Demob Happy

History, narrative, truth and fiction
9/10
Atonement is a stunning period melodrama adapted from Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. Directed by Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice) from a script by Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, The Quiet American), it slips comfortably into a canon of great historical dramas from those of Merchant-Ivory to Anthony Minghella’s The [...]

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Out of Africa
6/10
This adaptation of Giles Foden’s book is a fairly conventional thriller set in a historical context. Forest Whittaker is undeniably brilliant as the ogreous Idi Amin; in all his explosive, unpredicatable idiosyncrasies. Like Uganda’s people, James McEvoy’s flippant young doctor is swept up by the African dictator’s powerful charisma and becomes his [...]

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