Page Eight [HD]

Superb contemporary political thriller - This review has NO "spoiler alert"
PBS started a new series titled "Masterpiece Contemporary" to present films that take place in today's modern world (as compared to the Victorian era of most Masterpiece Theater program). This is one of those new shows. Why it didn't show up in their "Mastery" series is a mystery to me. Despite what a previous reviewer said there is a "mystery" here that is not revealed until near the end. But, I'm glad they did at least bring it to US audiences.

The film - with a script by David Hare (his first in 20 years) - wonderful and the cast is superb with Michael Gambon, Rachel Weisz, Judy Davis and Bill Nighy (in the main role) as an M5 Investigator (The UK's "intelligence unit).

I won't give the plot because it would spoil it. And I'll also suggest that you pass on the review titled "I'd Like Some Jazz " which really gives a lot of it away. Even the short description on the back of the DVD divulges info it's more interesting to discover as you watch the film...

Searingly Poignant Film
David Hare both wrote and directed this stylish, intensely intelligent suspense film (his other films include work on The Hours, The Reader, Damage, Plenty, etc). Few films have been made that depend on smart dialogue and intense acting instead of explosions, car chases, and other improbable acts of danger to make their point. Aided by a top-notch British cast, Hare has created a thinking person's drama and it is refreshingly poignant.

A contemporary spy film created for BBC, the action is set in both London and Cambridge. Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy in one of his best roles to date) is an experienced MI5 officer whose boss and best friend Benedict Baron (Michael Gambon) dies of a myocardial infarction: he leaves a secret file for his friend. Both men have been married to the same woman (Alice Krige) and Worricker has a grown child from his marriage, an artist Julianne Felicity Jones) who has never quite forgiven her father for leaving her mother for another woman. The...

Bill Nighy: The King of Laid Back
I love anything with Bill Nighy in the cast. Suave and sophisticated, he is the master of the pithy understatement. In "Page Eight" he plays a jaded MI5 Officer, who is caught up in secret political skulduggery that could bring down the government, headed by Ralph Fiennes as the Prime Minister, who, a la Tony Blair, has been too pal-sy with his American Cousins in the 'war' on terror. Coincidentally, Nighy also becomes involved in a political coverup of a war-crime, which has hit the Syrian family of his beautiful neighbour, convincingly portrayed by Rachel Weisz.

The cast, which is top drawer, includes Michael Gambon, who used to be Nighy's tutor at Cambridge and subsequently became his boss at MI5; Judy Davis, a rather nasty piece of goods who is his colleague and nemisis at MI5; and a still lovely and charismatic Marthe Keller, cast in the role of an old love of Nighy and possibly a professional contact, who is a source of ready cash.

Although I was totally...

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