Tim Sullivan directs Richard E. Grant, Samantha Mathis and Ian McKellen in this London romantic comedy about a grieving father who employs a hot young American nanny to look after his newborn cutie.

I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes except with a baby. Standard operating procedure yet both the wonderful Grant and sexy Mathis deserved more starring vehicles whether apart or together. Solid, sweet.

6

Perfect Double Bill: Fever Pitch (1997)

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Franco Zeffirelli directs Martin Hewitt, Brooke Shields and Shirley Knight in this teen melodrama where an intense first sexual relationship spirals out of control when a parent tries to break things up.

Absolutely bonker, camp one-of-a-kind soap. Thank goodness John Hughes was preparing to give the sub genre a good, hard, modernising shake-up. Troughs of incoherent depression give way to bursts of manic plot twist. Mad that pre-dental work Tom Cruise rocks up for a cackling one minute monologue that acts as a complete catalyst for the rest of the narrative.

3

Perfect Double Bill: The Blue Lagoon (1980)

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Andrew Haigh directs Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Jamie Bell in this supernatural drama where a lonely gay man starts a new relationship but also starts revisiting his dead parents in his childhood home.

Surprised I liked this quite so much. By it’s very nature All Of Us Strangers is a bit of a middle class coffee table book of a movie. I was put off by Claire Foy‘s sequences as she often feels like she is going through an acting exercise. And I was a little bit ahead of later twists. Having said that, Haigh represents the modern British experience better than any director currently working. Mescal and Scott have heat in their scenes together. And I’m not entirely sure why Jamie Bell isn’t part of the awards conversation at the moment. His characterisation has the most nuance and compassion.

7

Perfect Double Bill: 3-Iron (2004)

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