Excellent script, personages, direction.
A top as far as minorities and message are concerned.
Cast: Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman
Director: Guy Green
Writers: Elizabeth Kata (novel), Guy Green
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Editing: Rita Roland, Hal G. Davis
excellent direction and personages
weakest: message
A divorced lawyer mother of two tries to put some order in her chaotic life..
Cast: Virginie Efira, Vincent Lacoste, Melvil Poupaud
Director: Justine Triet
Writers: Thomas Lévy-Lasne, Justine Triet
Cinematography: Simon Beaufils
Editing: Laurent Sénéchal
excellent dialogues + music
weakest: message + humor
Cleverly orchestrated four-generational love relationship, in which a woman in her sixties who is still looking for her true (lesbian) love falls for a young married mother of two who has an affair with a teenage boy. The emotional stability of the two male characters (the 15-year old boy and the older husband) contrasts with the vulnerability of the two female leads.
Director: Richard Eyre
Writers: Patrick Marber, Zoe Heller (novel)
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench, Andrew Simpson, Bill Nighy
Music: Philip Glass
Cinematography: Chris Menges
Editing: John Bloom, Antonia Van Drimmelen
strongest: montage
weakest: message, humor
A story set inside a story and related to it, to which flashbacks are added
Cast: Amy Adams, Armie Hammer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ellie Bamber, Isla Fisher, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Shannon, Karl Glusman
Director: Tom Ford
Writer: Tom Ford, Austin Wright (novel)
Cinematographer: Seamus McGarvey
Composer: Abel Korzeniowski
Editor: Joan Sobel
strongest: originality + direction + music + minorities
weakest: message
Cast: Imogen Poots, Michael Shannon, Justin Long, Rosanna Arquette, Michael Nyqvist, Emmanuelle Devos
Director: Matthew M. Ross
Writer: Matthew M. Ross
Cinematographer: Eric Koretz
Editor: Jennifer Lilly, Rebecca Rodriguez
Composer: Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
strongest: humor
weakest: script + message
Cast: Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth, Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones, Patrick Dempsey
Director: Sharon Maguire
Writer: Helen Fielding, Dan Mazer, Emma Thompson
Cinematographer: Andrew Dunn
Editor: Melanie Ann Oliver
Music: Craig Armstrong
strongest: script + music
weakest: structure + humor
Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance (written for the screen by), M.L. Stedman (novel)
Actors: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz
On mothers’ interchangeability, see also Frozen River (Courtney Hunt, 2008)
Director: Richard Laxton
Writers: Sarah Waters (novel), Paula Milne (screenplay)
Actors: Jenna Augen, Neal Barry, Claudie Blakley
Director: Aisling Walsh
Writers: Peter Ransley (screenplay), Sarah Waters (novel)
Actors: Elaine Cassidy, Sally Hawkins, Imelda Staunton
Director: Chan-wook Park
Writers: Sarah Waters (inspired by the novel “Fingersmith” by), Seo-Kyung Chung (screenplay)
Actors: Min-hee Kim, Jung-woo Ha, Jin-woong Jo