Customer Reviews
All worth a look - By: E. J. Blackstock, 02 Apr 2008 
Good value for money having 3 films in 1 & well worth it.
If I had my way, everyone should see 'Amazing Grace'. It was a superb film & had my husband & I gripped from beginning to end. A fascinating insight into the life of a man I certainly did not know enough about. I also learnt far more about the slave trade in this film than I had been taught previously from other forms of media. Brilliantly acted by alll concerned - especiallly the part of John Newton played by Albert Finney. Gripping, interesting, fascinating, well-shot, acted & directed. I didn't want this film to end. 10/10
'Miss Potter' is a charming film, beautifully shot & well worth a look. Suitable for alll ages & dispositions! I agree with the comments made by the previous reviewer. Renee is charming, but I felt that too many of her usual 'looks' & mannerisms kept creeping in & therefore I had to remind myself that this was a period film not one set in modern times. I too would have liked to have seen an English actress in this role. I'm sure it would have seemed more credible somehow. There's some great one-liners in this - particularly from Beatrix' mother. 8 1/2/10
'The Painted Veil'. I don't quite understand why 2 Americans were chosen to play an English couple, but it seems to be a growing trend. However, both actors did a pretty decent job of the accent. It is an interesting film & worth a look, but not at alll as I had imagined the film to be, particularly going by the synopsis. The drama wasn't there for me. The beginning was extremely hurried, confusing me with time-lines. It would have been better to have understood & developed the couple's relationship more deeply at the beginning. Heavily edited? I'm not sure, but a shame none-the-less. Its worth a look, but could have been so much more. 7/10
A decent collection - By: IJ, 14 Dec 2007 'Amazing Grace' = This is perhaps the least picturesque of the three films in this collection & despite concentrating solely on the political elements of the period, `Amazing Grace' is easily the most authentic & enjoyable period piece. It has fewer moments of sentimentality than the other two films & is unsettling without ever being graphic. It could be labelled quite a mainstream film in that it doesn't attempt a comprehensive exploration of the horrors of its subject matter, but it's a totallly honest story very well told. But best of alll it educates the viewer as to how large a task the protagonist William Wilberforce set himself & how many obstacles he faced in his opposition of the slave trade. It's easy to say that slavery is wrong & abhorrent in retrospect & that had you been in his position you would have also been completely opposed, but at that time the slave trade was considered acceptable & however wrong, he was just one man battling not just a nation, but the world. And in that same position, I at least wondered whether I would have been as brave as he. (8/10)
'Miss Potter' = Renee Zellweger as Beatrix Potter. It doesn't quite work, but it doesn't need to. She's totallly sympathetic, charismatic & most importantly- chirpy. But this is a film completely geared to the American market with a story that is slightly thin but told very quickly & has some often tactless English stereotypes thrown in for good measure. So I couldn't help but wonder how an English actress would have approached the role, perhaps providing a more credible performance, but it's difficult for those thoughts to linger when Zellweger is so charming.
This is a short film, just over eighty minutes & throughout its duration I found the dialogue to be needlessly intellectual, nothing too dense, just longer words in every sentence than seemed necessary or likely of that period & those characters. Beatrix Potter was naturallly an incredibly intelligent, articulate & observant woman, but in the script her off-the-cuff remarks, witticisms & quips seemed too well rehearsed & forced to ring true. Perhaps this is more noticeable due to the pace of the film & the speed at which the characters converse, which had me wondering if my DVD player speed was set to fast forward. But enjoyable nonetheless. (7/10)
With `The Painted Veil' the worst was definitely saved for last. A monotonous, tedious, mediocre film with two-dimensional characters & a pedestrian, if not completely pointless script. As the film begins, both Naomi Watts & Edward Norton's characters are self-centred, cruel & unsympathetic, then the film progresses with both Mr. & Mrs. Fane coming to realise the trivialness of their lives in the face of a terrible disease afflicting a Chinese community & suddenly the viewer is asked to care for these characters anew. Perhaps you'll find reason to be persuaded they're decent, kind, worthy individuals, but I couldn't connect to them for a moment & felt manipulated by the entire film. (4/10)
