Parky at the Pictures (DVD 1/6/2017)

It's fitting, therefore, that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are not genre specialists like Gene Kelly and Judy Garland, but actors who get to sing and dances like the leads in three like-minded golden age throwbacks, Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You (1997). This doesn't make Gosling and Stone any less effective in their roles, as their lack of expertise renders them more relatable. But this is as much about Chazelle's ambition to prove that modern movie technology can be put to more imaginative use than endless comic-book adventures as it is about romance and reclaimed innocence.

As the commuters caught in a rush-hour traffic jam on a Los Angeles freeway proclaim the pros and cons of `Another Day of Sun' in a bravura one-take opening, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling remain in their vehicles respectively to run lines for her latest audition and to replay the same snippet of jazz. Gosling beeps Stone when the line finally starts moving and flips her the bird as he drives past. But Stone has enough to worry about, as she is tired of being a barista on the Warner Bros lot and dreams of making her name as an actress. Yet, even when boss Terry Walters allows her to leave early, a customer spills coffee on her blouse and she has to audition in her anorak to hide the stain.

Roommates Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe and Sonoya Mizuno try to cheer her up by dragging her out for a night on the town, where she might just get spotted by `Someone in the Crowd'. Stone is unconvinced, but still tags along to dance in the street and participate in a montage filled with neon club signs, overflowing champagne glasses, swimming pools and fireworks. But, having sung sadly to herself in the washroom mirror, Stone leaves early to find that her car has been towed and she has to walk home.

Passing a nightclub, she is moved by the sound of a mournful piano and stands transfixed in the doorway. The action flashes back to follow Gosling from the traffic jam to an argument with sister Rosemarie DeWitt, in which she implores him to stop wasting his time with the dying sound of jazz and make the most of his talent. Club owner JK Simmons feels much the same way when he hires Gosling to play Christmas tunes for his customers. But the artist in Gosling prompts him to launch into one of his own compositions (`Mia & Sebastian's Theme') and it's this that enchants Stone and gets him fired. As she wanders up to congratulate him on his performance, Gosling almost knocks her over in storming out and she is left to lament another missed opportunity in this city of shattered illusions.

Winter turns to spring and Stone keeps being overlooked at casting calls. She finds herself at a pool party in Beverly Hills and is amused to see Gosling playing keytar in an 80s tribute band. When the singer asks for requests, Stone suggests the Flock of Seagulls hit, `I Ran', and flirts sarcastically when Gosling recognises her. As he is leaving, he rescues her from dullard writer Jason Fuchs and they agree that Los Angeles isn't much to look at from afar. Yet, as Gosling begins to complain about wasting `A Lovely Night', Stone gives as good as she gets and (having changed her shoes on a bench), they dance in the dusk light and realise they may feel something more for each other than antipathy.

The spell is broken, however, when she receives a phone call and he walks her to her car. But he shows up in the coffee shop the next day and they go for a walk around the studio lot. Stone shows Gosling the window that Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman looked out of in Casablanca (1942) and she tells him how she had first become interested in acting when her grandmother took her to see old films back in Boulder City, Nevada. He suggests she should write a play to showcase her talent, but she kills the mood when she admits to hating jazz.

Gosling takes Stone to the Lighthouse Café to listen to a live band and tells her that he plans to open his own night spot to prevent jazz from dying on the vine. She is taken by his passion and readily accepts his offers to see Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955) to help her prepare for a TV audition. Wandering along the pier, Gosling wonders in `City of Stars' if this is the start of something special. But the fact that Stone's audition lasts all of two lines (even though she is wearing a red jacket à la James Dean) suggests otherwise and her day goes from bad to worse when she forgets that her movie date clashes with a promise to dine with new boyfriend Finn Wittrock and his brother, Josh Pence.

The stultifying table talk persuades Stone to flee the restaurant, however, and she joins Gosling at the Rialto in Pasadena just as the picture is about to start. They hold hands as the action moves to the Griffith Observatory and, when the celluloid melts in the projector just as they are about to kiss, Gosling takes Stone to Mount Hollywood for a visit to the observatory. As they wander around the exhibits, they start to dance beside the Foucault Pendulum and become so swept away inside the Planetarium that they float on air while silhouetted against the night sky. Returning to terra firma, they kiss and the screen irises to black in the old-fashioned way.

By the time the summer comes, Gosling and Stone are an item. When she is not working on her play and he is not sitting in with his favourite band, they soft-shoe shuffle their way around the sights of Los Angeles. But everything changes when Gosling bumps into old school friend, John Legend, and he offers him the chance to play keyboards in his new combo, The Messengers. Resenting being told what to do, Gosling recognises that he needs to make some money if he is to realise the dream of owning his own club (for which Stone has designed a logo) and during a duet on `City of Stars', she accepts his decision, despite ruing the fact that he has chosen to compromise his artistic principles.

Stone is surprised, however, to hear the style of music when she sees them play the funky `Start a Fire' in front of screaming fans at an upmarket arena. She is also frustrated that Gosling is always on the road or doing publicity for the band, while she is left alone to complete her one-woman show, So Long, Boulder City, and make arrangements to perform it in a venue she has hired with her own money. Saddened to see that The Rialto has closed down, Stone's spirits soar when Gosling cooks dinner on a rare night off and they discuss their future. She is surprised when he announces that he is going to record an album with Legend and questions why he needs to go on another tour when he hates the Messenger sound. But Gosling becomes defensive and accuses Stone of only liking him when he was a nobody because it made her feel less of a failure. Nettled by his remark, Stone storms out, leaving Gosling to retrieve an overcooked dessert from the oven.

