MIDWINTER BREAK
Here's two stories about faltering marriages - both featuring Ciaran Hinds.
First up is 'Midwinter Break,' Olivier award winning theatre director Polly Findlay's debut feature.
An adaptation of Bernard MacLaverty's acclaimed. 2017 novel of the same name, it has been brought to the screen by the author and the Olivier and Tony Award nominated playwright Nick Payne.
Lesley Manville and Hinds play Stella and Gerry, a couple entering the winter of a long marriage.
Stella's a devout Catholic.
Gerry has lost his faith and is fond of music, art and a glass of whisky or three.
Originally from Northern Ireland, they fled the Troubles in the 1970s with their infant son after a heavily pregnant Stella was wounded in an IRA gun attack on the British Army.
Miraculously, the bullet passed through her belly but she and her son somehow survived.
In the present day, Stella gives Gerry a Christmas present of a short break in Amsterdam - booking flights and a hotel.
Gerry is delighted but it soon becomes apparent during their visit that Stella may have other motives - motives linked to the trauma she experienced, the onset of age and to her religious faith.
And it is that desire by her to confront these that expose real fissures in the marriage.
'Midwinter's Break' is a beautifully crafted movie, bathed in amber and black by its cinematographer Laurie Rose.
It moves at languid pace which a lot of viewers used to the fast cutting of many movies these days may struggle with.
But in many ways, that pace and the subtle unfolding of its story is a strength.
Viewers have time to decipher what is really going on and revel in the body language of the two principal actors which says as much as MacLaverty and Payne's dialogue.
Manville and Hinds are terrific to watch and the dynamic between them as an ageing couple conscious that time is running out is believable.
While Manville's Northern Irish accent occasionally wobbles, it is 90 per cent there and it shouldn't detract from her searingly honest betrayal of a woman making sense of her past and a marriage that has gone stale.
Acting in his own accent, Hinds glides through the film as Gerry's drinking and hus different beliefs to his wife threaten to destroy their union.
Amsterdam looks gorgeous onscreen, as always, as Niamh Cusack pops up as an Irishwoman who the couple encounter in the enclosed 14th Century courtyard of the Beginjhof which once housed a community of unmarried Catholic women devoted to their faith and la monastic life.
Watching Manville and Hinds close to the top of their game is almost as satisfying as the sights and sounds of the Dutch city.
As a debut feature by Findlay it may be workmanlike but it is nevertheless an eye catching one that could well have you contemplating a visit to the canal city.
Hopefully it's not as traumatic as Stella and Gerry's visit.
('Midwinter Break' was released on UK and Irish cinemas on March 20, 2026)
IS THIS THING ON?
There's a YouTube clip of Clint Eastwood talking about 'Unforgiven' on James Lipton's interview show 'Inside The Actors' Studio'.
During an exchange between Lipton and Eastwood about some inside jokes in the Oscar winning Western on tombstones in one scene, the camera cuts to a young Bradley Cooper hanging on every word.
Cooper's career may not have taken the exact path Eastwood once trod but he has become a major player in Hollywood, even managing to work with the actor director on two occasions - 'American Sniper' and 'The Mule'.
He's also carved out a promising career behind the camera like his icon, earning eight Oscar nominations for his debut feature as a director 'A Star Is Born' and seven for his follow-up, the Leonard Bernstein biopic 'Maestro'.
Still to bag a Best Director nomination, Cooper, like Eastwood, has nevertheless developed into a decent director.
This is clear in his third feature, the comedy drama 'Is This Thing On?' - even though the movie was largely ignored during awards season.
Based loosely on the story of the Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop, Will Arnett plays Alex Novak, a father of two boys whose marriage to Laura Dern's former US Olympic volleyball competitor has fallen apart.
Reluctantly moving out of the family home into an apartment, the New Yorker stumbles upon an open mic night at a comedy club and bravely takes the plunge, signing up for a brief slot.
Alex uses his stand up debut to exorcise his demons about his failed marriage to Dern's character Tess and while he manages to secure few laughs, his onstage ramblings are politely received.
Encouraged by his first foray into live comedy, performing stand up becomes a bit of an obsession.
He returns to the club, learning the tricks of the trade from other aspiring comedians and even keeping a book full of gags about his personal life.
All the while, he juggles being a weekend dad and tries to keep an amicable separation with Tess who is focusing on a return to volleyball as a coach.
The two of them jointly maintain friendships with Scott Incenogle's Geoffrey and his husband Sean Hayes' Stephen, Alex's best friend Bradley Cooper's actor Balls and his wife, Andra Day's Christine.
However Alex also has to deal with the animosity of Christine who makes no bones about siding with Tess following the separation.
Then there's his mum, Christine Ebersole's Marilyn and his eccentric dad Ciaran Hinds' Jan to contend with.
As Alex builds his comedy career, how long can he keep his forays into stand up a secret from Tess, his family and his friends?
How will it go down?
And how will he navigate the ups and downs of a broken marriage?
Written by Cooper, Arnett and Mark Chappell in conjunction with Bishop, 'Is This Thing On?' is a subtle relationship comedy drama that is very well crafted.
Cooper and his New York born cinematographer Matthew Libatique take a realist approach, with the camera observing events as Alex wanders around the streets of the city, its subways and suburbs, interacting with family, friends and fellow comedians.
Conversations tumble out onscreen and are often messy but that's what makes it a compelling watch.
Embracing a rare chance to seriously act, Arnett is superb as the pretty shambolic Alex who tries to keep both shows on the road in terms of his chaotic family life and his desire to explore comedy.
Libatique's use of close-ups and roving cameras only augment the sense of pressure and chaos in Alex's life and watching it, you cannot help but feel Arnett should have received a lot more love for his lead performance during awards season.
The same is true for Dern who gives as good as she gets as Tess.
In truth, the film is buttressed by a host of wonderful supporting performances from Cooper, Day, Hayes, Hinds and Ebersole.
Amy Sedaris pops up playing the emcee of the comedy club and Peyton Manning as Tess's date in one sequence.
Chloe Radcliffe, Jordan Jensen, Reggie Conquest and James Tom shine as the comedians Alex gets to know and who impart their wisdom and experience to him.
While it comes as little surprise that Cooper can confidently handle a cast like this, 'Is This Thing On?' shows how he has absorbed a lot of the lessons of working with directors of the calibre of Eastwood, Derek Cianfrance, David O Russell, Cameron Crowe, Guillermo del Toro and Paul Thomas Anderson.
H really knows how to visually tell a story in an eye catching way and you feel his movie deserved more respect than that afforded to Josh Safdie's much louder and certainly less subtle 'Marty Supreme' during awards season.
'Is This Thing On?' sonehow feels a lot more honest and less attention seeking than Safdie's film.
It certainly whets the appetite for what Cooper will do when he next gets behind the camera.
('Is This Thing On?' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on January 30, 2026 and was made available for streaming on 2026)
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