Newsnight Review: 9th January 2009

In this Friday's Newsnight Review, Martha and guests will be looking at three new films for the new year.

Slumdog MillionaireThe ReaderThe Wrestler

Join the debate - leave your thoughts on the blog

FILM: Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle's latest film Slumdog Millionaire, is tipped for Oscars.

It's adapted by Fully Monty writer, Simon Beaufoy from Vikas Swarup's novel 'Q&A' about an uneducated orphan from the Mumbai slum called Jamal Malik, who finds himself doing spectacularly well on the Indian game show, 'Who Wants to to be a Millionaire'.

He's arrested for cheating and tells his life-story in flashback to justify how he got the right answers and how his appearance on the programme ties in with his search for the love of his life.

The film was shot on location with a mostly Bollywood crew and child actors from the impoverished areas.

A key love scene was filmed in the busy Victoria Terminus, more recently the target in last November's terrorist attacks.

Does the romantic story fit with the gritty setting?

Slumdog Millionaire is rated 15 and on general release.

Back to top

FILM: The Reader

Stephen Daldry has previously directed Billy Elliot and The Hours and for this, his third feature he has a star cast of Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes and stellar material - David Hare has adapted Bernarnd Schlink's well known German book about Holocaust guilt.

A successful lawyer Michael Berg (Fiennes) looks back to his youth where at 15 years old he had a brief but intense affair with a much older woman Hanna Schmitz (Winslet).

Many years later he is shocked to learn that she was an Auschwitz prison guard and is standing trial for war crimes.

The film has already provoked moral debate - some critics have felt uncomfortable at the attempts to humanise the Nazi figure and the explicit sex scenes have been criticised as a tool to hook in the viewer, trivialising the serious subject matter.

And do we need yet another film to add to the genre of Holocaust movies - this month also sees Tom Cruise star as an SS member in Valkyrie.

Despite the controversy - it is also being tipped for Oscars on all fronts - especially Winslet's performance. Where will our panel stand?

The Reader is rated 15 and on general release.

Back to top

FILM: The Wrestler

It's taken Mickey Rourke almost two decades to make a Hollywood comeback to a leading role.

After a spectacular fall from grace and years of being considered virtually unbankable, he has returned to critical acclaim as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in director Darren Aronofsky's fourth feature which took home the top prize at the Venice Film Festival.

In the Wrestler, Rourke plays an ageing sports star who ekes out a living performing in run down venues in New Jersey for die hard fans.

He is forced into retirement after a heart attack, which causes him to re-evaluate his life and try to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and strike up a relationship with an ageing stripper (Marisa Tomei), as he tries to maintain his sense of identity away from the wrestling ring.

The Wrestler, certificate 15 is released on January 16.

Back to top