Despite the rift, Gosling still plans to attend the opening night of Stone's play. But Legend insists he does a photo shoot with celebrity shutterbug Miles Anderson who humiliates Gosling by making him bite his lower lip while posing at the keyboard. He misses the show, therefore, and Stone refuses to listen to his excuses after overhearing one of the few paying customers mocking her efforts. She moves back in with her parents and takes some convincing when Gosling drives to Boulder City to inform her that casting director Valarie Ray Miller had loved the production and wants to build a film around her.

Rather than read lines, Stone is asked to tell a story to the camera and she improvises the song `Audition (The Fools Who Dream)' around an aunt who once lived in Paris. Sitting on a bench in Griffith Park, Gosling urges her to seize the opportunity with both hands and commit fully to being a success. She realises this is his way of breaking up with her and she promises to give it her best shot if he devotes himself to the music that really inspires him. They admit that they will always be in love with each other, but know that the dream must come first.

Five years later, Stone is a famous actress turning heads in the coffee shop where she used to work. She also has a daughter with husband Tom Everett Scott, with whom she drops into a new jazz club after a traffic jam causes them to change their dinner plans. Recognising the logo she designed, Stone looks around the basement for Gosling, who spots her as he comes to the microphone. Sitting at the piano, he plays `Mia & Sebastian's Theme', as Stone thinks back over their relationship and imagines how things might have been. Roused from her reverie, she goes to leave. But she turns her head at the door and Gosling smiles back at her to reassure her that they have made the right choices.

No stranger to the genre having pastiched the nouvelle vague to engaging monochrome effect in Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009) before making his breakthrough with Whiplash (2014), 31 year-old Dominic Chazelle excels himself with his ambitious tribute to the classic musicals of yesteryear. Yet, while he studs the familiar action with grace notes to the forms greatest hits, this is much more a drama with songs than a fully fledged musical. Only a couple of songs emerge organically from the narrative and even they provide little insight into the character's mindset. Moreover, the story-driven songs dry up after Stone leans on Gosling's piano for the lyric rendition of the `City of Stars' melody that he had earlier whistled at sunset and she will later hum over the closing credits.

This is not to criticise Chazelle's use of the catchy, if not particularly memorable tunes composed by Justin Hurwitz with lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. But the emphasis on set-pieces rather than integrated numbers leaves this feeling more like George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954) or Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977) than the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers vehicles like Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936) and Shall We Dance (1937) that inspired the challenge dances to `A Lovely Night' and `Planetarium' and such undisputed masterpieces as Vincente Minnelli's An American in Paris (1951) and Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain (1952), whose dream ballets clearly impacted upon the wonderful `Epilogue' fantasy sequence.

Thanks to Linus Sandigren's sublime 35mm CinemaScope photography, David Wasco's lavishly production design, Mary Zophres's colourfully chic costumes and (aptly) Dancing With the Stars veteran Mandy Moore's elegant choreography, Chazelle does succeed in recapturing the majestic aura of the MGM heyday, however. He might overdo the tactic of using a single spotlight for atmospheric accentuation, but he certainly knows how to stage a musical interlude, as he segues from intimate close-ups of singing faces to long shots of dancing bodies filmed in full from a discreetly moving camera.

He also coaxes notable performances out of the Oscar-winning Stone and the nominated Gosling, who improve considerably on their previous teamings in Glenn Ficarra and John Requa's Crazy, Stupid Love (2011) and Ruben Fleischer's Gangster Squad (2013). There's genuine spark between them, although one always feels that she is always truer to her vocation and more in love than he is. Stone also gives the more nuanced performance, which is why she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival before also landing a Golden Globe.

It's perhaps no accident that such a plaintive piece of harmless escapism should have been produced during one of the most fractious years in recent American history. But, while Hollywood will rejoice at this love letter to its fabled past, this is unlikely to become a cult favourite on a par with Randal Kleiser's Grease (1978), as, for all their feel-good charm, the songs are unlikely to enter the popular consciousness in quite the same manner because they simply won't take over the singles charts. Moreover, just as Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist (2012) failed to inspire a raft of silent copycats, so this enjoyably sophisticated confection will struggle to revive the musical, which, sadly, will remain as moribund as that other studio system standby, the Western.

Kenneth Lonergan may not be prolific, but he keeps producing films of exceptional quality. Having debuted with You Can Count on Me (2000), he endured the frustration of having Margaret (2011) held up for four years while lawsuits complicated a post-production process that saw Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker involved in the editing. But he returns with his masterpiece, Manchester By the Sea, which is one of the best American dramas of the century so far.

Casey Affleck works as a janitor in Quincy, Massachusetts. He shovels snow from outside his single-room abode and goes about his duties with terse efficiency. While unblocking Quincy Tyler Bernstine's lavatory, he overhears her telling a friend that she fancies him. But he accepts her tip without enthusiasm and is reported to boss Stephen Henderson after he loses his temper with the hectoring Missy Yager while attempting to repair her shower. He also gets into a fight in a bar after ignoring Mary Mallen's bid to flirt with him by spilling her drink on his shirt. Thus, he has no compunction in taking extended leave when family friend CJ Wilson calls to let him know that older brother Kyle Chandler has suffered a heart attack in their home town of Manchester.

