Top films to watch on TV this week
WEDNESDAY
The Wife (2017) BBC2, 11.30p.m. In 1992 Connecticut, celebrated writer Joe Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) receives a telephone call to confirm he has been selected as that year’s recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Joe’s wife Joan (Glenn Close) celebrates with her spouse, yet there is unspoken tension.
The Castlemans travel to Sweden on Concorde and, mid-flight, they are pestered by muck-raking journalist Nathaniel Bone (Christian Slater). He is keen to pen a biography on Joe and hopes that he can get to his unwilling subject via his other half. The prize ceremony approaches and tension between the Castlemans explodes with devastating consequences.
Bjorn Runge’s slow-burning drama is draped elegantly around Close and her deeply moving performance, which secured her a seventh Oscar nomination (although she lost to Olivia Colman).
THURSDAY
Lions for Lambs (2007) GREAT! movies, 9p.m.
Brilliant, thought-provoking film-making featuring three entwined stories told over 90 taut minutes. The first deals with a college professor’s attempts to inspire a brilliant but lazy student by telling him the tale of his two most promising proteges, who went on to join the Marines.
The duo’s fate on the battlefields of Afghanistan is then charted, while a journalist embarks on an extraordinary interview with the slick senator who devised the mission in which the soldiers are involved.
Robert Redford (who also directs) stars alongside Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, but despite A-list leading players, the movie was made for a relatively cheap $35million. Although some were disappointed by its box office performance, it still made a healthy profit worldwide.
FRIDAY
Meet the Fockers (2004) Channel 4, 11.05p.m.
Despite their disastrous weekend together four years ago, retired CIA operative Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) has agreed to give bumbling Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) his daughter Pamela’s (Teri Polo) hand in marriage.
As preparations for the nuptials get underway, Jack and his wife Dina (Blythe Danner) travel with Greg and Pam to sunny Florida to meet his eccentric parents, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz (Barbra Streisand). Embarrassment soon follows as the two sets of parents and their respective pets – Jinx the cat and Moses the dog – clash.
Meet the Fockers is a likeable and largely entertaining sequel that wrings laughs from transplanting De Niro’s ice cool paterfamilias into an alien setting where he suddenly feels out of place.
SATURDAY
A Hard Day’s Night (1964) BBC2, 3.35p.m.
It could have been a cheap cash-in, but instead Richard Lester’s 1964 comedy adventure, purporting to show a typical day in the life of the Beatles, is a sharp, quotable delight from start to finish. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr play versions of themselves in this madcap musical comedy, braving yet another day of personal appearances and the high-decibel screams of the thousands of fans who follow them around London.
Wilfrid Brambell plays Paul’s meddling and cantankerous grandfather who lands himself (and the band) in all sorts of trouble, including a brief spell in custody at the police station; Victor Spinetti is the highly stressed TV director staring unemployment in the face when his star act goes missing before a live broadcast.
SUNDAY
Little Women (2019) Channel 4, 3.20p.m.
In Greta Gerwig’s acclaimed take on Louisa May Alcott’s much-loved novel, Marmee (Laura Dern) presides over the March family home while her husband (Bob Odenkirk) is enlisted in the American Civil War. Her four daughters pursue their dreams. Jo (Saoirse Ronan) wishes to become a writer, Meg (Emma Watson) pursues a romance, aspiring artist Amy (Florence Pugh) yearns to step out of Jo’s shadow so handsome next-door neighbour Laurie (Timothee Chalamet) might look her way, and Beth (Eliza Scanlen) loves to play the piano.
The siblings’ paths diverge courtesy of romantic dalliances and grave sickness. Little Women is distinguished by terrific performances including Saoirse Ronan as the fiercely independent wordsmith, who is fully aware of the lack of privilege afforded her sex.
MONDAY
The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019) BBC2, 11.05p.m.
Zak (Zack Gottsagen) is 22 years old and has Down’s Syndrome. He lives in residential care in North Carolina, where kindly nurse Eleanor (Dakota Johnson) keeps a close eye on him along with the elderly residents, who don’t share Zak’s obsession with pro wrestler Salt Water Redbrick (Thomas Haden Church).
Zak yearns to escape and to enrol in a wrestling school. With the help of fellow resident Carl (Bruce Dern), Zak slips out of his room and sneaks aboard a boat down by the docks. Fisherman Tyler (Shia LaBeouf ) steals the craft and when he discovers the stowaway, he initially intends to leave Zak on the shore. However, a tender bond starts to form in this charming, well-acted adventure.
TUESDAY
The Sisters Brothers (2018) BBC1, 10.50p.m.
Eli Sisters (John C Reilly) and his scrawny younger brother Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) are assassins for hire in 1851 Oregon. They agree to complete one final job for their powerful employer, The Commodore (Rutger Hauer), who commissions the siblings to kill gold prospector Hermann Warm (Riz Ahmed). He has perfected a volatile chemical compound that reveals priceless nuggets of metal concealed in riverbeds. A private detective named John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal) is already on Warm’s trail and will lead the unsuspecting target into the brothers’ clutches.
Phoenix lassoes the showier role in this offbeat caper, but it’s Reilly who repeatedly shoots to kill with his portrayal of a man of cool logic, who is prepared to sacrifice everything – including himself – to protect his kin.