Wonderful character development!

Such a frustrating disappointment

As Good As It Gets

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I had no idea this was a follow up to the movie "Page Eight". But I did remember that I had seen a movie with Bill Nighy in a similar role. Well it's actually the same role (there's also a follow up to this movie, though I haven't seen this and cannot comment on who's in that one obviously). I really liked Page Eight and I like this one too, though apparently not as much as the first one.It's spy business but also a very tricky, who's who, who's doing what to who and why'd they do it? It may sound more complicated than it actually is. The pace is nice and it's really refreshing to see Wynona Ryder in a good role (doesn't seem to have changed a lot). Actually all the actors involved do a great job. More than decent entertaining than ...

"Turks & Caicos" seems oddly incomplete. That it is a made-for-television film and a sequel to "Page Eight," an earlier program, explains some of the gaps, but doesn't excuse them for a viewer who hasn't seen the earlier program. The limited budget associated with a television production is clearly evident. Most of the film takes place in about half a dozen locations, notably a large resort that seems largely unoccupied, a stretch of beach that seems unoccupied, and the lead character's home, which also seems unoccupied. Two scenes supposedly shot at an airport seem particularly bereft of passengers and airport personnel. There are no sweeping helicopter shots of white sandy beaches, resort hotels or palatial homes and no shots of local customs, culture or festivals. We see two local policemen, a few fishermen, a single mother with her son and a few food service employees in the background, but very little of Turks & Caicos, which seems largely unoccupied. For a resort island, it seems more desolate than secluded or pristine.The plot is sketchy at best, although much of the background story was apparently developed in "Page Eight." It revolves around unethical people in cahoots with unethical politicians engaging in deceitful accounting practices tied tenuously to recent sensational news. There are no car chases, fisticuffs, shoot-outs or on screen seductions. There are between three and five romances, but none are explored on screen. We see little beyond their aftermaths. Most of the key events occur off-screen, leaving us only a final confrontation that is difficult to follow without knowing the characters or having witnessed the various plots, subterfuges and deceptions first hand. John le Carré can spin a tale based on some obscure transaction, such as a disbursement to a supposedly dead spy. This movie tries to emulate that type of story with desk-bound analysts who can never escape the call of duty to Queen and country, but we never get close enough to the characters, the action or the setting for a truly satisfying experience. We get a dialogue-heavy story that feels like an overly long episode of a television series that we've never seen before. Despite various frustrations with the film, the final scene was affecting; however, it was intercut with a parallel scene that leaves the viewer wondering if two characters can really be that ignorant. There are a couple of brief scenes involving a rudimentary piece of communications equipment that seem to be bound by 1960s technology. Production values are modest, but adequate. Some of the dialogue is mumbled and Bill Nighy's character responds to several questions by repeating the question, at one point twice in a row. The actors do well with what they're given. The film is so obtuse that one needs to pay close attention to follow the plot, but the rewards for such close attention to detail are relatively modest in comparison. It would probably be more rewarding for a viewer who has seen "Page Eight."Solid performances, especially by Nighy, Ryder and Walken make the film watchable, but it's not a film one wants to view repeatedly to catch the subtle nuances.

The Marilyn Monroe of Generation X, the Face of the Nineties, Winona Forever, Noni - this icon has been described in so many devotional ways it's almost poetic to think her 'fall from grace' as the epoch defining movie star of her time played out in sync with America's own trauma and subsequent malaise. In this film, the middle chapter of what has been called a "post-9/11 political trilogy", we look into those marvellous, once innocent eyes of Winona's and we see David Hare's poem to that Age of Innocence. Having risen from the ashes of her own shattered iconography as a very compelling character actress, Winona Ryder has been skillfully contrasted to but deprived scenes with her British contemporary Helena Bonham Carter. Why did they not share the screen together? Are they aspects of the same impossible ideal that drives David Hare to set pen to paper?

The first instalment of what has now turned out to be a trilogy, Page Eight, made me long for more and David Hare has certainly delivered. The second episode, Turks & Caicos, is perhaps a bit slower paced and less spellbinding than Page Eight, but it has all the ingredients that made its predecessor such a breath of fresh air: a carefully crafted plot line, believable dialogue, excellent acting, a total absence of fist fights and explosions and a willingness to question the path the Western world has walked in the post-9/11 world.After his escape from England, Johny Worricker is lying low in the Turks and Caicos islands, a British overseas territory with an American currency. Big men with big money are thick on the ground and Johnny soon gets drawn into a mental chess game with them that threatens to expose some unsavoury secrets about the business aspects of the 'war on terror'. He soon has to fear for his safety again and re-engages some old friends in England to get to the heart of the matter.'Turks & Caicois' grew on me after repeated viewing. Because of its slower pace and the fact that most of it take place on a small Caribbean island, it feels more like a good stage play than the other two parts of the Worricker trilogy. I relished the well-crafted dialog and subtle gestures and expressions of the actors so much that I actually watched the DVD twice on successive nights.