Arriving at the hospital to learn from nurse Susan Pourfar and doctor Robert Sella that his sibling has already died, Affleck thinks back to the day when doctor Ruibo Qian told Chandler that he had a congestive heart condition and only had a limited time to live. He recalls how father Tom Kemp had tried to be supportive, while Chandler's wife, Gretchen Mol, had taken the news so badly that she stormed out of the hospital room and disappeared into an alcoholic haze.

Bottling up his emotions as he kisses his brother's cheek in the morgue, Affleck goes to find 16 year-old nephew Lucas Hedges, with whom he used to go fishing on Chandler's boat. As he drives through the familiar streets, Affleck thinks back to happier times with wife Michelle Williams, their daughters Chloe Dixon and Ellie Teeves, and their new-born son. Suffering from flu, Williams is reading magazines in bed and is less than amused when Affleck strips off in an effort to seduce her. She ticks him off for drinking too much and they snuggle with a backchatting affection that suggests something must have happened to have made Affleck become so saturnine. Unable to find Hedges at school, Affleck tracks him down to ice hockey practice, where he has to be hauled out of a skirmish by coach Tate Donovan. He is consoled by buddies Christian J. Mallen and Oscar Wahlberg and slumps into the passenger seat of Affleck's car before giving his father a cursory glance in the morgue. Hedges asks if his friends can come over and Affleck recalls coming home after a fishing expedition to find a half-naked Mol passed out on the sofa. He allows Kara Hayward to stay over, but takes a dislike to her when she browbeats him for discussing the funeral arrangements at the breakfast table.

Following an awkward conversation with Donovan (who also lost his father as a youth), Hedges accompanies Affleck to see lawyer Josh Hamilton, who drops the bombshell that Chandler has made provision for Affleck to become Hedges's legal guardian. Appalled by the prospect of having to take responsibility for his nephew, Affleck thinks back to the night when he got into an argument with Williams over his pals making too much noise in the middle of the night and how the house had burned down after he had gone to buy more beer. All three children perished in the blaze and Affleck had watched helplessly as the traumatised Williams had been taken away in an ambulance and the bodies of his daughters had been recovered from the rubble. The police had accepted his explanation that a log must have rolled out of the grate while he was at the store, but Affleck had to be wrestled to the ground after he grabbed a gun from a passing cop and tried to kill himself.

Clearly unable to forgive himself for his folly, Affleck cannot trust himself to take charge of his nephew and Hamilton urges him to take some time before making a decision. Still shaken, Affleck argues with Hedges about his plan to leave school and run his father's boat, as he is too young to get a skipper's licence and there is no money in Chandler's will to buy a new engine. Wilson agrees that the craft will burn money if it sits idle and he is taken aback when Affleck suddenly suggests he becomes Hedges's guardian rather than taking him to Quincy.

As they drive to the funeral home, Hedges mentions that he is back in touch with Mol. But Affleck knows that Chandler never forgave her for his desertion and he promises to find a solution after they discover that the frozen ground is too hard for an immediate burial. Having had difficulty remembering where he parked the car, Affleck drives Hedges to band practice at the home of Anna Baryshnikov, with whom he is having a petting fling under the nose of her mother, Heather Burns. She invites him in for supper when he comes to collect Hedges, but Affleck prefers to eat alone and is blindsided when Williams calls out of the blue to offer her condolences and inform him that she is pregnant with new husband, Liam McNeill. He remains stiffly civil when they come to the memorial service and tries to keep an eye on Hedges during the reception hosted by Wilson and his wife, Jami Tennille. Back home, Affleck and Hedges argue when he refuses to let Hayward spend the night and Hedges rants at his uncle for trying to ruin his life by making him move away from his friends. As he tries to sleep, Affleck remembers the day he moved to Boston after the fire and how his nephew (played as a kid by Ben O'Brien) had been too busy to say a proper goodbye. However, he is woken by Hedges getting upset by the fact that some chicken in the fridge reminds him that his father is stuck in a hospital freezer and, as he watches him doze off, he thinks back to when he and Chandler had come to visit him in Quincy and insisted on buying him some furniture.

The next morning, Affleck offers to let Hedges stay with Wilson for the summer, while he makes plans for the future. But Hedges is in no mood to listen after Affleck (who has been home to collect his meagre belongings) hangs up on Mol when she calls to check he is okay. He punches out a window in frustration and cuts his hand, but gives Hedges permission to go for lunch with Mol and her new fiancé, Matthew Broderick. However, he lets the side down when Hedges persuades him to keep Burns preoccupied so he can finally have sex with Baryshnikov, as Affleck is so socially inept that Burns pleads with them to come downstairs because the situation is so excruciating.

Things go little better when Hegdes pays his visit to Mol, as she is so nervous about making a good impression that she slips into the kitchen for a drink and the drearily Christian Broderick later emails Hedges to suggest that he refrains from making direct contact with his stressed mother for a while. Affleck realises that the encounter has unsettled Hedges and lifts his spirits by selling Chandler's antique gun collection and buying a secondhand motor for the boat. He takes him out for a test run and smiles as Hedges teacher Baryshnikov how to steer and makes himself scarce so they can sleep together.

As he wanders the streets, however, he bumps into Williams, who is wheeling her new son in a pram. They make small talk and Williams apologises for blaming Affleck for the fire. She wishes she could take back the awful things she said about him and admits that she still loves him. But, as she fights back her heartbroken tears, Affleck insists he no longer has feelings for her and beats a hasty retreat when she asks if they can meet for lunch. He gets drunk and starts a punch-up in a bar and Wilson has to come to his aid.

