Matthew Lewis

With a story that links together every cliche from the weepy chick-flick library, this movie uses its doomed romance premise to reduce every woman in the audience into floods of tears. Adapted by author Jojo Moyes from her bestselling novel, the movie will work its trickery on its target audience, and it will just about keep others interested, thanks to engaging central performances by Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin.

It's set in a picture-perfect British village located next to the ruins of a picturesque castle, where the quirky Louisa (Clarke) has just lost her job as a waitress in a tearoom. But her parents (Brendan Coyle and Samantha Spiro) need her income to make ends meet, so she takes a job with the village's most prominent couple (Janet McTeer and Charles Dance), caring for their son Will (Claflin), who was a high-flying banker until he was hit by a motorbike and paralysed. Working alongside Will's nurse Nathan (Stephen Peacocke), Louisa struggles to connect with the relentlessly surly Will, who believes that there's no point with going on with his life. But Louisa is determined to help him find some hope.

Everything that happens on the way to the unnerving conclusion is deeply predictable, because we've seen it all in movies from Bridget Jones to The Fault in Our Stars. Even the gently wacky romance feels oddly by-the-book, shifting from interested sideways glances to another smiley montage sequence to contrived comedy and gloomy drama. Thankfully, Clarke and Claflin breathe life into these characters, adding personality details and a spark of chemistry that helps the audience feel the connection developing between Louisa and Will. Of the supporting cast, only Peacocke manages to give his character a sense that he has a life off the screen. And it's nice to see Downton Abbey's Coyle against type.

Continue reading: Me Before You Review

It's gotten to the point where the quality of the films don't really matter: Now I feel like I'm committed to the whole Harry Potter series. I've reviewed the first five now, so by golly, I'm going to stick it out and finish the lot... even though I still can't bring myself to read any of the books. As always, consider yourself warned that I don't know the intricate backstory developed over thousands of pages in J.K. Rowling's writing. And really, I'm happy to keep it that way.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix continues in the tradition of following another year at the Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) has faced nothing but grueling struggle after grueling struggle. His most recent year (Goblet of Fire) saw a friend get killed by his nemesis, the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who's gaining more power every day and giving Harry severe nightmares. With few exceptions, his friends have largely abandoned him, and the new term comes with even more headaches in the form of Dolores Umbridge (the perfect Imelda Staunton), sent from the Ministry of Magic to teach the defense from the dark arts class and eventually taking over the school as an iron-fisted, fun-crushing bureaucrat.

After much pottering about (ha ha!), the film finally finds its groove as Umbridge goes too far, refusing to teach magic in the classroom, instead preferring to rely on theoretical knowledge so the students can pass their year-end standardized tests. With Voldemort approaching (this guy is always just around the corner), Harry becomes more nervous that he will be unable to defend himself, finally recruiting a handful of students to his cause to teach them what he knows about magical combat. Together they prepare for the day when they know they'll have to use those skills. (In case you haven't seen any of the first four movies, rest assured it isn't far off: This end-of-movie showdown between Harry and the forces of evil has almost become a cliché that pans out every single time.)

Continue reading: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix Review