blearyboy

Don't bother renting this title if you're looking for a nature documentary. Although there is some stunning footage of the Alaskan wilderness, this is not a film about nature, or bears, or conservation.

This is the study of a man in crisis. Amongst humans, Timothy Treadwell is a sad case: alone, poor, a junkie, an alcoholic, with no future. So he went to find a life amongst the bears of Kodiak island, and for 13 years he thought he had found it. His videos show him not only pursuing intense (but completely one-sided) relationships with the bears, but imagining himself as a lone warrior, protecting his friends from the evil humans.

We know from the start that this is a fantasy: Treadwell does nothing to help the bears, who feel no affection for him. Worse still we know that he has been killed by one of the bears. All of this is documented in the 100 hours of footage shot superbly by Treadwell himself in the hours before his death.

As the film delves into the mind of this poor, deluded soul, we also begin to gain an insight into the mind of the director, the legendary Werner Herzog. Herzog clearly identifies deeply with Treadwell, with both men having risked their lives and sanity in their obsession with making movies in inhospitable environments. The only difference between the men, he admits, is that where Treadwell saw harmony in nature, Herzog sees only indifference and cruelty.

In the end, we're left looking at ourselves, wondering how our human ideals fit with the physical world we occupy, and if there can ever be any reconciliation between the two.

Herzog is one of the greatest living artists in cinema, and he has successfully turned this unique footage into a superb movie.

This Year's Love was released at a time in the fit of madness that followed Four Weddings And A Funeral, when everyone was desperate to rush out their very British romantic comedies. This Year's Love sadly got lumped it with all of these (generally poor) movies, which is a pity because it's one of the finest British films of the nineties.

It's not cute, although it does have charm. It's not a comedy, although there are some very funny bits in it. It's not particularly romantic, although it's probably a lot more honest about love than anything Richard Curtis has ever written. What it is is an example of the kind of movie Britain can do like almost nobody else: a small, dense, focused study of well-written characters being slowly destroyed by their own flaws, unfolding gradually like a really great novel. It's dense and meaty and thoughtful and sad, and essential viewing for anyone who's left cold by the more treacle vision of the Four Weddings... school of movie-making.

It does have a frantic dash to the airport at the end, I must admit. Although even that defies normal expectations.

I put off seeing this movie for ages because I was terrified that it would be a boring two-hour lecture on the horrible injustices faced by illegal immigrants. So I was pleasently surprised to find that it was a highly-entertaining, gripping, action-packed, romantic, laugh-out-loud funny two-hour lecture on the horrible injustices faced by illegal immigrants.

Audrey Tautou plays a grotesque caricature of her Amelie character - the same type of shy, wilting naif, but who is repeatedly robbed of her innocence. The film belongs to Chiwetel Ejiofor though, whose portrayal of a strong, principled man is right up there with Gregory Peck's Atticus Finch. It's the conviction and purposefulness of his character that saves the movie from being the liberal tragedy that it could have been. Rather than accepting his fate, Okwe is constantly struggling to escape, and to help those around in him in the same situation.

Ultimately, Dirty Pretty Things is a lot more enjoyable than you'd expect it to be, but still manages to deeply insightful into the plight of honest people who can't get visas. Good work all round.