The next day, Affleck dozes off while cooking and only wakes after Dixon and Teeves appear to him in a dream to tell him they can smell something burning. Realising he needs to take decisive action, Affleck chats with Wilson and Tennille and informs Hedges that they have agreed to adopt him so that he can remain in Manchester. He will be free to return home when he turns 18 and do whatever he wants with the boat. Moreover, Affleck will find a new apartment with a guest room so Hedges can stay whenever he wants.

At the internment, Affleck watches Williams and McNeill with their baby and notes the space left for him on the family headstone. But he is in a better place than he has been for many years, as he has found a new job and is ready to be an uncle again. As the film ends, Hedges and Affleck take the boat out for a fishing trip and the views of the New England coast suggest that everything is going to be okay.

Full of pithy dialogue delivered with unaffected naturalism by an outstanding cast, this is a deeply moving study of grief, regret, reconnection and redemption that rarely feels like it is being acted. Inheriting a role bequeathed by co-producer Matt Damon, Best Actor winner Casey Affleck is particularly impressive as the garrulous family man transformed by tragedy into a hollowed-out loner. But he is superbly complemented by the ever-improving Lucas Hedges, whose bid to bury his emotions in routine betrays his immaturity and reveals Lonergan's psychological acuity. He slightly missteps with the reunion lunch and the climactic conversation between Affleck and Williams, which feels contrived, despite the fact the latter plays it to the same pitch of perfection that Mol achieves in the hilarious hospital bedside scene. But the performances are admirably restrained throughout and do full justice to the wit and pathos of the textured script.

Jody Lee Lipes's lucidly discreet photography and Lesley Barber's score are also nicely judged, with the latter weaving between pieces by Albinoni and Handel and the popular songs cannily selected by music supervisor Linda Cohen. But, while the craft contributions are uniformly solid, this owes most to Longergan's deft appreciation of human nature, family ties and small-town mores. Some of the exchanges between Affleck and Hedges crackle with a salty everyday lyricism that nevertheless retains the cadence of ordinary speech, while even the bleak knockabout involving the stretcher wheels during the otherwise harrowing fire sequence works to perfection. But it's the use of flashbacks to reveal the cruel, messy capriciousness of existence and the extent to which Affleck is constantly haunted by his past that proves so bold and inspired and makes sets this apart from so much other American screen drama.

Speaking of the sea, many will have passed a happy holiday hour in Blackpool. Yet, the nation's favourite seaside resort has been used sparingly by film-makers since the silent days of Maurice Elvey's Hindle Wakes (1927) and Hans Steinhoff's The Three Kings (1929). Music-hall stars held the spotlight in Lupino Lane''s No Lady (1931) and Basil Dean's Sing As We Go (1934), but noirish shadows fell over such postwar thrillers as Alfred Travers's Dual Alibi (1947) and George King's Forbidden (1949) before the smiles returned with the likes of Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Peter Chelsom's Funny Bones (1995), John Duigan's The Parole Officer (2001) and Steve Bendelack's The Harry Hill Movie (2013). And the latest to join this select, if hardly stellar list is David Blair's Away.

Fleeing abusive pimp boyfriend Matt Ryan with a stash of his cash and drugs, teenager Juno Temple spots the dozing Timothy Spall on the train to Blackpool, where she plans to lay low until she can sell on her merchandise. Leaving sister Hayley Squires a message to join her, Temple discovers Spall living in the same hotel and saves him from a half-hearted attempt to overdose on pills. The death of his beloved wife had also prompted him to douse himself with petrol, but he had decided to flee to the Fylde coast rather than strike a match.

Peeved with Temple for following him to a pub, Spall informs her that he doesn't need a minder. But she accompanies him on an open-top tram tour of the Illuminations before seeing him safely to his room. Looking across to a drunken couple having a shoving argument on the promenade, Temple recalls how Ryan had rescued her from some thugs when she was sleeping rough and how he had moved her into his much-lamented mother's flat, which was filled with colourful birds that were allowed to fly outside their cages.

The following morning, Temple finds Spall out cold in his doorway and she helps him up and follows him to a café for tea. He reiterates his desire to be left alone, but she tags along as he walks to the Tower. Much to her surprise, he tells her lots of facts about its construction and makes her smile by putting on an exaggerated walk. As they walk past the Mirror Ball, Ryan tracks down Squires a recovering junkie who had already betrayed her sister in the past. Ryan had pounced on Temple in a pub bathroom and was threatening her when Spall had wandered in. He had spotted Ryan's gun and had dared him to shoot. Fazed by someone approaching him so fearlessly, Ryan had taken his eye off Temple, who had found a knife in his bag and had stabbed him in the leg. Spall had grabbed the gun and they had made their getaway on the train to the coast.

Even though she had been packing to catch the train, Squires tries to pretend she has no idea where Temple has gone. But Ryan calls the last number on her mobile and a couple of passing holiday-makers had revealed their whereabouts. Furious with Squires for messing him around, Ryan throws hot tea in her face and leaves her with a packet of heroin to keep her out of his hair while he tracks down her sibling.

