Doctor Strange (12A)
Directed by Scott Derrickson
4/5
IF BRILLIANT neurosurgeon Dr Stephen Strange were British, then the NHS would be there to help after a tragic car crash renders his hands useless. Unfortunately, he’s American and so, with Obamacare apparently unobtainable and money running out, Strange must go east.
There, in a temple in Kathmandu, the Ancient Mystic inducts him into a mysterious universe of strange powers, transforming him into a supernaturally gifted superhero who returns to New York to save mankind from malign magical forces.
Scott Derrickson’s driving direction enhances an anything-and-everything-goes, action-heavy screenplay which employs vivid 3D special effects to create bending buildings and amazing new and extraordinary multiverses.
Add Benedict Cumberbatch’s diverting Dr Strange and appropriately mysteriously malign villains and you have a thoroughly enjoyable superhero outing.
A shaven-headed Tilda Swinton is suitably cold and scary as the Ancient Mystic with hidden and less-than-mystical secrets, while Mads Mikkelsen as the wicked Kaecilius and Benedict Wong as the inscrutable Wong add dramatic weight.
As for the convoluted storyline featuring stolen pages from the Marvel comic Book of Cagliostro, New York and Hong Kong under evil attack and a variety of universes riven with disasters, Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor) says it all when he advises Strange: “Forget everything you know. Forget everything you think you know…”
Alan Frank

After Love (12A)
Directed by Joachim Lafosse
4/5
THE FINANCIAL and emotional hardships of breaking up are outlined to realistic effect in this beautifully drawn-out drama about the implosion of a marriage.
After 15 years together and with two lovely twin girls, Marie (a stand-out Berenice Bejo) and Boris (a superb Cedric Kahn) decide to divorce.
He wants half the value of the marital home so he can afford to move out. Marie, the main breadwinner, does not feel he is entitled to it as she has been supporting him financially for years. But he disagrees, claiming that without the renovations he carried out on their property it would not have soared in value.
Co-writer-director Joachim Lafosse’s work captures the bickering, recriminations and the pettiness that couples resort to after love has died while they try to keep things together for the children. The claustrophobia and the pressures of living under the same roof as their relationship disintegrates may prove too close for comfort to some in this wonderfully studied drama.
Maria Duarte

Starfish (15)
Directed by Bill Clark
4/5
FAR too often, “based on a true story” simply translates as “only the facts have been altered for better profits.”
Happily, that’s not the case with writer-director Bill Clark’s deeply moving, intelligently understated story of a happy family devastated when the husband, ravaged by septicaemia, has his arms and legs amputated and part of his face surgically removed in order to survive.
The final shot of the real-life family confirms the veracity of the film, lifting the spirits after the emotions have been justifiably savaged by this vividly told and perfectly acted drama.
There are potent performances by Tom Riley as a once-handsome husband turned into something hideous who causes his young daughter to scream: “Where’s my daddy? That’s not my daddy!” and Joanne Froggatt, outstanding as the increasingly traumatised wife who’s forced to become the family breadwinner. They could not have been better.
Alan Frank