisions showing trailers for upcoming films, and there was a poster of Clive Owen looking supremely dishy as Raleigh.  I found out why the trailers were shown in the foyer and not the auditorium – they showed a continuous loop of adverts for local businesses instead.  Interesting the first time round, suicide-inducing after the seventh.

When I arrived at first there were only a few people there, but by the time the film started at 6.30 the auditorium was full and the age range of the audience was very interesting: from late 20s to early retirees, and more men than usually seen at one of Russell’s films!

The film started bang on time with no fanfare, and a subtle opening scene to match.  The only issue I have with the film is Christian Bale’s endless whispering when it isn’t necessary.  Russell and everyone spoke clearly all the time, so it really does stand out and is an unnecessary distraction.  In fairness to Christian Bale at least he isn’t a member of the Al Pacino word-swallowing, scenery chewing, who can be the biggest ham school of acting.  The burgeoning relationship between the two men is observed beautifully, as is the growing understanding between father and son.  I won’t spoil the film for people who haven’t seen it yet by going into detail.

Peter Fonda is excellent, and sometimes you can see his father staring out of his face which is quite unsettling.  I saw a production of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ several years ago and one of Robert Shaw’s sons was in the cast; in profile he was the spit and image of his father.  So much so that the entire audience spent about 30 seconds fervently believing he was a ghost.

There are several laugh out loud moments in the film, which I wasn’t expecting.  The action set-pieces are great and Ben’s seduction of the barmaid is going to live in my mind for a long time.

As for the daft critics who have complained about the scene with the horse, it’s called training!

I loved the film and it was the escape I needed.