THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE (2006) *** From Philip Pullman's young adult novel involving more murders than the Godfather saga, opium addiction, the worst streets of London, gang warfare, government complicity in sin, insurance fraud...pretty much everything your youngster needs to prepare for the real world. Billie Piper occasionally looks like she's not sure if they're filming yet , but she's surrounded by real talent, and everyone spends the first half telling her how beautiful she is, just in case the viewers can't decide. Julie Walters is an absolute villain for the ages! She's so utterly awful and mean and despicable and blasé and backstreet proper and snide and witty....absolutely reprehensible (in the most wonderful cinematic sense)! And then she turns it all...not around, but at least sideways...and you feel almost as sorry for her as the ones she's had murdered and beaten and kidnapped and drugged and....it really is a spectacular performance, absolutely brilliant. It's all delivered relentlessly, and with an abrupt if abbreviated sense of Pullman 's cliffhanger-at-the-end-of-every-chapter style. My daughter assures me that they took some simple liberties with the plot but, you know, who cares. Only minor ones, and the spirit of it all is terribly intact. So cheer up, young ones. It's a strange and wonderful world out there, and now you'll be able to see the worst bits of it before they get to you. Duck!
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films page, or Index
go back home, or send me email
Reviews won't do it any more! I need sustained brilliance! I want to buy your novel!