Posts Tagged ‘Shazad Latif’

Wuthering Heights

Director: Emerald Fennell

Cast: Margot Robbie, Jacob Elordi, Hong Chau, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes, Ewan Mitchell, Charlotte Mellington, Owen Cooper, Amy Morgan

Running Time: 2 hours and 16 minutes

Film Rating: 7 out of 10

They say you have to be cruel to be kind. Let’s start with the cruelty.

Did director Emerald Fennell read Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights that was a sensation when published in 1847?

Actress Emerald Fennell turned director with her Oscar winning film Promising Young Woman and then followed that up with the shockingly bizarre and strange Saltburn which was actually terrible. So it was with trepidation I learnt that Emerald Fennell would be doing a film version of Wuthering Heights, a mid-Victorian romantic novel which has been turned into a film countless times from the famous Oscar winning 1939 version starring Sir Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon and David Niven to more recent versions with Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley.

Wuthering Heights was always about a tragic love triangle but at its emotional core is the fiery and unpredictable love between the wilful Catherine Earnshaw and the orphan boy Heathcliff.

In the 2026 version, Oscar nominee Margot Robbie (I,Tonya; Bombshell) stars as Catherine and then the best casting choice ever was to have the hunk of the moment, the towering Oscar nominee Jacob Elordi (Frankenstein) cast as the dashing and brutal Heathcliff.  

While Margot Robbie did her best as the doomed heroine Catherine Earnshaw, I kept seeing Barbie on the Yorkshire Moors and not Catherine. Catherine, despite all warnings from everyone, does indeed ruin her prospects. Robbie seemed to be crying in every scene of the film.

Jacob Elordi on the other hand was brilliant as Heathcliff, looming and hulking, chopping wood with his hairy torso displayed while Catherine succumbs to indecision and repressed desire. Although that desire does not remain that repressed for director Emerald Fennell then decides to turn this version of Wuthering Heights into a vaguely 1970’s soft porn video.

There is a bizarre scene of Catherine masturbating on the moors while Heathcliff sneaks up on her in disbelief. Then there is the equally strange scene of Catherine spying on the kinky servants having a bondage love scene, with the servants played by Ewan Mitchell and Amy Morgan.

Then there is the dubious casting choices in this contemporary version of Wuthering Heights. While Oscar nominee Hong Chau (The Whale) who is superb as the downtrodden servant Nelly, it is the weird choice of British actor Shazad Latif (The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as Edgar Linton. There was zero chemistry between Latif and Robbie while obviously this is counterpointed by the onscreen chemistry between Robbie and Elordi.

Veteran British TV and film actor Martin Clunes (Shakespeare in Love) is excellent as Catherine’s alcoholic gambling father Mr Earnshaw and another notable exception is Irish actress Alison Oliver as the repressed and gorgeous Isabella, Mr Linton’s ward, filled with Shakespearean notions of love.

Now for the kindness. To be fair to the production designer Suzie Davies who beautifully captures the Moors and the rambling dilapidation of the country estate Wuthering Heights and the fabulous costumes by Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran (Anna Karenina, Little Woman), this film does manage to elevate itself out of the mundane and look like an amazing Vogue cover shoot, drawing on inspiration from Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

Besides the costumes and sets, the dialogue manages to maintain the correct Victorian diction reflective of the times, however there were some completely unnecessary scenes in this version, which Emerald Fennell included to be provocative without respecting the provenance of the original Gothic romantic novel.

Wuthering Heights will do well at the box office as it has enough stunning cinematic moments that the two main stars help generate and will appeal to 21^st century audience. However, I do urge the 21^st century audience to read the far better novel by Emily Bronte who would turn in her grave if she saw this outlandish version.

The statuesque and smouldering Jacob Elordi saves this version from being trashy and he proves that he is a leading man of this age.

Wuthering Heights expertly marketed to be released on the Valentine’s Day weekend gets a film rating of 7 out of 10. Recommended viewing for the production design and the costumes but not for its disrespect to the original novel.

What’s Love Got to Do with it?

Director: Shekhar Kapur

Cast: Lily James, Shazad Latif, Emma Thompson, Oliver Chris, Sajal Ali, Alice Orr-Ewing

Running time: 1 hour 48 minutes

Film Rating: 6 out of 10

Pakistani director Shekhar Kapur made some commercially successful films with the impressive Elizabeth (1998) and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) both starring Cate Blanchett, but his latest film with a title which is both unoriginal and boring, What’s Love Got to do with it? is a cross cultural romantic comedy fortunately saved by the performance of the two main leads Lily James (Yesterday, Baby Driver, Darkest Hour) as documentary film maker Zoe and Shazad Latif (The Man who Knew Infinity, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) as Kazim, a doctor in contemporary London.

Audiences should not get this film mixed up with the 1993 film of the same name starring an Oscar nominated Angela Bassett as Tina Turner opposite Laurence Fishburne.

