an english movie review

Never Mind the Bollocks Plot of ‘The English.’ This Show Is All About the Acting

• By Alan Sepinwall

Alan Sepinwall

In the final days of 2014, my wife and I both came down with a nasty case of the flu. Unable to do much but alternately shiver and sweat in bed together, we attempted to distract ourselves with a miniseries I had heard good things about earlier in the year: The Honourable Woman . Written and directed by Hugo Blick, the thriller starred Maggie Gyllenhaal as an Anglo-Jewish businesswoman caught up in a web of intrigue that involved, among other things, a kidnapping, Israeli intelligence officers, and, I think, fiber optic cables? To be honest, while we loved Gyllenhaal’s performance, along with the sense of mounting tension and the visual style, we had a lot of trouble following the plot, frequently pausing episodes to ask each other exactly what was happening. We just couldn’t tell if this was a side effect of our temporary delirium, or a flaw in Blick’s storytelling.

The experience of watching The English while healthy, though, proved roughly the same as bingeing The Honourable Woman from a sick bed. Blunt is fantastic, as are many of her co-stars. The whole thing looks gorgeous, and it has some thoughtful variations on Blick’s pet theme about what happens when people from one culture get mixed up in the affairs of another. But despite a seemingly straightforward revenge plot, its storytelling frequently turns too complicated for its own good.

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As the menacing Mr. Watts (Ciaran Hinds) — the first of many threats standing between Cornelia and her final target — puts it, she is “Not quite the woman I expected.”

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But this turns out to be a Trojan Horse situation where the horse winds up being more useful than the soldiers hiding inside it. Blunt and Spencer are just so charismatic, both together and in the stretches of the season when they are separated, that the show’s loftier ambitions begin to feel besides the point. Blick and cinematographer Arnau Valls Colomer also place their two leads into a series of gorgeous compositions. (Sometimes, it’s literally painterly, like making Cornelia appear to be in a watercolor as she arrives at Watts’ place, or turning Cornelia and Eli’s discussion of constellations into something very much meant to evoke Van Gogh’s Starry Night .) The whole thing is great to look at.

It is also, though, a great headache to follow much of the time. While many of the supporting players are colorfully drawn and well played by the likes of Guerrero or (as a frightening bandit queen with a very specific grudge against indigenous people) Nichola McAuliffe, it becomes challenging in a hurry to keep track of everyone’s true motivations — or, at times, even how Cornelia or Eli get from one point of the story to the next. While many streaming shows suffer from not having enough story to fill the allotted episodes, The English often plays as if Blick wrote 12 episodes, then had to squeeze everything into half that, not always gracefully.

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Blick remains a fascinating filmmaker. I would just like to see him try to make something that doesn’t require a Carrie Mathison conspiracy board to fully comprehend.

All six episodes of The English premiere Nov. 11 on Amazon Prime Video. I’ve seen the entire season.

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• Amazon’s <i>The English</i> Is a Stunning Western That Reimagines America’s Founding Fantasy

Amazon’s The English Is a Stunning Western That Reimagines America’s Founding Fantasy

F or the Europeans who colonized it in the 19th century, the American West promised money, power, and freedom. Civilization was an afterthought, except within the Indigenous communities that would fall prey to the genocidal ideology of Manifest Destiny. The conflict between ruthless, lawless self-interest and the human instinct to form bonds of mutual care has always been central to the western genre . Yet it’s rare to see a variation on the theme achieve the depth and poignance of The English .

Written and directed by Hugo Blick, the creator of sophisticated, politically engaged British dramas like The Honorable Woman , this insightful Amazon-BBC co-production, which comes to Prime Video on Nov. 11, opens with a chance encounter. Upon arriving at a dusty hotel in the desolate Kansas of 1890, Lady Cornelia Locke ( Emily Blunt ) finds a badly beaten man, Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), chained to a post. She’s an English aristocrat on a mission to kill the man who killed her son. He’s a newly retired Pawnee scout traveling to Nebraska to claim land he’s owed under the Homestead Act but—despite and because his ancestors made their homes in the same area—will likely have to take by force. She saves him, then he saves her. They’re strangers, but unlike other strangers who cross paths on these eerily empty plains, they’ve earned each other’s trust.

As they ride north, it slowly becomes apparent that they have more in common than a direction or their loneliness or an increasingly affectionate allyship. Known for the complexity of both his story lines and the moral quagmires he creates, Blick populates three decades’ worth of history surrounding the dual protagonists with often-ghoulish supporting characters who represent all sorts of wild, self-serving beliefs about destiny, loyalty, revenge, ethics, identity. The English makes the argument that these mismatched convictions, forged from the bloody battles fought between Native Americans and European invaders but also within each broadly defined group, converged to form a fantasy known as the United States of America.

TV’s greatest western, Deadwood , arrived at a similar conclusion, paraphrasing an adage attributed to Napoleon as “history is a lie agreed upon.” The story of Cornelia and Eli is a different kind of lie; it’s a fiction, and one whose sentimentality in later installments of the six-episode series barely undermines its beauty as a counter-narrative. Violent, macabre, and in many ways tragic, The English doesn’t deny what we know about what really happened when cultures collided on the frontier. Instead, it finds beauty in imagining how different people in the same situation, driven by purer motives and united by trust, might have built something better.

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Emily Blunt’s ‘The English’ Is a Punishing, Stunning Western Revenge Tale

Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer are fantastic in Prime Video’s new series, elevating an intentionally murky mystery into an unforgettable, six-part Western epic.

Coleman Spilde

Entertainment Critic

Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Amazon Studios

The American West of the 1890s was an unforgiving and cruel place. Land, freedom, and happiness were hard-fought but never guaranteed amidst the greed of white colonialists carrying out the twisted and genocidal tenets of Manifest Destiny. The West was sparse, as were the rewards, and every day brought a new, unexpected battle. Making a life in the post-Civil War plains was an uncharitable undertaking for a pitiless people.

At times, writer/director Hugo Blick’s epic six-episode western The English , out Friday on Prime Video, can feel a lot like that: sprawling and demanding, an almost thankless task. It is not an easy watch by any stretch of the imagination. Perhaps that’s what makes the payoff so sizable.

Despite its near-insurmountable density, The English ends six protracted hours as one of the year’s most memorable series, thanks largely in part to its astounding two leads. Emily Blunt stars as Lady Cornelia Locke, an English noblewoman who arrives in the post-war wasteland of the American West with an unyielding taste for revenge. Her destiny binds her to Chaske Spencer’s Eli Whipp, a Pawnee ex-Army scout who has spent most of his life serving his own interests to stay alive.

Blunt and Spencer have a captivating onscreen chemistry. Eli and Cornelia find themselves undeniably linked by a moment in time—a dose of magic that brought them together, as Cornelia says—and watching them uncover the mystery of their shared past is what keeps The English from buckling under its massive scope. This pair of marvelous performances, and the breathtaking technicolor landscapes they’re splashed against, come together to help The English transcend its overstuffed writing, turning the series into an unmissable modern Western.

