Films to see this Christmas.

For the person who likes Politics combined with Sport I would recommend seeing Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood's latest film "Invictus". Based on the "truish" story of Nelson Mandela, shortly after being elected President of South Africa, and also after his long term imprisonment, realising that for his country to remain a whole it needed some form of Inspiration. He saw the vehicle for this in the Springboks - the South African Rugby Team. With a somewhat predictable story line, the film develops along a positive narrative from hardship to success. However, it does give one a good feeling - is that not a good thing at Christmas time?

"Invictus" is a little better than a similar "feel-good" story in the film "The Blind Side" - also a true story but much more predictable and much more "Hollywood". Middle Class wife comes across a poor black boy who is physically huge. The family takes him in. Discover that he can play American Football - but actually being only slightly more animated than a Fridge. He is a nice enough guy - but this film does nothing to raise the IQ impression of American Football (I have to keep saying American Football as I do not want to  confuse it with real football played with a spherical ball). But despite all that the film is OK, the best one can say is it is in-offensive (unlike the American Football offensive tackles).

If you prefer a film with more meta-realism, a film that is about how things "could-be", a film that could be depressing but in the end is not so, then I would recommend "The Road" based upon the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. The global environment seems to have been destroyed (we do not know from whence the disaster came), the father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son are two of the very few still walking the roads in search of some better place. I say that it could be depressing because this "new" world is such a bleak place. But the optimism is found in the love that the father shows his son and the way in which he tries so hard to inspire his son to keep on going.

Good film-watching this Christmas.

More outline reviews to come : "Up in The Air", "The Single Man" etc.