Favourite Films Of 2012

This is the first part of my review of the year, my favourite films of the past year.

10. The Woman In Black

Sort of scary and Daniel Radcliffe even actually rather good.

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9. Moneyball

Not as good as they say but still not bad. Mr Pitt on song again.

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8. Shadow Dancer

An intelligent, suspenseful and well-acted IRA thriller.

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7. Dark Horse

I have no idea what was real and what wasn’t in this film but still loved it.

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6. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

OMG a remake I liked. I would almost say it was better than the Swedish version but for Daniel Craig. So overall it’s still the rawer original for me, I think... maybe... I'm actually not sure.

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5. Margin Call

A film about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and the collapse of the Mortgage Backed Security market... zzzzzzzzz. No seriously it's actually rather good.

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4. Martha Marcy May Marlene

Another film where you're not really sure what's real and what's imagined but I do like a film that poses more questions than answers. This poses plenty.

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3. Silver Linings Playbook

A film that ripped up the rom-com rule book but (sadly) still managed a happy ending, as two damaged souls heal each other through dancing... sounds dreadful doesn’t it.

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2. Headhunters

A film that is full of surprises and at times leads you a right merry dance. You think one thing but then you think something else. It also turned me into an instant Jo Nesbø fan. Beware Hollywood remakes... because there’s no way on earth Hollywood could better this.

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1. Shame

Perhaps an odd choice as my number one as it was perhaps a little disappointing at the time but we were still talking about it days later, so here it is - an orgasm addicted Michael Fassbender, a naked Carey Mulligan and no connection between the two, it's my number one.

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A Sudden Interest In Rugby

I roll home from Bingham at about 9.30am, despite several laps of the A46 roadworks. This is early enough to bring L her morning coffee in bed and to join her. Eventually the dogs get their park session and then I take an interest in the rugby.

I’ve never taken so much interest in rugby for years but the intense media dislike for new England boss Stuart Lancaster, despite two wins out of two, makes me root for the England rugby team like never before. Unfortunately they come up just short against Wales. Controversially up short as it happens.

It’s ‘only’ a five miler tomorrow, so we have a drink with our pre-cinema meal tonight before we head into the film.

As ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ starts, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) is running away, from what we’re not sure yet. She’s also pursued, by one of her new ‘family’ but strikingly he doesn’t take her back. Instead she calls her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson), whom she hasn’t spoken to for two years, but nonetheless Lucy drives three hours to pick up her younger sister.

From there they go to Lucy and her husband Ted’s (Hugh Dancy) holiday home in Connecticut. Martha won’t say much about where she’s been for the last two years, why she hasn’t called or what she’s running away from. Well apart from ‘boyfriend trouble’... ‘we had a fight’ you know.

In flashbacks we learnt that Martha has been living in a farmhouse with a host of other runaways where they are under the ‘leadership’ of the creepy and controlling, some would say charismatic, Patrick (John Hawkes). A man with a unique philosophy on life. ‘Death is but a continuation, not an end’... etc.

In this little commune, a woman's role is subservient. They all share their clothes, belongings, themselves... and sleep together on mattresses in the same room. They work around the house, in the garden and in the kitchen. They are only allowed to eat once the men have finished.

Patrick enchants Martha by singing her a song, renaming her Marcy May and making her feel as if she belongs. Which she will, once she’s undergone the initiation ceremony. Which is to be given drugs and then shagged by Patrick. Apparently, the house has many of his babies but they’re all boys...

Once she’s done a runner, Martha has problems readjusting to normal life. Her sister and her husband try to accommodate her despite her sometimes difficult attitude. Sleeping at the end of their bed whilst they are having sex etc.

Which highlights the film’s only real flaw, that she has unlearnt so many things that would have been embedded in her head from being a young child. Such as putting a swimsuit on when you swim in public and not swimming in the nude.

Otherwise it’s a clever and engrossing film, exploring how a person can get manipulated and brainwashed into an alternative way of life.

I like a film that poses more questions than answers, like this one does. Towards the end things start to happen that are simply not explained. She damages a car but whose car? Or did she? Did she really escape when she ran away or is it all so immersed in her that she may never truly escape? Is that why they didn’t come after her? Because they were confident that there was no escape in her mind and that she will eventually return of her own accord...

The film leaves us unsure of what is real. Are the things that are now happening really happening or are they just in Martha's mind? She thinks that she is being tracked down but is she? The film leaves us in the same state of mind as Martha. Confused. Wondering what is real and what isn’t. She doesn't know the answers, so how could we?

Brilliant.