Diego Lopez Calvin/Prime Video

“Without you, I’d have been killed,” Cornelia says in a voiceover, opening the series. “That’s how we met, that’s why we met. It was in the stars.” When Cornelia first sees Eli, he’s been tied up and held prisoner for the crime of ordering a drink at a white man’s hotel. There’s no actual criminality in Eli’s request. But in a lawless land, a wrong move has put him in the right place for destiny to intervene.

Cornelia has been in America for weeks, using bags of unbanked cash to help her navigate a strange land. She pays off anyone she can to take her further. Her offer to pay for Eli’s release is refused with an assault by the hotelier, knocking her out and sending Eli, handcuffed in a stagecoach, in the other direction. But when a chance encounter leads to Eli’s escape, he returns to Cornelia, by way of a knife in her captor’s back.

Thus, the two are bound by bloodshed. Cornelia knows that the success of her mission hinges on her skills with a gun; she’s seeking revenge on the man she believes killed her son, and her festering anger can only do so much without the proper tools. Eli, torn between the life he had before joining an army cavalry and his post-war insularity decides to join Cornelia to reclaim Pawnee land and see the demise of its colonizers along the way. From that moment, Cornelia and Eli have united in something bigger than themselves, a violent, cosmic mystery that will set forth a chain of events that was in place long before the two of them ever met.

To understand that mystery, you’ll be tasked with a daunting voyage of your own: completing all six episodes.

By the end of the first, you’ll be forgiven if you don’t understand what’s going on. I spent a great deal of The English unsure of exactly what I was supposed to be taking from each episode, trying so hard to ascertain the purpose of each of the series’ many detours. The watch can occasionally feel punishing. Masochism is not the foremost feeling we’re seeking from television.

In this Wild West, there are hucksters peddling information like farmed resources; there are killers who ride with freshly-sheared scalps dangling from their horses; there’s a town built on a secret that slowly changes hands as time goes on, complete with English cattle drivers and hard-nosed widows; there’s a woman named Black Eyed Mog, who is the scariest thing I’ve ever seen on television.

Why viewers spend time with these tangential characters is something that doesn’t become clear until the series’ final episodes. Pulling focus away from Spencer and Blunt for these convoluted subplots causes The English ’s operatic nature to hit an off-note, even if it’s intentional. What was sharp and vivid only seconds earlier quickly becomes brittle and, at the risk of being gauche, momentarily boring. But just around the corner is another tremendous thrill.

For a series that is jumbled to the point of near discombobulation, it sure is gorgeous to look at. Aesthetically, everything about The English is sumptuous. Strikingly bright yellow fields cascade across the frame, positioned against blue skies with perfect clouds that look so unbelievably remarkable, they could be paintings. Scenes look like they’re being filmed on location, on a soundstage, and against flat fabric, old Hollywood backdrops. Like Spaghetti Westerns of yore, much of the series was filmed in Europe, along the kaleidoscopic Spanish countryside. Cinematographer Arnau Valls Collomer brings lasting life and warmth to the desolate American plains. Simply speaking: The English is one of the most visually arresting series of the year.

Compounding all of that beauty are Blunt and Spencer, whose performances both beg for there to be a word even more concise than “triumphant” to underscore their brilliance. Part of what makes The English ’s scattered plotlines so frustrating is that, from their very first scenes, we’re all-in on their unlikely dynamic. In just a few frames, Blunt can move between tepidity and the showy courage of a career gunslinger. We feel the depths of her sorrow and her settled ache for revenge; when Cornelia’s motivations come into focus in the latter half of the series, Blunt does some of the best work of her career reminding us just how powerful a mother’s love can be.

And after a long, underappreciated career, Twilight veteran Chaske Spencer leads The English with all the natural grace and formidable talent of the greatest Western actors. He holds Eli’s patchwork of emotions like a deck of cards, playing each one at the exact right time. Somehow, Spencer wears love, loss, fear, and anger all at once without ever feeling false. It is a bold and commanding performance, often delivered with only a few words.

The English takes work, there’s no doubt about that. This is phone-down, no-talking programming. For some (unfortunately, I suspect, for many), that will prove too daunting a demand. But for those who are up to the challenge, the series’ payoffs will prove far more memorable than all of the effort it took to get there. A little inference and a dash of patience are necessary—this is a Western, after all.

This is Blick’s bleeding-hearted love letter to the genre, and by its end, The English join the ranks of the grandest entries ever made.

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Emily Blunt’s Ultra-Violent Western ‘The English’ Tells How the West Was Lost

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If many a Western captures the sweeping romance of America’s land rush — idealizing a time when seizing one’s future involved planting a literal flag — then “ The English ” serves as a bright red rebuttal; a revisionist take among the modern era’s various reconsiderations, this time emphasizing the tears, sweat, and oh-so-much-blood required to reach the dream awaiting colonizers somewhere west of the Mississippi.

Writer-director Hugo Blick (“The Honorable Woman”) still embraces traditional elements of the genre, centering his six-part Prime Video series around a rhapsodic love story and capturing plenty of vast prairies in picturesque, sun-kissed shots. But it’s the edge carved into every corner of “The English” that helps the limited series stand out. From the cutting dialogue to its jagged mystery, Blick’s latest story finds consistent success not by drawing pained parallels between past and present but by astutely acknowledging the ferocity ingrained in America’s identity all along.

The cast is also quite good. Emily Blunt produces and plays Lady Cornelia Locke, an aristocrat from England who arrives in America seeking revenge. Her son has died (under undisclosed circumstances), and she’s tracked those she deems responsible to these parts. Unfortunately, they’ve tracked her as well. Cornelia’s mettle is tested (and flaunted, as any action series featuring Blunt’s intimidating talents should) by a procession of colorful characters played by accomplished character actors, all happy to sink their teeth into spirited dialogue and mythic personalities.

Ciarán Hinds makes for a beguiling, tone-setting first opponent: “There are many who can welcome you to the real America,” Mr. Watts (Hinds) says, “but only one who can truly mean it.” His greeting includes a snazzy green vest, the signature piece of a formal three-piece suit (one of many striking ensembles made by costumer Phoebe De Gaye); a theatrical gesture toward the panoramic vistas in the distance (captured both in stark remove and lush detail by cinematographer Arnau Valls Colomer); and courteous responses to her curt inquiries… all until he knocks her out cold in an attempt to steal everything she’s carried over land and sea.

