The Treaty
Directed by Jonathan Lewis; Starring Brendan Gleeson, Barry McGovern, Ian Bannen, Malcolm Douglas, Alan Stanford
Now on retail release, some eight years after it was first broadcast, this dramatisation of the events surrounding the Anglo-Irish Treaty which led to the foundation of this State offers the opportunity to make some fascinating comparisons with Neil Jordan's Michael Collins. Not only does it focus on the very events which Jordan chose to omit in his film, but in Brendan Gleeson it offers us a Collins who physically psychologically seems closer to the reality than Liam Neeson's brooding, mournful portrayal. Of course, the exigencies of a TV budget mean that The Treaty has none of the bravura style of Jordan's epic (indeed, it looks rather tatty at times), but it does a very good job of bringing these complex events to life.
Message in a Bottle
Directed by Luis Mandoki; Starring Kevin Costner, Robin Wright Penn, Paul Newman, John Savage, Ileanna Douglas, Robbie Coltrane
Even the experience of making Waterworld wasn't enough to put Kevin Costner off the tang of sea-spray, apparently. Here, he's a widowed yachtsman, whose letter thrown into the sea ends up in the hands of divorced newspaper columnist Wright Penn. A rather gloomy romance unfolds with thudding predictability, which director Mandoki tries to invest with more gravitas than it deserves, laying on the soupiest of musical scores as the protagonists circle each other warily. As with all of Costner's movies, humour or lightness of touch are entirely absent.
Captain Jack
Directed by Robert Young; Starring Bob Hoskins, Sadie Frost, Gemma Jones, Anna Massey, Peter McDonald
More tales of the sea in this well-meaning but under-whelming attempt at an old-style "family movie" with Bob Hoskins as the captain of a Whitby day-tripping vessel, who decides to celebrate the 200th anniversary of his hero's voyage to the Arctic by replicating the trip with his makeshift crew. After a decade of unimpressive performances, Hoskins seems to have rediscovered his touch in recent movies, and he's certainly the best thing here, bringing a sense of humanity and wry humour to the title role.
