Paul O’Rourke
IT’S becoming increasingly difficult these days to escape from our computers and mobile phones, even at the movies.
And a new genre of technologically based films isn’t helping. ‘Searching’ tells the story of single father David Kim (played by John Cho) whose young daughter Margo suddenly goes missing. Even though a detective (Debra Messing) is assigned to the case, little progress is made and Kim decides to do some investigation of his own, turning to the one place where his daughter’s secrets are kept – online.
The thought of watching someone on a big screen moving a mouse around, clicking links and opening new tabs doesn’t sound that appealing, and it’s certainly not cinematic, but actually it works really well.
The story is very tight and well told and the tension keeps building so you’re kept wondering who did what and why, as more information is gradually uncovered and revealed. We award ‘Searching’ a review score of 3.5 stars.
A very different experience also out this week is the first major film we can remember to tackle the great Irish famine.
Amazing to think that such accomplished directors as Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan never went near this incredibly rich subject, but Lance Daly bravely has, and he’s very much pulled it off with ‘Black 47’.
With a great cast including Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Sarah Greene and Stephen Rea, Daly focuses on one man’s journey of revenge against the evil English occupiers of the day.
James Frecheville stars in the lead role of Martin Feeney who returns home from war to find his family evicted, starved and hanged.
In what amounts to an Irish cowboy film, Feeney sets out on his horse to pick off the baddies one by one.
He doesn’t say too much in the process, but the actor’s face conveys a level of threat that suggests this is a man you don’t want to mess with.
Although there are technical issues with this movie, most notably the score which sounds like it’s from a different film at times, the story and performances are first class and justify an award of 4 satisfying stars.