This marks a fitting introduction for Cornelia to America and audiences to the series, as Blick builds early episodes around the alluring, aforementioned formal elements and, more generally, alternating moments of debonair discussions and shocking violence. Cornelia and Watts’ dinner table dialogue crackles with wit. Each actor speaks with infectious confidence and curiosity, and you’ll be chuckling along with them until the next surprise smack reminds you what’s at stake — and who they really are. Toby Jones, Stephen Rea, and Tom Hughes each get their time to shine, but respect must be paid to Rafe Spall for his all-in heel turn. Sporting a helmet-like bowler and speaking in a beefed-up Cockney accent, the late-arriving “Trying” star steadily builds a towering presence that would be too big for nearly any other show. Here, though, he’s just right — a boss you love to hate and hate to love, blending brutish charm and unspeakable savagery into an anti-gentleman who’s still able to flourish in a country that rewards such behavior, so long as a white man embodies them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back when Mr. Watts is welcoming Cornelia to the U.S. of A., just out of eyesight is an Indigenous American, tied up, beaten, and restrained. This is Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), a Pawnee-born ex-cavalry scout who only wants to claim the land that is rightfully his (twice over). Whipp, a man of few but purposeful words, served his time in the Civil War, even looking the other way when his fellow soldiers took out their frustrations, aggression, and fears on Indigenous people. Now, he’s traveling toward Wyoming, where he plans to lay claim to a few acres and build a new life. But if Mr. Watts’ assault doesn’t make this clear already, just about everyone Whipp comes across tells him the same thing: He’s not getting that land. And for the same reason he was attacked and tied up: “The color of his skin,” as Mr. Watts readily admits.

Despite his early predicament, Whipp’s path soon intersects with Cornelia’s. She claims it’s magic — a kind of fate ushered in by necessity and a mutual understanding between two good souls in a nation filled with bad ones. How they’re pulled apart and pushed together again makes up the murky, mysterious middle of an otherwise straightforwardly entertaining six hours (less, since most episodes run close to 50 minutes). “The English” over-complicates its plot at times, which, combined with Blick’s enthralling yet extravagant dialogue, can trip up an otherwise thrilling chase. (I found myself regularly skipping back and forth just to make sense of things — an odd feeling for a show with an easily understood intro and themes so clear they border on overkill.)

But what it may lack in efficiency, it more than makes up for in spirit. Blunt and Spencer create genuine characters out of their archetypes. (He a noble gunslinger who’s hunted where a white war hero would be glorified, she a frilly-dressed homesteader hellbent on vengeance, yet preserving a heart of gold.) “The English,” like the land on which it’s set, is built on contradictions. To describe it as a rollicking good time wouldn’t be far off, even if such unchecked elation doesn’t quite prepare viewers for the heartrending twists and turns. Blick’s latest is far from the first revisionist Western to imply the Wild West wasn’t as clean and proper as genre classics first portrayed, nor is it saying anything particularly profound by outlining how deep the roots of violence go in a country built by fleeing immigrants (and persecuted natives).

And yet those ideas still pack a punch. During the last few years of pandemic denials and political divisions, of COVID body counts and regular school shootings, plenty of modern aristocrats have wondered where our savagery and selfishness stems from; why there’s a tacit acceptance of so many seemingly avoidable deaths in the land of the free. “The English” outlines at least one theory: Bloodshed is the American way, and so is believing we can put it behind us. Blick’s explanation is nestled somewhere within the connection between its graceful aesthetics and ruthless inclinations, its sweeping romance and star-crossed lovers, its white flags and red ones.

“The English” premieres Friday, November 11 on Amazon Prime Video .

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The English review: Pure, delicious, American cheese that, at its best, feels like a Coen brothers creation

Emily blunt and chaske spencer are a tough-as-nails twosome in this drama that overflows with affection for the history of the western, article bookmarked.

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What right does the BBC have, making a lavish six-part western? The BBC – which is all about stuffy, bonneted period dramas and documentaries where a nonagenarian cavorts with chimpanzees – tackling the quintessence of American culture? And, to add to the impertinence, calling it The English ? Well, that’s the situation we arrive at with Hugo Blick’s BBC Two drama (co-produced with Amazon), which arrives on our screen with a thunder of hooves.

Emily Blunt is Cornelia Locke, an Englishwoman whose father owns “half of Devon”. She’s journeying through the heart of America on an unarticulated voyage of revenge. It’s there that she encounters Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), trussed up and beaten to a pulp. A Pawnee-born ex-US army officer, Whipp wants to claim a slide of American land, as is his veteran’s right. “Smoke dreams for the fireside,” dismisses a fellow soldier. Fate throws Eli and Cornelia together, a tough-as-nails twosome heading north with nothing but a few guns, knives, bows, arrows and their wits.

The picaresque nature of these adventures is aided by the fact that almost nobody survives long enough to make it to a second episode. This is from the Cormac McCarthy school of westerns: full of raping, hanging and scalping. Life is cheap here, and nearly everyone we encounter is living out their final day. “It cannot be that this whole country is only full of killers and thieves!” Cornelia exclaims, but the evidence is stacked up to the contrary. The only argument against that notion is the calm, composed presence of Whipp. In a land where people would put a bullet in your head for a hot meal, he’s saving women and children, without a flash of anger or crack of a smile.

Blunt is a terrific actor, and, as has been witnessed in films like Edge of Tomorrow and A Quiet Place , a confident action hero. Her voice has a lilting, almost Germanic, timbre; a sense of un-Englishness in this sea of colonisers. Conversely, Spencer’s Whipp is the only character to speak with a modern American accent. The taciturn sharpshooter is an overdone trope of the western, but he adds pleasingly to that canon. And the other characters who make it through multiple episodes – Stephen Rea’s Sheriff Marshall, Valerie Pachner’s Martha Myers and Tom Hughes’s Thomas Trafford – all bolster that feeling of prestige.

The English is beautiful. Panoramas show wagons trundling against the sunset and saloons springing up like tombstones from the dust. But it also has that near pastiche quality that exemplifies the early westerns, which were shot on ranches and soundstages in Los Angeles. The predominantly British cast and use of the Spanish deserts and sierras as a stand-in for the American West exacerbate this impression. “People cross oceans just to get to where we are now,” Katie Clarke (Kimberly Guerrero) tells Cornelia. “But they always come up a little short.” And The English comes up a little short of total immersion.

But perhaps that’s not the point. For all its starkness and brutality, The English is actually a deliciously corny love letter to its forebears. From the Eastwoodesque gruffness of Spencer’s Whipp to the way that Cornelia becomes an arse-kicking gunslinger, like Mattie Ross in True Grit, The English overflows with affection for the history of the western. And unlike recent additions to the genre, such as Hostiles or Bone Tomahawk – which replace the bloodless gun smoke of John Wayne with skull-cracking intensity – The English is kind of goofy. “I’m a Scorpio,” Cornelia informs Whipp, telling him how star signs are all the rage in London. “Mine’s about revenge – can’t help but think yours is too.” This is pure, delicious, American cheese.

At its best, The English feels like it could’ve been made by the Coen brothers . And for a Thursday night drama on BBC Two, that’s a huge compliment. “There are many who can welcome you to the real America,” announces Ciaran Hinds’s short-lived villain at the show’s opening, “but only one who can truly mean it.” Somehow, the BBC has managed to carve a slice of the real America into its schedule and – audacity of audacities – call it The English.

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The English Review: Saddle Up and Enjoy This Compelling Chase Western

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Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 Review | Kevin Costner's Epic Western Disappoints

Dark matter season 2 is possible (but unlikely), prison break stars dominic purcell & wentworth miller reunite for new series.

