for a few months. Much to my chagrin, I have since discovered that the filming took place in North Wales rather than Scotland. Nevertheless, the setting is still beautifully wild and remote and the film, although it has its flaws, is not a bad way of passing a couple of hours.
It is many moons since I have seen Demi Moore, who plays Rachel, in anything and I am disappointed to say that she looks almost as fresh-faced as she did twenty years ago. The fact that her hair is constantly tangled because of the gale force winds and she therefore doesn't look as perfect as she could have is her saving grace. That aside, I thought she gave a good performance as a woman half-mad with grief - and I found her acting around the death of her son to be flawless and utterly convincing. She may not be as famous as she once was, but she still has something ...
Advantages: Suspense, suspense, suspense Disadvantages: Can't think of any!
Ambrose, Philip's guardian since the loss of both parents at an early age, travels abroad to Italy for the sake of his health where he meets, falls in love with and marries "my cousin Rachel". Months later, Philip receives a disturbing letter from Ambrose concerning the state of his health, which also hints at Rachel's involvement in his illness. On travelling to Italy to investigate, Philip finds Ambrose dead, and Rachael has departed.
Philip returns to England to take up residence in the estate which he has now inherited from Ambrose. Shortly thereafter Rachel invites herself to come and stay with Philip in the house which she would have shared with Ambrose had he lived. Philip accepts, with the intention that he will question Rachel on her involvement in Ambrose's death and mete out her punishment accordingly. However ...
Advantages: Special effects, performances, only one more book to go Disadvantages: A mess of backstory
Once again, the Harry Potter hype machine promised us that this would be the darkest year yet at Hogwarts. And, once again, everyone was too polite to point out that they've been saying this since Chamber of Secrets came out several years ago... But there was a great deal of expectation surrounding this sixth film, based on the penultimate book in J K Rowling's seven volume epic of magical larks in wizardland. So how does it measure up?
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter is not a happy boy-wonder-genius-action wizard when we meet him in a railway station cafe. He's still sad about the death of the character at the end of the previous film, who I won't name because people are still funny about it, even though it's blatantly obvious they're going to die from the outset. Ah well.
Quickly, Dumbledore meets ...