Film reviews: The Journey, Mindhorn and Sleepless

The Journey (Cert 12A; 94mins) 

That is the basic premise of a film that feels more like a prickly odd couple comedy than a weighty political drama. But it is also immensely entertaining and very well acted. A rainy St Andrews in Scotland is the setting for crucial peace talks in 2006. Actor Toby Stephens makes Tony Blair seem like a flustered gameshow host as he flaps around on the sidelines trying to nudge everyone towards an agreement.

At a crucial juncture in the talks DUP leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) insists on returning to Belfast to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary. One observer notes that his marriage vows might be the last time he said yes to anything. The weather worsens and Edinburgh Airport becomes the only option for his flight home.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) insists on flying with him, claiming that Paisley would otherwise breach the negotiating terms, but it is a ruse to get the two men alone together.

They are obliged to share a car and it looks like being a long, silent drive to Edinburgh.

MI5 supervisor Harry Patterson (the late John Hurt) is listening in to every moment and instructing driver Jack (Freddie Highmore) to prolong the journey. McGuinness makes all the effort, presenting himself as a genial buffoon to try to provoke a response from the stony-faced Paisley.

He slowly wears Paisley down to a point where the two men are at least communicating. Colin Bateman’s screenplay for The Journey is nicely balanced between providing solid historical context and delivering wry amusement. McGuinness is constantly baffled by Paisley’s staunch Presbyterian beliefs in which dancing is the devil’s work and the Pope is the Antichrist.

The performances are the film’s real gems. Timothy Spall doesn’t look a bit like Ian Paisley and is at least 20 years younger then Paisley was in 2006 but he perfectly embodies the man’s fighting spirit.

Heassumes the bloodhound look and granite jaw and captures the voice of righteous anger to perfection. He also seems to relish showing that Paisley did have a sense of humour, making a rare joke followed by a gurgling laugh that sounds like dirty water disappearing down a narrow drain. Colm Meaney’s role is less of a challenge than Spall’s and McGuinness often appears to be the comic relief to Paisley’s straight man. No wonder the two of them became known as the Chuckle Brothers.

But Meaney captures facets of McGuinness as a pragmatic politician not without conscience or feeling. The film’s finest moment comes in a remote church when the two men deliver some home truths to each other in a stark, dramatic fashion. The Journey is a little glib and awkward but it is very enjoyable and offers a heartening celebration of the seemingly impossible: two sworn enemies discovering the common ground of their shared humanity. 

Mindhorn (Cert 15; 89mins)

The fame has faded and the waistline has expanded but Richard Thorncroft is still a star, at least in his own head. Mindhorn is an affectionate spoof of the terminally deluded that mixes elements of the Pink Panther and Alan Partridge. Steve Coogan is even among the big-name cameos. In the 1980s Thorncroft (Julian Barratt) enjoyed fame and fortune as TV’s Mindhorn, a former MI5 detective with a bionic eye. Now he is all washed up until a murder is committed on his old stomping ground of the Isle Of Man.

Someone calling himself The Kestrel claims responsibility for the killing but will only talk to the fictional Mindhorn. A request to help the police with their enquiries has Thorncroft ready for his big comeback as the hero of the hour. The reality is very different in a flabby comedy that runs out of laughs and ideas long before the closing credits. A cracking cast includes Russell Tovey, Simon Farnaby and a totally wasted Andrea Riseborough as a local cop but Mindhorn is at best an acquired taste. 

VERDICT: 2/5

Unlocked (Cert 15; 98mins)

Noomi Rapace stakes her claim as the new Jason Bourne in Unlocked, an efficiently handled but frequently ridiculous thriller with a wearily familiar plot. Guilt-ridden by past failures CIA agent Alice Racine (Rapace) is working undercover in London when she returns to active duty investigating the threat of a biological attack on the city. It sounds straightforward enough but this is the kind of thriller where nobody can be taken at face value and even your closest colleague can be unmasked as the bad guy.

One of the few fresh touches that distinguish this from an episode of Spooks is an unusually starry supporting cast that includes Michael Douglas, Toni Collette and John Malkovich. There is also a swaggering Orlando Bloom as macho ex-marine Jack Alcott. Rapace cuts the mustard but the rest of the film is forgettable. 

VERDICT: 2/5

A Dog’s Purpose (Cert PG; 100mins)

One canine touches many human lives during the course of A Dog’s Purpose. Set in 1961 it stars a red retriever called Bailey who becomes the devoted companion of young Ethan (Bryce Gheisar) and never falters in his loyalty. Then he dies and returns as a German shepherd called Ellie who brings happiness to the lonely life of policeman Carlos (John Ortiz).

It is the first of several reincarnations that take the dog full circle and eventually find him playing cupid to widow Hannah (Peggy Lipton) and her long-lost love, a fellow who happens to be called Ethan (Dennis Quaid). A Dog’s Purpose feels like a Lassie film written by Nicholas Sparks and you will need a boundless love of dogs and a high tolerance of schmaltz to enjoy it. 

VERDICT: 2/5

Harmonium (Cert 12A; 120mins)

Subtle, slow-burning Harmonium burrows beneath the surface harmony of a typical Japanese family to uncover the forces that threaten to destroy it. Toshio (Kanji Furutachi), his wife Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and their daughter Hotaru seem perfectly content with their lives until Toshio offers work and lodgings to his old acquaintance Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano).

What is the nature of their relationship? Where was Yasaka until now and why is he an unsettling presence? The answers take their time to arrive but the result is an absorbing thriller. 

VERDICT: 4/5

Citizen Jane (Cert PG; 93mins)

The documentary Citizen Jane: Battle For The City may deal with events that happened 50 years ago but it asks a question that still feels urgent: what kind of world do you want to live in? Jane Jacobs published The Death And Life Of Great American Cities in 1961 and became an activist for neighbourhoods that reflected tradition and people’s needs. Planner Robert Moses believed in destroying everything slipshod and replacing it with housing projects. Their tussle over the heart and soul of New York is fascinating viewing.

VERDICT: 4/5

Sleepless (Cert 15; 95mins)

Sleepless is pointless. This remake of a French thriller stars Jamie Foxx as Vincent Downs, an undercover cop fighting a losing battle against drug dealers, crooked cops and the suspicions of internal affairs investigator Jennifer Bryant (Michelle Monaghan).

That’s before his estranged teenage son Thomas (Octavius J Johnson) is kidnapped by sleazy casino owner Stanley Rubino (Dermot Mulroney) as retaliation for the 25 kilos of cocaine stolen from him by Vincent and his partner Sean (Tip “T I” Harris). With a convoluted plot and grotesque characters, none of it is very believable and a lot of good actors find it hard to breathe life into the most clichéd of situations.

VERDICT: 2/5