Two beleaguered souls meet as if by chance while braving the western frontier. “Can you shoot?” asks a Pawnee ex-cavalry scout, Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer). Lady Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt)—aristocratic, English, fish out of water, disheveled—replies: “If I have to.”

Eli doesn’t miss a beat. “Oh, you’ll have to.”

Welcome to 1890 middle America, a violent landscape inspired by big dreams and filled with plenty of bloodshed. It’s the captivating setting of The English , the new Amazon Studios epic chase Western from award-winning writer and director Hugo Blick ( The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line ). The six-episode limited series, which hits Amazon Prime on November 11, also happens to be one of the most captivating Westerns to hit the small screen in some time—that’s code for “temporarily pause what you’re currently streaming, folks, and dive into this exceptional experience.”

The English follows Cornelia’s entry into the daunting and dangerous new landscape of the West. She’s determined to get revenge on an unruly gent she blames for the death of her son. Fate bumps her into Eli, a member of the Pawnee Nation by birth and a guy with his own dilemmas. It takes a lot to survive the treacherous souls occupying the West, after all. This series spares no details in showing how gruesome the late-1800s were, in fact. Suddenly joined together, Cornelia and Eli discover a shared history that they must defeat if either of them is to survive.

The stellar cast includes Rafe Spall ( The Salisbury Poisonings, Trying ) and Nichola McAuliffe ( Tomorrow Never Dies, Doctor Who ) in standout roles. Tom Hughes ( A Discovery of Witches, Victoria ), Stephen Rea ( The Shadow Line, The Honourable Woman ), Valerie Pachner ( A Hidden Life, The Kingsman ), Toby Jones ( Marvellous, Detectorists ), Ciaran Hinds ( The Terror, The Woman in Black ), Malcolm Storry ( The Princess Bride, Doc Martin ), Steve Wall ( Raised by Wolves, The Witcher ), Sule Rimi ( Black Earth Rising, Strike Back ), and Cristian Solimeno ( Avenue 5, Guilt ) are also on board.

When the series was being prepped for production, Blick noted: "The chance to make a Western with Emily Blunt and the cast is so delicious I’m still wondering if it’s one of those weird dreams we were all having during lockdown. If not, a thrilling, romantic, epic horse-opera is heading to your screen… and I couldn’t be more excited.”

Related: The Fabelmans Review: Steven Spielberg's Heartfelt Memoir of Family & Filmmaking

The Acting in The English

Blick has a good reason to be jazzed about Blunt ( A Quiet Place, Jungle Cruise, Mary Poppins Returns .) Always a joy to watch, the actress delivers a powerhouse performance as Cornelia, balancing the character’s vulnerability with her fierce determination to right a horrible wrong, even though she’s not fully equipped—at least in the beginning—to do so. An Emmy nod is in order for Blunt next year. The same can be said for Spencer ( Blindspot , Barkskins ), a rare on-screen presence—deep, grounded, often hypnotic. You don’t experience many actors like Spencer and together, he and Blunt give viewers two memorable characters worthy of our investment. What on-screen magic they create.

Cornelia arrives at a Kansas outpost circa 1890 carrying far too much—literally and figuratively. She’s got trunks galore and frothy gowns, and perhaps way too much cash for an English lady to be toting around out on the frontier. But avenge her son’s death she must. So onward she goes even though a gaggle of bad fellas have anticipated her arrival.

Eli, Pawnee-born and now a defunct U.S. Army calvary, is a lone wolf. Natives raise their eyebrows over his Calvary involvement. White folks discriminate based on his skin color. Eli’s wish? To grab a couple of acres somewhere safe.

But Cornelia and Eli’s futures are connected. And so are their pasts. “You and I have met,” Cornelia tells Eli. “It was in the stars.”

The first three episodes of The English do well in creating the vast landscape and wicked danger of the Western world. The cinematography here is wonderful eye-candy—the series was shot overseas so Spain fills in for the Wild West.

Mostly, viewers will be intrigued by some of the characters in this Western territory. Anybody that knows much about the period realizes that getting hanged or shot over a simple misunderstanding isn’t that far-fetched. More gruesome, perhaps, is the havoc white men inflicted, particularly on entire Native communities. Spall’s David Melmont comes to mind. His character is, literally, the heart of darkness. Still, it gives Spall plenty of scene-stealing opportunities and his bone-chilling performance in The English is one for the books.

McAuliffe’s Black Eyed Mog, a hardened frontier woman, appears less frequently, but she’s bound to give you the spooks. Collectively, Blick and the creative team have introduced a fascinating array of characters and the actors embodying them are pitch-perfect. But what about the actual story of The English ? Does it get the job done?

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Is The English Worth the Investment?

The short answer is: Yes. Episode 4 takes place 15 years before the events we’re initially introduced to in Episode 1, and it does a fine job of connecting the creative dots. This backstory helps us understand what’s really at stake for Cornelia. And Eli, for that matter. It also introduces an evil force that will be hard to reckon with.

Artistically and thematically, I couldn’t get enough of The English. I wanted more. In that respect, Blick did his job. Core themes of identity and revenge interweave themselves in a fascinating parable that also touches on race, power, and love. The middle episodes tend to droop just a bit. Like bullets ricocheting off wooden porches or barns, you wonder where things may land and there’s a fear—because the front half was so good—that the story may have lost its footing. Like roping cattle, though, Blick steers things back in the right direction. This comes to light during an investigation by the local sheriff Robert Marshall (played by Rea) and the young widow, Martha Myers (Valerie Pachner) into a series of bizarre and macabre unsolved murders. Here we realize the full extent of Cornelia and Eli's intertwined history. The passion found in the latter half of Episodes 5 and 6 are, by far, something of the best things we’ve experienced in a Western.

Much is at stake as Cornelia and Eli’s precarious, often violent, journey unravels, and in the hands of another writer, producer, and director—Blick is all three—I sense we’d experience a much choppier ride overall. There’s depth and tenderness, too, when we learn more about Cornelia’s emotional plight. Her bond with Eli is visceral as past traumas come to light. These truly are expectational characters.

The English is one of the most passionate Western tales to hit the screen. Blunt and Spencer are cinematic gold. The cast shines. The acting is powerful, effective, and, to a degree, a bit soul-stirring. Aside from its midway dip—easily forgivable—Blick’s big dive into Westerns is one hell of a—to coin his term—"horse opera."

The English hits Amazon Prime Video on November 11.

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The English Review: A Gorgeous And Gruesome Tale Of Vengeance In The Old West

There's almost always a market for gritty westerns, but there's been a bounty of well-made, pitch-black tales of the American west lately. Joining the ranks of shows like " 1883 " and films like the Academy Award-winning " Power of the Dog " is " The English ," a new Prime Video and BBC limited series from writer and director Hugo Blick about romance and revenge on the lawless prairie. 