Daydreaming of happier times with wife Joanna Roth, Spall lets Temple talk him into going to the top of the Tower. Terrified of heights, he stays in the centre of the viewing platform and tuts when Temple yawns at the revelation that you can see Southport on a clear day. She guesses he is 70 and still dismisses him as old when he insists he is only 57. He tells her that his wife died childless of Hodgkin's Disease and Temple suggests that he calls out to Roth because this is the closest he will ever get to her. Spall is embarrassed by her bellowing, however, and ticks her off for claiming her mother's death was the best thing that ever happened to her. But Temple has had a tough life and has hardly made things any easier for herself by letting Ryan's birds escape before stealing his stuff.

Temple and Spall go to the aquarium, where she tells him about finding sanctuary with a neighbour from her mother's addled binges. She had never forgiven for giving away her precious collection of children's books and felt nothing when she died, even though it meant she was placed in care. After a few years, she ran away and felt Ryan was her knight in shining armour. However, he exploited her and she now regards Spall as her hero. He refuses her gratitude and affection, but he does let her use his phone to call Squires and she tells Temple that Ryan is on her tail. Needing back-up to cut a deal with local punk Reece Noi and his boss, Susan Lynch, Temple asks Spall to help her. But he refuses to go with her and blurts out that he doesn't care what happens to her.

While Spall drinks in a bar and Ryan drives north on the motorway, Temple finds herself in a brightly lit fairytale grotto and feels disorientated. She slumps outside Spall's hotel room and he tucks her up for the night, although she dreams of Ryan pimping her out in their bed. When she wakes in the morning, however, she has no idea that Spall has assisted her and sets off for her appointment with Lynch after giving him a withering look in the corridor. Spall follows Temple to a seedy squat in an abandoned B&B and, thinking she is walking into trouble, uses Ryan's gun to steer her back into the street, just as she was about to be paid £3000 for the stolen stash.

Sitting on a bench on the prom, Spall apologises for misreading the situation and walks away when Temple mocks him for trying to be a hero. He leaves the gun behind and she puts it in her pocket before huddling under the pier. She thinks back to the day she had found Squires covered in bruises and had gone round to Ryan's flat and had seen video footage of Squires being sold to a client. In fury, Temple had smashed up the room, released the birds and stolen the drugs. But, now, she is scared and is relieved when a clean-shaven Spall knocks on her door and asks to talk.

He tells her that he is going to Hell and she explains she will be there with him because she led Squires into drugs after meeting her in a care home. But, when she got clean, she couldn't save Squires and feels guilty for ruining her life. However, Spall has a confession of his own, as he had smothered Roth to put her out of her misery and then been too afraid to kill himself. Instead, he had gone to the pub to get drunk and had seen Temple trying to sell Ryan's gear to landlord Tony Pitts. But he had called Ryan and Spall had watched him bundle her into the bathroom at gunpoint after she had pulled the pistol on him and he had wrapped his mouth around the barrel in contempt. He had hoped that Ryan would shoot him, but he had ended up in Blackpool with a waif with a cut lip and a bruised cheek.

Having spotted a dinner jacket and a ballgown in a charity shop window, Spall takes Temple dancing in the room where he used to waltz with Roth. As Temple gets used to the steps, the camera cuts away to the Tower Ballroom to show the pair gliding alone across the polished floor with the house lights revealing the palatial grandeur of the setting. Back on the street, Temple coaxes Spall into taking a spin on the big dipper and he gives her Roth's engagement ring on a chain and the key to his house. Ignoring her protests, he hopes that she can make the most of her fresh start.

Temple hugs him and is about to ask what he intends to do when Ryan catches up with them. Leaving her dancing heels behind, they flee into a funfair. But Ryan corners them and stabs Spall in the shoulder when he tries to defend Temple. She pulls the gun from her bag and Spall implores her to be sensible He even suggests that she sells the house and uses the money to recompense Ryan. But he is in no mood to negotiate and takes Spall hostage with a blade to his throat. He orders Temple to drop the gun and sneers that she is as obedient as a house-trained pet. So, Spall urges her to pick up the weapon and shoot him so that they can both be free. She does so and kneels beside Spall as he thanks her for releasing him from his torment. He tells her to escape while she can and she hears a shot ring out in the twinkling darkness.

As the film ends, Temple watches Roth's body being removed from the house and looks nervously around the respectable neighbourhood. However, the final image of her paddling in the Irish Sea with Squires suggests that she sells up rather than settling into suburbia. But such is the melodramatic nature of debuting writer Roger Hadfield's scenario that few will be bothered what their future holds. This is a shame, as until the denouement descends into soap operatics, this more than holds the attention and invites sympathy for Temple in a way that Bryn Higgins didn't always manage to do for Agyness Deyn in Electricity (2014), which feels much closer in tone than Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas (1995), which has been unpersuasively cited by a clutch of critics.

Spall and Temple establish a credible chemistry. But the fussiness of the contrivedly flashbacking structure makes some of their leaps of faith feel a little forced. The same is true of the sequences in which Temple pops on headphones to hear glutinous tracks by Indiana and Daughter comment on her situation. Yet, coming so soon after his imposing impersonation of Ian Paisley in Nick Hamm's The Journey, this confirms Spall's status as one of Britain's finest screen actors. Temple also shows to fine advantage, as cinematographer Felix Wiedemann captures the Lancashire sunlight in her eyes and hair. He also conveys Blackpool's shabby splendour and the extent to which its creeping decay has attracted those seeking to exploit people's misery rather than their leisure. But the cornball B-movie ending resounds with a hollow clang.

