'Get busy' seeing this film

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2004)

Eight or nine times now I have marvelled at this masterpiece. Every character is right on the money, the main performers especially Freeman are simply outstanding. However it is the smaller characters like Brooks and Heywood that add the subtle ingredients that most pictures miss out on. The story of redemption is an old one, the performances and soundtrack to say nothing of the grimy screenplay lift this way above the genre. It is almost impossible to pick a highlight, but perm from the Mozart scene, the bottle of suds, the letter from Brooks and the denouement and you have a cocktail of perfection. It is adult, it is moving and it is hugely satisfying, everyone should see this at least once and the fact that it bombed at the box office first time round says more about the audiences and press reviews than the movie itself. It should have won 7 Oscars, but who cares they are a plastic Hollywood manifestation, for anyone with an ounce of taste this is the finest movie of all time, by a mile.