This week’s DVD picks: Red Sparrow, Dark Crimes and The Shape Of Water

THIS week's reviews see J-Law pimped out by the Russian secret service in Red Sparrow; Jim Carrey going all serious to unMask a killer in sex-murder thriller Dark Crimes; and fish fingers in merman romance The Shape Of Water.

It's also 25 years since the ivory-tinkling perversions of The Piano, while there are also rereleases for alien horror Xtro and unsettling Kiwi drama Vigil.

Red Sparrow (15)
Out July 9

Prima ballerina Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) is left destitute when a bone-crunching injury ends her career with the Bolshoi ballet.

In steps her sinister uncle (Matthias Schoenaerts) with an offer she can't refuse: work for the Russian secret service as a Sparrow, aka honeytrap.

A trip to Sparrow training school follows, but her destiny seems intertwined with that of Nate (Joel Edgerton), a CIA man disgraced after a bungled rendezvous with a Russian mole.

Despite the surprisingly tame 15 age rating, this is visceral stuff and feels more like an 18. It rarely ghoulishly lingers on the torture and violence but what's there is wince-inducing nonetheless. It's also curiously unsexy for a film about Russian seductresses.

Carry On Spying this ain't.

Lawrence is superb as the steely but conflicted Dominika, and there's a great supporting cast including Charlotte Rampling as the Sparrows' headmistress (let down only by a faltering Russian accent), and Jeremy Irons, Ciaran Hinds and Douglas Hodge as Russian spy chiefs.

It's a shame we don't get to see more of the latter trio, as it does feel like their characters are a little wasted.

One or two plot twists happen without much explanation, which robs them of a bit of their power, but on the whole this is gripping stuff.

★★★★☆

Jayme Bryla

Dark Crimes (18)
Out July 9

It's a case for Ace Ventura: Sex Detective as Jim Carrey stars in a noir thriller about a murder in a sadists' dungeon.

He plays Tadek, the 'last honest cop in Poland', who is faced with the task of investigating seedy author Kozlow (a sneering, domineering turn by Martin Csokas).

Koslow not only attended sadomasochistic sex parties with the victim, but subsequently wrote a novel about an all-too-similar murder.

Both men are linked to Kasia (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a fallen woman who served as both their plaything and punchbag.

It's good to see Carrey eschewing his clownish talents in favour of a darker role, even if there's nothing particularly challenging about his portrayal, and the film itself starts off in tantalisingly macabre fashion.

But the East European bleakness encouraged by director Alexandros Avranas, allied with the grim unpleasantness of most of the characters, soon stifles interest. It would have been interesting to see what a quirkier director, such as David Lynch, could have done with the same material and leading man.

★★☆☆☆

Jayme Bryla

The Shape Of Water (15)
Out now

A mute cleaner in a top-secret US government research laboratory strikes up an unlikely bond with a merman in this cross-species love story.

Set in the 1960s, The Shape Of Water is, like its male romantic lead, a rare beast: it's an Oscar-winner that nearly everyone will enjoy.

Sally Hawkins displays great comic timing as our heroine Elisa, as she battles government thugs to save her merman lover from life being tortured in the lab, all while navigating the practical problems of getting to grips with his fishstick.

She's supported in her endeavours by fellow cleaner Zelda (Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures) and gay best pal Giles (Richard Jenkins, Stepbrothers), with both stars on top form.

Moving, funny, tense and beautifully shot, it's easily the best human/fish romance since The Little Mermaid and Splash.

★★★★★

Jayme Bryla

The Piano: 25th Anniversary Edition (15)
Out July 16

This 1993 Oscar-bait film has aged well visually - if you had never seen it before, you'd quite easily believe it was a 2018 release.

Its 25th anniversary rerelease on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download is, however, an opportunity to query whether society has moved on in its view of the themes it tackles.

Holly Hunter plays Ada, a Scotswoman sent to New Zealand with her young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin, in a cute-as-a-button breakout performance that garnered her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar alongside Hunter's Best Actress win).

Ada is to marry Alistair, an expat frontiersman she's never met (Sam Neill) and we're introduced to her as a boat unceremoniously dumps her on a rugged beach along with her prize possession, a piano.

Ada is mute (unlike her Shape Of Water counterpart, this time it's because of mental barriers rather than physical) so the piano is in many ways her voice, yet when Alistair arrives, he brusquely decides it is too heavy to be carried back to his home and abandons it.

It's fair to say this gets their marriage off to a bad start, and worse is to follow when he sells the piano to his gruff ambassador to the Maori locals, Baines (Harvey Keitel).

Baines has no interest in the piano other than as a means to sexually blackmail Ada (you tinkle my ivories and I'll tinkle yours), and the resulting love triangle provides the meat of the movie.

Included in the package is a recent discussion of the film by director Jane Campion and producer Jan Chapman.

Campion talks of how many women have told her how The Piano successfully articulated their hidden passions and sexual awakening, and therein lies the morally problematic aspect of the film, especially for male viewers of the modern era.

Both the men vying for Ada's affections moreorless force themselves on her, and yet we are encouraged to see one as bad, the other as romantic - even though it is only Ada's contrary actions that steer the men into these roles.

It's not very 'woke', then, but is perhaps a more interesting and provocative film for it.
If The Piano has slipped past you until now, it's worth a look, although it probably does edge into 'chick flick' territory, so deduct a point from the score below if you're at all blokeish.

★★★★☆

Jayme Bryla

Xtro: Limited Edition Box Set (15)
Out now

This 1982 British cult horror classic, re-released on Blu-ray and DVD, is a borderline insane take on some of the more wholesome extra-terrestrial films of the era, with a smattering of Alien and The Brood thrown in.

It features Philip Sayer as Sam Phillips, a man who was abducted by aliens only to return three years later, albeit not quite the same as he was before.

The special effects in the film are incredibly well done, with several of the practical effects for the alien almost on a par with An American Werewolf In London.

That being said, there are several scenes which are somewhat upsetting to watch, including a very graphic birth sequence which could be extremely distressing to some people, especially when coupled with the scene directly before it.

Despite all this, there is a curious level of entertaining kitsch to the whole film.

Xtro is definitely not for everyone but, with an alternate ending and a raft of featurettes among the extras, die-hard horror fans will lap it up.

★★★☆☆

Graham Osborne

Vigil (15)
Out now

After the death of her father, Toss (Fiona Kay) helps her mum (Penelope Stewart) and grandfather (Bill Kerry) run the remote family farm, in this Blu-Ray rerelease of the 1984 original.

With the arrival of mysterious stranger Ethan (Frank Whitten), she struggles to adapt to the ever-changing world around her.

Kay produces a standout performance for a child actor, capturing true fear and fantasy when it’s needed – coupled with the use of silence, there is a constant sense that something big is about to happen.

This is trumped, however, by a story that takes a while to get to grips with, appearing to jump in and out of scenes as time passes by.

As expected from a 1980s film the cinematography is dated, detracting from some of the power the images possess.

A thought-provoking film that definitely draws you in to the characters' lives, but you end up with far more questions than you started with.

★★★☆☆

Alex Smith