Aubrey Malone
Behind Her Eyes. Photo: Netflix 
The Luminaries did nothing for me. If you sewed my eyelids open and strapped me in front of the television I still wouldn’t have been able to watch it. But I enjoyed all six episodes of Behind Her Eyes, Eve Hewson’s latest outing on Netflix. As no doubt you know, she’s Bono’s daughter. It can be a poisoned chalice being related to somebody as famous as this but she seems to have a good head on her shoulders.
Astral projection
Most people I know have been giving out about it. Okay, so the astral projection bits are clunky but it’s not as bonkers as is claimed. (A character being bonkers doesn’t make a mini-series so.) Hewson’s eyes haunt.
If you can put up with the terrible dubbing in the Argentinian film The Crimes That Bind it’s also worth watching. Nothing is more disturbing than a film about a woman who kills her baby but here the emphasis is more on what drives her to it than the gross nature of the act.
It’s a complicated story. Her mother-in-law’s loyalties to her son are tested to the limit. In the end justice is meted out as it should be. Until we get to that point this is a kind of “whodunit” that intrigues with its twists and turns.
An equally interesting Argentinian film is Ulrike Kofler’s “What We Wanted.” It deals with a couple who can’t have a child. On a vacation in Sardinia they become friendly with another couple who do have children.
Tensions escalate as a result. Then a tragic incident changes everything. In the end, I think, this is a film about acceptance of one’s lot. I highly recommend it. It makes its points in a quietly impressive way.
I used to think Adam Sandler was a negligible talent when he was mired in all those juvenile comedies but Reign Over Me changed my view of him. In The Meyerowitz Stories he again gives a thoughtful performance. He’s the crumpled son of an ageing sculptor (Dustin Hoffman) who’s decidedly scatty.
Whimsical story
It’s a Woody Allen style film directed by Noah Baumbach. What Baumbach film doesn’t have Woody’s fingerprints over it? Never mind. This whimsical story about an eccentric Jewish family uniting in New York for a celebration of Hoffman’s work has lots of interesting performances and quirky asides. Sibling rivalry is the link.
Hoffman is good but it’s a one-note performance. He’s the same in every scene: amiably cranky. Ben Stiller is better as another one of his sons, the successful one. I loved his line: “I’m fed up apologising for having made it!” Elizabeth Marvel is the daughter.
Inheritance is another Netflix offering you may enjoy. Starring Lily Collins (Phil’s daughter) it has a heap of surprises in the storyline. Collins’ father dies. She’s left with an inheritance that isn’t what it seems. The storyline rides its luck with maybe one too many convolutions and incongruities. It will leave you scratching your head.