The second title reincarnation of this film is a cross cultural love story which is both contrived and poorly written by screenwriter Jemima Khan. What’s Love Got to do with it? is billed as a romantic comedy although there is not much comedy in it besides a couple of goofy scenes by Zoe’s mother Cath awfully played by Oscar winner Emma Thompson (Howard’s End, Sense and Sensibility), who apart from Cruella has recently chosen some really dubious film roles. In actual fact, this was the worst I have seen Emma Thompson act in a film.

Fortunately Lily James is amazing as Zoe, a single documentary film maker who decides to take Kazim’s decision to embark on an arranged marriage with an unknown bride in Lahore, Pakistan as a fascinating subject matter for a documentary film. Except that this premise does fall flat as any documentary film maker should never fall in love with their subject matter?

The authenticity of Zoe as the film maker taking a peek into an essentially non-Western custom is questioned in terms of ethnographic film making. As Kazim says to Zoe in one of the better scenes of the film, that even though we are neighbours we are continents apart referring to the vast cultural differences between the British and the Pakistani’s.

Shazad Latif is easy on the eye and is dependable as the handsome male lead, completely dominated by his family.

As the action of the film moves from grey and dull London to bright and exotic Lahore in Pakistan, director Shekar Kapur’s handling of the issue of cross cultural relationships is muted without making a strong point except for a fabulous wedding scene, the rest of this near two hour film is not thrilling, but long winded and arduous.

By the time the two main romantic leads get together it is the end of the film. That being said, the onscreen chemistry between the gorgeous Lily James and the extremely handsome Shazad Latif holds this film together even when the supporting cast do not.

What’s Love Got to do with it? could have been so much better, a tale filled with wit and good humour but instead comes across rather surprisingly as a boring cross cultural love story which has been rehashed a thousand times since the Oscar winning Guess Who is Coming to Dinner (1967). Besides Emma Thompson should choose better film roles in the future.

What’s Love Got to do with it? gets a film rating of 6 out of 10, unoriginal and slow in parts but this romantic comedy will find a niche audience. Recommended viewing for those that enjoy an extremely lightweight and slightly exotic British romantic comedy set in London and Lahore.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Director: John Madden

Cast: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Celia Imrie, Diana Hardcastle, Richard Gere, Ronald Pickup, David Strathairn, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, Tamsin Greig

After the surprise success of the delightful 2012 film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, it is no wonder that director John Madden decided to do a companion film and organize a more extravagant and blissful reunion of the cast of the first film with newcomers Richard Gere, no longer the Gigolo, and David Strathairn to make up the male parts for the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel set in Jaipur, Mumbai and San Diego.

Whilst the original film was a sort of bitter-sweet adventure, the second film is a celebration and continuation of everything so wonderful and colourful about the possibility of spending one’s Twilight years in the exotic location of Jaipur. This is Shady Pines with colour and vibrancy, wit and humour and proves that the older generation of actors can still pull off a charming and marvellous sequel infused with the energetic Sonny wonderfully played again by Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) and his impending wedding to Sunaina played by Tina Desai.

In The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Sonny has big plans for expansion and hopes to acquire another rambling hotel in Jaipur to extend his collection of gorgeous establishments for the aged and semi-retired. The scenes between Patel and veteran actress Maggie Smith are crackling with wit and exuberance especially as they approach a major hotel chain based in San Diego for some much needed venture capital to expand their business enterprise.

Back in India, director John Madden expands his palette from the first film and each shot of The Second Best Marigold Hotel is a simulacrum of all the great films made about that subcontinent from David Lean’s A Passage to India and Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding making for a positively blissful and gorgeous cinematic reunion.

Subtly directed and beautifully acted, although the story is at times whimsical, each of the British actors from Celia Imrie and Diana Hardcastle to Ronald Pickup and Bill Nighy have more scope and depth in this companion piece which will surely delight all audiences who so enjoyed The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Silver haired Richard Gere’s role as an enigmatic guest Guy Chambers and seducer of Sonny’s mom add to the romance of the Jaipur establishment. The structure of the film is centred around the marriage of Sonny and Sunaina from the lavish engagement party to the actual flamboyant and vibrant wedding. Intertwined with the portrait of young love, is the growing affection between Evelyn and Douglas played with the usual quirkiness by Bill Nighy.

The scenes between Dench and Smith are poignant and nuanced, both Oscar winning accomplished actresses as they give viewers a sense that their imminent cinematic retirement is drawing near, yet their stardom will last forever. Oscar winners Maggie Smith and Judi Dench have had amazing stage and screen careers and it is encouraging to see them still commanding the big screen in an age of the digital blockbuster.

Whilst The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is not as brilliant or as unique as the first film, it still stands on its own as a delightfully fine companion piece. Judging how packed the cinema was, there is a huge market out there for these gorgeous films aimed at retired viewers who are not always willing to sit through some of the Hollywood commercial cinema which makes up the bulk of the studio releases.

The Second Best Marigold Hotel is recommended viewing for those that enjoyed the first film, and similar movies like Enchanted April, Tea with Mussolini and Ladies in Lavender.