Emily Blunt stars as Lady Cornelia Locke, an Englishwoman of some means who arrives in Kansas looking for vengeance when the violent chaos of the plains throws a massive wrench in her plans. Her fate seems to be intertwined with a Pawnee ex-calvary scout named Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), who is on his own journey of bloody revenge and redemption. There's more going on — a whole lot more — but the primary drive of the story is Cornelia and Eli's fiery chemistry and their shared goals. 

The dialogue is tightly written, the cinematography from director of photography Arnau Valls Colomer is absolutely gorgeous with plenty of stunning landscapes to gaze upon, and there's plenty of action and suspense, but the series rests firmly on Blunt's shoulders. Cornelia has to be more than an archetype in order to hold the series together, and Blunt's incredible performance helps do just that. The script is a bit too complex at times, but the many parts work so well together that "The English" ends up being a compelling and powerful watch. 

Bound by fate

When we first meet Cornelia and Eli, she's a well-dressed woman in lace and layers of skirts and he's strung up with rope around his chest, dangling in the hot desert sun as his captors look on. There's an immediate sense of dread, and it never really lets up until the final credits roll. "The English" is not a happy story, and it's an impressively bleak tale of just how horrible living in the anarchy of the time was, and those first few minutes give the audience a pretty good idea as to what they're in for. This isn't "Tombstone" or a John Wayne movie ; this is something a little more gruesome. 

Cornelia attempts to save Eli by buying his freedom, but ends up captured by a real jerk (played by Ciarán Hinds) herself instead because she's both beautiful and wealthy. Eli ends up sent on his merry way and comes back to save her, repaying her kindness for trying to save him in the first place, though he says he came back just to get revenge on Hinds' character. Eli thinks Cornelia is too soft, but then she drowns her captor in a pretty elaborate way and he realizes she might have what it takes to survive the west. The two get to know one another and realize they have similar goals and destinations: she's looking for the man who killed her son, while he's looking to reclaim ancestral land. They set out, and the rest of the series follows them on a winding journey that leaves a trail of bodies in their wake.

Elegantly depicted misery

Each episode ends up being a different kind of awfulness that Cornelia and Eli must contend with, and initially, it feels a bit grueling. There are numerous scruffy, dirty men who have their own side stories, and while some of them end up being important by the end, they can occasionally feel a little confusing. Thankfully, the dialogue is so well-written and so well-delivered that it's a joy to listen to, and the visuals are lovely to look at. There are loads of wind-swept plains and wooden buildings lit by the setting sun, contrasting the desolate beauty of the prairie with the desperate violence of the people within it. 

What "The English" does better than anything else is impress upon the viewer just how miserable it was to live in the 1800s in the American west. The title refers to the way many British people romanticized the west, both then and now. That idealized version is dashed, of course, and the reality is much, much more brutal. I cannot stress enough just how hard this series is willing to go; it reminds me most of the brilliant Australian film "The Proposition," and features an incredible amount of intense violence and horror. There's murder, rape, torture, and mutilation, and some of the imagery is truly shocking. If you're not prepared to see a wall full of human scalps, this might not be the show for you.

Star-crossed lovers

"The English" has a wonderful supporting cast, including performances by Tom Hughes, Stephen Rea, Ben Temple, and more. The standouts are Gary Farmer (Uncle Brownie from "Reservation Dogs") and Kimberly Guerrero (Auntie B on "Reservation Dogs"), who play a couple of grifters "taking back what's theirs" from the various travelers who wander through their land. Every single actor is giving it their all, but ultimately the most important performances are from Blunt and Spencer. Luckily for "The English," they're both absolutely brilliant, and they have wonderful onscreen chemistry. 

I don't really care for fictional romances. I'm a cynical weirdo who finds the vast majority of romance stories trite or annoying, but the fledgling romance at the center of "The English" is truly romantic. The two have conversations that could easily become corny but don't through the power of the performances and script, and their frequent references to the stars become a through-line of their relationship throughout the six episodes. She tells him about her star sign (she's a Scorpio!) and he tells her about Pawnee legends regarding the stars, sharing their individual cultures but creating a shared narrative. Blunt, who many know best for playing Mary Poppins, is at her fiery best here, making even her "A Quiet Place" performance look tame. Cornelia is a flawed female hero who's equal parts beautiful and badass, but never ever feels like someone's historical fantasy dream girl. 

"The English" occasionally flounders in its complex narrative, but its performances, dialogue, and cinematography make it a must-see for anyone who likes their westerns a bit more bleak and bloody. 

"The English" is now on Prime Video. 

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‘the english’ review: emily blunt in amazon’s big, bold swing of a western.

Hugo Blick's six-part series pairs Blunt and Chaske Spencer as outsiders seeking revenge on the wide open prairie.

By Daniel Fienberg

Daniel Fienberg

Chief Television Critic

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As presented in Hugo Blick ‘s new Amazon limited series The English , the Old West was a dangerous place: a collection of breathtaking vistas connected by trauma from horrifying massacres, in which disease-ridden, testicle-eating outlaws sold their services to the highest bidder and the only currency more valuable than acreage was revenge. No place for a woman, but no place for a man either.

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The English is a beautifully shot exercise that’s always right on the border of saying something brilliant, only to more frequently settle for being a picaresque assembly of bizarre characters, bloody adventures and satisfyingly badass lead performances from Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer .

Blunt plays Cornelia Locke, a British aristocrat who arrives in the New World circa 1890 with trunks of regionally inappropriate gowns, bags of cash and one goal: avenging the death of her son. At a remote outpost on the Kansas plains, it becomes clear that Cornelia’s arrival and her mission have been anticipated by some powerful and threatening forces (embodied by Ciaran Hinds, in exceptionally supercilious form).

Also present in that outpost, by luck or by cosmic design, is Eli Whipp (Spencer), a Pawnee-born former member of the US Army cavalry. The white folks look at Eli as a Native. The Natives look at Eli as white. All Eli wants is to reclaim the property that was his birthright.

Cornelia and Eli’s futures are intertwined, and their pasts are connected as well; while the Old West is vast, it’s a small world.

The English is, at heart, a clear-cut tale of revenge, and I loved the simplicity of the first two episodes. I would watch hours of Blunt and Hinds sitting opposite each other noshing on prairie oysters and making insinuations of violence. Ditto Blunt and Spencer sitting under the stars, each feeling out the other’s motivations and mettle. Then the show has to go and become pointlessly circuitous for two episodes, as a combination of interchangeable actors obscured by period facial hair, unplaceable accents and purposeless time jumping make the story hazy for no good reason.

There’s a strong rebound in the closing episodes, which rise to a level of Grand Guignol grotesquerie as the long-promised revenge comes to a head. But when Blick reaches his elegiac conclusive thoughts on the genre’s mixture of affectation and authenticity, you may wish, as I did, that the middle of the season had had more of that and less twistiness-for-the-sake-of-twistiness.

Cinematographer Arnau Valls Colomer shoots the heck out of the Spanish locations, meant to evoke, not impersonate, the Old West mystique. As in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog , foreign terrain stands in for the most American of geography, paralleling how Ford would use Monument Valley as a stand-in for the totality of The West.