Martin Scorsese once observed: `I'm a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there's no way out of it.' This confession lies at the heart of his studiously sincere adaptation of Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel, Silence, which Scorsese (who had spent a teenage year in the mid-1950s at the Cathedral College Jesuit seminary in New York's Upper West Side) has been intending to film since he finished Nikos Kazantzakis's The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988. Endo himself had scripted Masahiro Shinoda's 1971 interpretation of the story of two Portuguese priests seeking a lost missionary in 17th-century Japan. But Scorsese and regular writing partner Jay Cocks (with whom he collaborated on The Age of Innocence, 1993 and Gangs of New York, 2002) are less interested in the historical significance of the 1614 Edict of Expulsion that outlawed Christianity than in the crisis of conscience endured by a young Jesuit whose pride in his own fidelity becomes a problem for those whose souls he is trying to save. Opening in Nagasaki in 1633, Father Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson) witnessed the slow torture of his fellow Jesuits by having hot spring water sprinkled on their naked torsos. He falls to his knees in dread at what awaits him unless he renounces his faith, but no further news about Ferreira reaches his superior, Fr Alessandro Valignano (Ciarán Hinds), and he is forced to believe rumours that he has apostatised and is now living as a Japanese. However, young missionaries Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garrpe (Adam Driver) are convinced that Ferreira withstood his ordeal and is still ministering to his flock. Consequently, they beg Valignano to let them go in search of their mentor and he reluctantly grants them permission to sail for Macao.

In the Chinese port, a go-between introduces the Jesuits to a bedraggled interpreter Kichijiro (Yosuke Kubozuka), who is desperate to return to his homeland. He jumps out of the boat at the first sighting of land and beckons Rodrigues and Garrpe to follow him to a network of caves, where they meet Ichizo (Yoshi Oida) and Mokichi (Shinya Tsukamoto), the leaders of a small band of Christians who practice their faith in secret in the mountain village of Goto. They know nothing of Ferreira, but offer the priests sanctuary. During the day, they hide in a hole in the ground inside a remote cabin, but they emerge at night to hear confessions, say mass and administer to sacraments to the faithful, who appreciate their courage in risking all to bring them the word of God.

After a while, Rodrigues and Garrpe begin to feel cooped up and decide to venture out into the sunlight. They are spotted by a couple of strangers, however, and are afraid when they return to the cabin under cover of darkness. Fortunately, they are Christians from Kichijiro's island of Tomogi and Rodrigues agrees to sail there to minister to the locals. They are so overjoyed to see him that he feels humbled and feels as though God is working through him, as he gives them simple tokens of their faith. He even doles out the beads from his rosary. But Kikijiro insists he is unworthy to accept a blessing, as he once renounced Jesus by stepping on a carved fumi-e icon and, as a result, his entire family was burnt at the stake in reprisal.

No sooner has he accepted Rodrigues's forgiveness than he returns to Goto to learn that Ichizo has been captured by a ferocious inquisitor, who demands that the villagers hand over the priests or Ichizo, Mokichi and two further hostages will be sent to Nagasaki until the outlaws are detained. Rodrigues and Garrpe offer to leave to spare the quartet, but Ichizo and Mokichi deem it an honour to suffer for the Lord and they are joined by a further volunteer. When no one else comes forward, someone suggests that Kichijiro should go, as Tomogi should share the risk.

A fight breaks out when Kichijiro resists and Rodrigues steps into the breach. But Kichijiro accepts his fate and he surrenders to Inoue when he returns to the village. Rodrigues and Garrpe look on from the rocks as all four men step on the fumi-e placed in the mud. But the inquisitor doubts their sincerity and produces a crucifix and orders the men to spit on it and declare the Virgin Mary to be a whore. Rodrigues winces as Kichijiro apostasies for a second time, but understands his fear. But the other three are bound to wooden crosses on the beach and the Jesuits watch in agony as Ichizo drowns while praying and Mokichi continues to praise God as the waves lash his face.

He survived four days before finally succumbing and being cremated because Inoue refused to allow him a Christian burial. Mourning his loss, Rodrigues and Garrpe agree it would be safer to separate and the former returns to Goto to find it deserted and overrun by feral cats. After sheltering in his burnt-out hut, Rodrigues strikes out across country and is rescued by Kichijiro after he slips and falls down an incline. He is wary of the apostate, even though he cooks him fish and begs to be shriven for lacking the faith shown by Ichizo and Mokichi. But, as they resume their journey, Kichhijo betrays Rodrigues for a handful of coins and he is forced to kneel with Monica {Nana Komatsu} and a group of captured peasants, who feel honoured to be held alongside a cleric.

On being taken to Nagasaki, Rodrigues is visited in his bamboo cell by a cynical interpreter (Tadanobu Asano). They discuss the merits of Christian and Buddhist faith before the stranger urges the Jesuit to disown his deity and he will be allowed to go free and live with a Japanese wife like Ferreira before him. Rodrigues is dismayed to hear the name and refuses to accept that such a dedicated soldier of Christ would renege so cravenly. He is even more surprised when the kindly Japanese who spoke with him after his capture turns out to be the ferocious inquisitor Inoue (Issey Ogata), who allows him to argue the case for the universal truth of Christianity before returning him to his cell.

Comforted by the strength of Monica and his fellow prisoners, Rodrigues sees the face of Jesus in the floorboards (as he had earlier seen his own reflection in a stream morph into the Saviour's image). But he is troubled when Kichijiro enters the compound during a downpour to insist that he rejected the blood money and now merely wants forgiveness. Inoue has him placed in Monica's cell and Rodrigues has to fight down his repugnance in order to hear Kichijiro's confession. However, he remains convinced that he can reason with Inoue and puts on clean robes in order to take tea with him. The old man asks Rodrigues why he thinks his Christian tree will grow in foreign soil and suggests he reflects upon the fact that a husband is deemed wise if he rejects a barren wife in order to marry someone who will give him heirs.