You don’t need to share Blick’s checklist to get caught up in the camera’s careful compositions or the muscular and erudite dialogue. But appreciating The English on referential terms helps distract from a sense of actual history that’s a little superficial and an exploration of Indigenous cultures that improves on that of the traditional Western without marking a true corrective in the way that Reservation Dogs or Dark Winds have recently done.

Blunt and Spencer offer ample pleasures of their own. Blunt, already a veteran action hero, wields rifles and a rapier wit and does it all in Phoebe De Gaye’s stylishly constraining costumes. Spencer swaggers confidently as the Eastwood/John Wayne archetype with a soulful, outsider twist. Together, they have a pleasing chemistry, without the series forcing it to necessarily be romantic.

The nagging sense that the sloppy middle prevents the series from being something truly special by its heightened and emotional end is a minor disappointment. But its’ breadth, ambition and technical virtuosity make it well worth seeking out nevertheless.

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‘The English’: Emily Blunt braves the frontier in an engrossing but gruesome Western

In the prime video series, she’s an upper-crust woman from across the pond, hunting a killer with the help of a pawnee scout..

Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt) travels from Britain to 1890 Wyoming to find the man who killed her son in “The English.”

Prime Video

An upper-crust Englishwoman named Cornelia Locke takes an arduous journey across the pond in 1890 and eventually makes her way via carriage to Wyoming, wearing a pink dress and a fancy hat and a veil, carrying a satchel filled with cash and trusting her fate to an obviously nefarious group that includes a grinning idiot who plays the squeeze box upon her arrival in an isolated and newly created and yet-to-be-populated town.

We’re starting to believe you didn’t think this through, Cornelia.

Before the day is done, violence and blood and horror and mud and dust and evil and dirty dealings have landed in Cornelia’s lap, and it pretty much stays that way throughout the six-episode run of “The English,” a sometimes convoluted and often brutal Western about an unforgiving territory and the killers, con artists, schemers, dreamers, monsters and oh yes one or two decent souls who navigated the land in the late 20th century, looking for their piece of the new American dream.

With Emily Blunt delivering a magnetic, all-in performance as Cornelia and Chaske Spencer proving to be a formidable co-star as the Pawnee Nation scout who keeps crossing paths with Cornelia and eventually becomes her most trusted friend and perhaps something more, this is a consistently engrossing Prime Video adventure from creator Hugo Blick. From the stylized opening graphics to the score to the breathtaking visuals (filming took place in Spain) to the over-the-top dialogue, it’s clear Blick is a huge fan of the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s. That works for us.

Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) keeps having to rescue Cornelia, or vice versa.

Blunt’s Cornelia is hell-bent on finding the man who killed her son — a mission that draws laughs and scorn from everyone who knows this particular man. Still, she is fiercely determined, despite a battery of obstacles and a steady stream of evil-intentioned characters she encounters along the way. Meanwhile, Spencer’s Eli Whipp, a newly retired Cavalry Scout, just wants to stay out of trouble and claim a few acres of homestead.

Problem is, he can’t quit Cornelia, who keeps tagging along with him and enlisting his help on a variety of missions, which leads to a number of scenarios in which Eli has to rescue Cornelia, or Cornelia has to rescue Eli, or they have to save one another. Along the way, the body count steadily rises. Nary an episode of “The English” ends without one more characters getting blown away or stabbed in the gut or otherwise ended.

Even with helpful graphics telling us we’re in the “NEWLY CREATED TERRITORY OF OKLAHOMA” or “CAINE COUNTY, POWDER RIVER, WYOMING” or “1875, FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER,” there are times when it’s difficult to keep track of where and when we are, and which bad guy(s) are center stage. It helps a lot to see the likes of Toby Jones, Stephen Rea, Ciarán Hinds and Rafe Spall turn up, and there’s no denying the chemistry between Blunt and Spencer, even when they’re reciting some truly corny lines. And though it’s hardly fresh to include anachronistic needle drops in the proceedings, the series makes great use of songs such as “You Cut Her Hair” by Tom McRae, “Into Dust” by Mazzy Star and Crooked Still’s version of Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” With so much bloodshed and so many haunting images, “The English” isn’t for the faint of heart, but it packs a stylized punch.

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The English review: an occasionally transcendent Western

“The English is a narratively messy but consistently engaging Western that is anchored by Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer's spellbinding performances.”

• Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer's lead performances
• Stunning Western imagery
• A memorable villain
• Convoluted plotting
• A messy finale
• Uneven pacing

Cornelia Locke believes in magic. For that reason, the British aristocrat, as played by Emily Blunt, feels uniquely modern in The English . The new limited series from Hugo Blick, which premieres in the U.S. today on Amazon Prime , opens with a flashforward monologue from Blunt about the power of fate. and its first episode concludes with Cornelia boasting about her star sign (she’s a Scorpio because, of course, she is) and sharing her belief in the magic of the universe. The English ’s premiere also makes it clear that Cornelia is a woman on a dangerous mission, a fact that adds a surprising edge to her more eccentric astrological beliefs.

The English is at its best when it makes Cornelia’s trust in magic feel justified. Like many great Westerns , there’s a deep spirituality running throughout The English that adds layers of predetermined weight and tragedy to its story. Across its six episodes, the series frequently makes its own life harder than it needs to be by presenting a fairly straightforward plot in an unnecessarily convoluted way. However, whenever it feels like The English has grown too unwieldy for its creative team, its two stars return to keep it from floating away.

The English tells, in many ways, a simple revenge story. Its first episode introduces Blunt’s Cornelia Locke and then reveals that she, like so many Western heroes before her, has come to the American West of the 1890s looking to right a wrong as violently as she can. We’re told that she’s looking to kill the man responsible for the death of her son, though Cornelia’s actual target is a mystery that The English holds on to for as long as possible. In order to get her revenge, Cornelia requires the help of a Pawnee scout named Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer).

When Cornelia and Eli first cross paths, the latter is just a few months into his retirement from the U.S. military, which he dutifully served for many years. The pair initially seem like they could not be any more different from each other, but the further into The English ’s story we get, the more we realize just how much they actually have in common. Despite their racial, social, and cultural differences, a bond quickly forms between the two that emerges as both the thematic backbone and emotional foundation of The English ’s admittedly messy story.

Fortunately, both Spencer and Blunt are performers who are more than capable of carrying a series like The English . Blunt, for her part, is given the chance to play one of her best roles in years here. The Quiet Place star brings authenticity to every side of Cornelia, whether it be her hard-edged ruthlessness, wholehearted belief in the supernatural, devastating sadness, or charming wit. It’s hard, in fact, to think of a project that has given Blunt more to do than The English , but the series is better off because it does.

Opposite her, Spencer brings a commanding presence to The English . The actor is spellbinding as Eli Whipp, a Pawnee man whose time in the military has instilled both a deep confidence and a profound sense of guilt within him. Spencer’s performance is one built on a series of micro-expressions and sideways glances that, when combined together, make Eli’s complicated past and conflicting inner emotions clear even beneath his ceaselessly calm, collected persona.

Outside of Spencer and Blunt, Rafe Spall gives an oddly entrancing performance as a character whose role in The English is probably best left unspoiled. Other recognizable actors like Toby Jones and Ciaran Hinds turn in reliably memorable performances in otherwise minor, thankless roles. Meanwhile, as its sole director, Hugo Blick fills The English with enough striking images and fittingly sun-soaked compositions to cement the series as one of the more artistically composed Westerns of recent memory .

Blick’s writing does not, however, match the consistency of his directing. The English ’s final two episodes, in particular, unfold in ways that often feel confusing, if not downright incoherent. After introducing one of the more awful TV villains of the year, Blick’s final script for The English fails to deliver the kind of resoundingly cathartic conclusion that the series deserves. That particular failure is partly due to Blick’s overall misuse of a superfluous character played by A Hidden Life star Valerie Pachner.

Despite these flaws, The English is a largely successful, occasionally excellent Western. Even in its worst moments, most of which arrive in its finale, the series still feels like a unique addition to a genre that Hollywood has essentially chosen to ignore in recent years. The show is also, even more importantly, a reminder of what kind of shots actors like Blunt and Spencer can take when they’re given the tools and space that they deserve. The English , to its credit, wisely chooses more often than not to stay out of its stars’ way, which is ultimately why it works as well as it does.

The English is now streaming on Prime Video. Digital Trends was given early access to all six of its episodes.

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Breakout English

How to write a film review

Writing a review is an option in many different English language exams, and films are such an obvious choice for reviews, so knowing how to write a film review is pretty important. It’s a great topic for the classroom too. Everyone watches films and there is a lot of opportunity to teach vocabulary, either film-related vocabulary or film review adjectives. I like to start off a class about films with some chat, or my personal favourite, the Movie Music Quiz , which also now has an excellent Movie Picture Quiz version too.

The structure of a film review

Like any writing task, it’s essential to know the structure of a film review before you start writing. A basic film review template shows you how to write a film review using a simple structure. Film reviews for First (FCE) and Advanced (CAE) Cambridge exams, as well as Trinity ISE exams, should all use a 4 paragraph structure. Another thing to remember is that your review should always have a title, and that title should include the name of the film.

• Introduction – Essential details and mini-summary
• Summary – A description of the film and some important details
• Analysis – An evaluation of different elements
• Conclusion – Your opinion and a recommendation

Introduction

In the introduction of a film review, it is crucial to mention the film title and the names of the director and the main actors. A brief summary of the film’s plot and background information can also be included, but it should not give away too much detail. The introduction should engage the reader and entice them to continue reading the review. Additionally, it is important to mention the genre and target audience of the film, which will give the reader an idea of what to expect.

In the summary section, the film review should give a comprehensive but concise description of the film, focusing on the plot, characters, and any significant events. The summary should be written in a way that does not give away the ending or spoil the film for the reader. It is important to maintain objectivity and not include personal opinions in this section. This section should provide enough detail for the reader to have a clear understanding of the film without giving too much away.

The analysis section is where the reviewer can showcase their critical skills and provide an in-depth evaluation of the film. The review should examine various elements of the film such as the script, direction, cinematography, acting, and special effects. You could also make a comparison to similar films in the same genre. The analysis should be written in an objective style with the opinion only showing through the language used.

In the conclusion, the reviewer should give their personal opinion of the film, summarising their thoughts on its strengths and weaknesses. They should also consider the target audience and whether they believe the film will appeal to them. Finally, the reviewer should provide a clear recommendation. The conclusion should be concise, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of the reviewer’s overall opinion of the film.

Using adjectives in reviews

Reviews are a great way to show off your language with impressive adjectives. If you read a film review in a newspaper or magazine, you’ll notice that the reviewer rarely, if ever, gives an explicit direct opinion. However, their opinion of the film is always crystal clear. This is through the use of adjectives.

Many adjectives have a clear connotation. They are either perceived as positive or negative. Compare these two examples. Which one is a positive description and which is negative?

• It’s a first-rate experience with an imaginative plot and a star-studded cast.
• The second-rate writing combined with weak performances is typical of this director’s work.

When using adjectives in a film review, it is important to choose words that accurately convey the reviewer’s opinion. Adjectives with strong connotations, either positive or negative, can be very effective in expressing the reviewer’s thoughts about the film. However, it is also important to use a variety of adjectives to avoid repetition and keep the review interesting. The use of adjectives can also help to paint a picture of the film, allowing the reader to get a sense of its atmosphere and tone.

The materials

Many exams, such as the Cambridge First (FCE) and Advanced (CAE) exams, as well as Trinity ISE exams, require students to write a film review as part of their writing task. These materials will provide students with a solid understanding of the structure of a film review and help them to develop their writing skills. This will give them the confidence they need to write a review that meets the requirements of the exam and impresses the examiner.

The materials will help you learn how to write an introduction, summary, analysis, and conclusion of a film review. You will also see a range of useful adjectives that you can use to express your opinions in their reviews. Finally, you will get an opportunity to practise writing film reviews, which will help you to develop your skills. Then you can check your answers with the samples provided in the answer key. Whether you’re preparing for an exam or just looking to improve your writing skills, these materials will provide you with everything you need to write a great film review.

1 thought on “How to write a film review”

Interesting and useful material to be used in class. thanks!

Comments are closed.

'My Lady Jane' Review: Prime Video's Revisionist, Romantic Look at the Nine-Day Queen

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The Big Picture

• Lady Jane Grey's story gets a modern twist in Prime Video's My Lady Jane , embracing its lead's independence without sacrificing her romantic plot.
• The series mixes comedy and heart through nods to history as well as its diverse ensemble cast.
• Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel shine with fantastic chemistry in this delightful, alternate-history tale.

I can't remember when I first heard the story of Lady Jane Grey . At first, I thought it was included in the historical notes of Scholastic's Royal Diaries book about Elizabeth I, but it's not (and yes, I did just go check). All I know is 1) I was young, probably not much older than 11, and 2) It freaked me out to no end. An unwilling young woman suddenly made Queen of England, and, within nine days, found guilty of crimes and executed by her cousins? It seemed supremely unfair. It wouldn't be until 2016 that the Nine Days Queen finally earned an opportunity for some justice with Bodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand , and Jodi Meadows ' novel My Lady Jane , which has now been adapted as a delightful new series for Prime Video .

My Lady Jane (2024)

What is 'my lady jane' about.

Like the novel, My Lady Jane makes it clear from the jump that it is an ahistorical retelling of the life of Lady Jane Grey ( Emily Bader ). The series kicks off with a quick summary of history as we know it, then immediately and explicitly dismisses it in favor of the story it wants to tell instead. Things begin in the lead-up to Jane's marriage to Lord Guildford Dudley ( Edward Bluemel ) , an affair arranged by her extremely meddlesome mother, Lady Frances Grey ( Anna Chancellor ), and Guildford's scheming father, Lord Dudley ( Rob Brydon ).