But, shortly after Rodrigues is returned to his cell, Monica and four of her co-religionists are lined up in the courtyard and ordered to step upon a fumi-e. They refuse and one of their number is beheaded with a single stroke of a bushido blade. Rodrigues howls in anguish and then has to look on as Kichijiro is brought before the icon and he betrays his faith for a fourth time before being allowed to depart. Powerless to protect his friends, Rodrigues watches them being frog-marched out of the compound and he see them again the following day, as they are ushered along a beach in the company of Garrpe. The interpreter informs Rodrigues that Garrpe has been told that he is no longer a recusant and, thus, when Monica and her cohorts are wrapped in straw shrouds and pushed into the sea, Garrpe drowns in a fruitless bid to save them and the grieving Rodrigues is tormented by the interpreter for killing him with his pride.

Alone in his cell, Rodrigues pleads for a sign and is crestfallen by God's continued silence. One day, he is taken by kago to a Buddhist temple. The interpreter asks if he is disturbed by the smell of incense or cooking meat before reminding him that this is a holy place where beliefs are held as vehemently as in any church. As they wait, Ferreira appears with a minder and he can barely bring himself to return Rodrigues's gaze. He describes how he was hung upside down in a pit with a nick in a vein in his neck so that he bled slowly. Scarcely able to believe what he is hearing, the priest listens as his former confessor recalls stepping on the fumi-e and falling on his face in the dust. But, while he initially experienced remorse, he has learned to embrace happiness through the study of Japanese customs and through teaching his benefactors about astronomy and medicine.

Rodrigues accuses him of betraying the mission started by Francis Xavier. But Ferreira explains that his message about the Sun of God was mistakenly accepted by converts who thought he was referring to the Sun that rose every day. He suggests that he has found a form of God through accepting that there can be no single theological truth and he implores Rodrigues to search his soul for a way of seeing beyond the doctrine that has clouded his judgement. But the younger man declares Ferreira to be a disgrace and he departs with sadness at having failed his student twice.

They meet again, however, when Rodrigues is paraded through the streets on the back of a mule and placed in Ferreira's old cell at Inoue's headquarters. Once again, the Jesuit calls on God to answer him, but all he can hear are the cries of five Christians hanging upside down in pits in the torchlit courtyard. Ferreira appears to remind Rodrigues that they are suffering because of him, as they care more about letting him down than serving a God they don't really understand. As he is led from his cell, Rodrigues sees Kichijiro, who has been brought to the palace. Standing in the darkness, the priest hears the voice of the Lord telling him that he owes it to his disciples to spare their lives rather than cling to a belief that can now only benefit himself. Thus, Rodrigues steps on the fumi-e and collapses on the ground, as the interpreter beckons to the guards to free the prisoners.

The final part of the story is narrated by German merchant Dieter Albrecht (Béla Baptiste), who remembers seeing Ferreira and Rodrigues identifying Christian artefacts being smuggled into the country by Dutch traders. He reveals that Rodrigues continued this work after Ferreira died and was rewarded by Inoue with the estate and widow (Asuka Kurosawa) of a wealthy nobleman. However, for the rest of his life, he was forced to perform the rite of `koboru' and even trod on the icon on the day that Kichijiro was taken away for hiding a religious token in his clothing. Yet, as the film ends, the camera braves the flames engulfing Rodrigues's coffin to show that his wife had slipped into his hands the little carved cross that Mokichi had given him in Goto.

As with the earlier visions of the Holy Face, this closing shot feels slightly clumsy and suggests that Scorsese retains more than a little sentimental reverence for his erstwhile religion. But he and Cocks essentially steer clear of detailed theological discussion and complex historical context in a picture that strives so hard to be accessible that its influences would appear to number David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983) and Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986).

This determination to reach the widest possible audience seemingly explains the selection of The Amazing Spider-Man and Kylo Ren as Rodrigues and Garrpe. But Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver bring such contrasting acting techniques to their psychologically sketchy roles that their mannerisms prove as distracting as their accents. Yet, while it's difficult to decipher precisely which parts of Portugal Garfield, Driver, Hands and Neeson hail from, their strenuous attempts at piety and intensity often undermine performances that seem markedly more mannered than those of Japanese co-stars Shinya Tsukamoto, Tadanobu Asano, Yosuke Kubozuka and Issey Ogata (who introduces some cruel levity while struggling rather more than his compatriots with the English dialogue). The estimable Driver is regrettably underused, as he disappears after the clerics part ways and only returns for his frustratingly vapid death scene. But the earnest Garfield is often found wanting when it comes to conveying cerebral anguish and extremes of emotion and one can't help but think that this enervating situation might have been averted with some less marquee-conscious casting.

By contrast, Scorsese's direction is rigorously classical, as he conspires with production and costume designer Dante Ferretti and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto to give the enterprise the kind of intimate celluloid spectacle associated with early CinemaScope epics. Thelma Schoonmaker's editing is equally meticulous, as she establishes the pace that allows Scorsese to switch smoothly between intimate conversations in confined spaces to grander set-pieces like the tidal crucifixion staged on the expertly scouted and often mist-covered Taiwanese locations. Yet, despite realising a long-cherished ambition, Scorsese doesn't always manage to convey his deep fascination with the material or its potently pertinent message about keeping the faith in the face of intolerance and intimidation.