With no way out of this arrangement — fortunately for them, they're both hot — the show then follows Jane as she and her husband try to make the best of their new circumstances. She's named heir to the throne of England by her cousin Edward VI ( Jordan Peters ), much to the chagrin of his sister, Princess Mary ( Kate O'Flynn ), and her chief advisor, Lord Seymour ( Dominic Cooper ). Jane also becomes mired in the ideological tensions of this alternate timeline — the tensions between Ethians (those who can change into animals at will) and Veritys (those who cannot).

'My Lady Jane' Doesn't Sacrifice Romance in the Name of Independence

Something I've seen happen far too often for my liking — be it in general discourse with people in my day-to-day life, or in media itself — is the idea that romance and independence/character growth are somehow mutually exclusive. Look no further than the "subversion" of the princess trope we see in Hulu's The Princess or Netflix's Damsel , or the fact that early concept art for Disney's Wish included a romantic subplot for its heroine, all because it would undermine their respective story arcs somehow. There's also commentary we hear from actors, or from viewers, indicating that a heroine cannot possibly want love because she is "more" than that; she doesn't need a romantic interest, she's simply too independent. Any romance novel , particularly one published in this day and age, is proof enough that, when written well, a love plot and a strong sense of character can actually work hand-in-hand to strengthen the story.

Our introduction to Jane comes as she's working in her little at-home laboratory, with simply no time or inclination for marriage. Her personal wishes were not a concern in and of themselves. My only worry was that the show would pursue this girlboss angle to its tried-and-true conclusion: sacrificing romance in the name of personal independence, as though the two cannot possibly coexist. And before anyone throws the "well, historically speaking" at me, this is a story where people also turn into animals on a whim. Imagine my surprise when her arranged marriage to Guildford — who is about 17 different book boyfriend tropes wrapped into one charming package —is given equal importance to everything else going on.

Trust me, the marketing is not luring you in with false promises. When it plays up the swooniness of Jane and Guildford's relationship, that's because it's a huge part of the story. Their feelings for each other are actually inextricable from the drama at large. The plot does not work without the romance. On the flip side, the romance does not work without Jane's interests and aspirations, which is part of what not only brings them together but keeps them together. I wish I could say that this is something we can just take for granted, but I really can't. It's a massive advantage for the show to really lean into the romance, as well as all the delicious tropes — forced proximity and arranged marriage chief among them — because Bader and Bluemel have fantastic, simmering chemistry that would have been utterly wasted on a story that saw no value in spotlighting it at every turn.

'My Lady Jane' Balances Comedy With Heart

With story elements like "people turn into animals sometimes" and "real history is stupid, let's do it our way," it's safe to say that My Lady Jane is not a series that takes itself too seriously , and every single actor is wonderfully in on the joke. O'Flynn and Cooper are wonderfully over-the-top villains, and Chancellor and Brydon's scheming would put the likes of Bridgerton 's Portia Featherington ( Polly Walker ) to shame. Save for a few less successful toilet humor jokes, the series' comedy is absurd and laugh-out-loud funny. It's anachronistic in the vein of A Knight's Tale , most obviously reflected in the music and the language, and in the sort of way more productions should embrace.

My Lady Jane also follows the modern — and honestly overdue — trend of presenting a historical setting populated by a diverse ensemble . Unlike something like Bridgerton , however, which made that diversity a part of the story — sometimes successfully, sometimes less so — My Lady Jane takes more of a 1997 Cinderella approach: it is what it is, and you will roll with it, as the narrative will not stop and hold your hand through the idea that history was not lily-white. I cannot speak for everyone, but I personally enjoy seeing myself and others like me reflected in a story incidentally: a part of the world, but not so strange a part of it that we feel it must be drawn attention to within the narrative.

It's been a long time since I read the book, so I don't remember it well. The humor of the series does fall in line with that of the book, some of the story elements are similar, though I can't recall the source material well enough to speak to how good an "adaptation" the series is. What I can say is I walked away with the same feeling I had then. My Lady Jane fully embraces the heart and the message of the story it is trying to tell , with comedy and romance woven in masterfully. In the end, isn't that all we want in an adaptation, anyway?

Prime Video's My Lady Jane is a delightful, romantic series that presents an alternate take on English history.

• Emily Bader and Edward Bluemel have fantastic, romance novel-level chemistry.
• The concepts of Jane's desire for independence and for romance are not mutually exclusive.
• The series is laugh-out-loud funny but also clearly has something to say.

My Lady Jane premieres June 27 on Prime Video.

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‘I Am: Celine Dion’ Review: You Saw the Best in Me

Dion’s voice made her a star. A new documentary on Amazon Prime Video brings her back to Earth, showing her intimate struggles with stiff person syndrome.

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By Chris Azzopardi

Illness shows no regard for even the most revered figures in pop music.

In “I Am: Celine Dion,” a documentary about the global songstress on Amazon Prime Video, it quickly becomes clear that Dion can’t even move her body, let alone deliver a soaring ballad with the full force that, from her teenage years on, roused millions. The film, by the director Irene Taylor, records the singer’s agonizing reality as she battles the rare neurological condition called stiff person syndrome .

In an Instagram post in December 2022, Dion tearfully revealed her diagnosis to her fans, but the documentary had already been in production by then. Taylor opens the film with relaxed scenes of Dion at her home in Las Vegas with her children and staff. Then the part that’s painful to watch: The singer is heard moaning as she has a seizure on the floor. Learning early on that she had always wanted to sing “all my life” intensifies the tragedy of watching Dion, now 56, struggle to continue to live that dream. Dion’s voice made her a star; this film is keen on making her a person.

But there is nothing subtle in Taylor’s montages, such as a high-energy past performance cut with the subdued domestic energy on display while Dion is vacuuming her couch. One shot pans to her eerily empty living room, a severe departure from playing packed stadiums. Even the score aches. All this palpable sadness is, perhaps, why Taylor interjects clips of Dion in better times.

I understand the inclination to not define Dion by her diagnosis. But Dion’s spontaneously expressive personality already shines through her pain in raw footage that feels more connected to her healing journey, like when her physical therapist nags her about a cream she hasn’t been applying to her feet. “Give me a break,” she says with playful exasperation.

She then sings “Gimme a Break,” the Kit Kat commercial jingle. While that welcome touch of humor pulls you into this intimately told story — what’s more Celine than an impromptu vocal? — inconsequential clips take you out of it: her impersonation of Sia on a late-night talk show; a part of her “Ashes” video that lets the Deadpool cameo go on for too long; her career-defining ballad “My Heart Will Go On” but, mystifyingly, the “ Carpool Karaoke ” version with James Corden.

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Despicable Me 4

Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, an... Read all Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run. Gru, Lucy, Margo, Edith, and Agnes welcome a new member to the family, Gru Jr., who is intent on tormenting his dad. Gru faces a new nemesis in Maxime Le Mal and his girlfriend Valentina, and the family is forced to go on the run.

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