This has been a fruitful period for Andrew Garfield, who landed a Best Actor nomination for his work in Hacksaw Ridge, a Second World War drama that appears to have completed the rehabilitation of Mel Gibson. Returning to directing for the first time in a turbulent decade, Gibson has also been nominated in the week that he became a father for the ninth time. Much has changed since he made Apocalypto (2006), with some in Hollywood refusing to forgive him for the anti-Semitic rant that followed his 2006 arrest for driving under the influence and his furiously abusive 2010 phone call to former partner Oksana Grigorieva. But others have seen this biopic of pacifist hero Desmond Doss as an act of atonement whose denunciation of violence is designed to show that Gibson has learnt his lesson and turned a new leaf. Notwithstanding its intriguing subtext, however, this adds little to the conscientious objector arguments advanced by Howard Hawks in Sergeant York (1941), which earned Gary Cooper the Oscar that was destined to elude Garfield. Following a glimpse of the hell of combat, the action flashes back to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where Desmond Doss (Darcy Bryce) and his brother Hal (Roman Guerriero) live in the small town of Lynchburg with their parents, Thomas (Hugo Weaving) and Bertha (Rachel Griffiths). Having lost his childhood pals while serving in the Great War, Tom is an alcoholic who dishes out beatings when the boys get out of control. But, when Desmond knocks Hal cold with a brick during a rumble, he realises the sanctity of life and promises Bertha that he will never break the Sixth Commandment.

Fifteen years later, Desmond saves the life of a pedestrian hit by a car by using his belt to staunch the flow from a severed artery in his leg. At the hospital, he spots pretty nurse Dorothy Schutte and donates blood to catch her attention. When he turns up at the clinic the next day, she accepts his invitation to the pictures and is pleasantly shocked when he kisses her on the pavement outside the cinema. She also accepts his marriage proposal, but is as angry as Tom when Desmond volunteers for the US Army following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Indeed, Tom can barely bring himself to speak to either Desmond or Hal (Nathaniel Buzolic), as they report for basic training.

On arriving at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, Doss is given the nickname `Cornstalk' by Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn) and draws the ire of fellow recruits like Smitty Ryker (Luke Bracey) when he asks to be excused Saturday training because he is a Seventh Day Adventist. When he refuses to bear arms on the firing range, Doss is hauled before Captain Glover (Sam Worthington), where he explains that he is a `conscientious co-operator', as he wishes to do his duty and serve as an unarmed field medic. Glover hopes that a psychiatric board led by Colonel Stelzer (Richard Roxburgh) will dismiss Doss or have him jailed for the duration. But he claims to be sane and insists on continuing to train alongside the likes of Milt `Hollywood' Zane (Luke Pegler), Randall `Teach' Fuller (Richard Pyros) and Vito Rinnelli (Firsass Dirani), even though Howell victimises him and goads some of his dormmates into dishing out a beating by branding him a coward.

But Doss opts against identifying his assailants and informs Dorothy that he will be able to marry her on his next thurlough. However, she is left waiting at the church after Colonel Sangston (Robert Morgan) has Doss arrested for insubordination and Glover invites Dorothy to the base to talk some sense into her fiancé. She urges him to compromise to avoid being court-martialled, but he sticks to his principles before the judge (Philip Quast). However, Thomas arrives in his doughboy uniform with a letter from his erstwhile commanding officer confirming that his son has the right under the Constitution to serve without a weapon and Doss is passed fit for duty.

The full horror of combat becomes immediately evident on landing on the island of Okinawa in May 1945, as a convoy of the wounded and dead from the 96th Infantry Division pass Doss's 77th Infantry unit as it marches to base camp. Billeted in a shack, they learn from Lieutenant Manvile (Ryan Corr) that six attempts have been made to capture the Maeda Escarpment that has earned the nickname, `Hacksaw Ridge'. Moreover, Doss is informed by Iris Schecter (Ori Pfeffer) that the Japanese are targeting medics and he recommends that he removes his Red Cross insignia.

With Glover and Howell leading the way, the division pauses beneath the giant rope ladder hanging down from the ridge as the US Navy's Fast Carrier Task Force bombard the Japanese positions on the headland. Clambering up the netting, the troops walk over the corpses left behind after the last assault before meeting a barrage of machine-gun fire that they return with interest while dropping into foxholes. As his comrades-in-arms advance, Doss carries the wounded back to the ridge, where they are lowered down on stretchers. Schecter encourages him to keep going, as the casualties are going to mount. But, while the Americans make progress, they fail to win the day and Glover urges them to grab some sleep as darkness falls.

Doss finds himself sharing a crater with Ryker, who admits that he was wrong to prejudge him and offers an apology. Nodding in gratitude, Doss explains that he swore off firearms after wrenching a gun from Thomas's hand while he was threatening Bertha. But Ryker, who was given away by his mother and raised in an orphanage, points out that he was lucky to have a father and hopes he values him. Doss drifts off to sleep and dreams that they are ambushed by the light of a flare, but he wakes to resume his heroics as the 77th are charged by Japanese reinforcements.

As the ferocity of the battle intensifies, flamethrowers are unleashed on the enemy, while grenade launchers attempt to take out a machine-gun nest. One soldier is wounded crawling through no man's land to hurl a knapsack of grenades into the pillbox. But Ryker dies before Doss can get him down the ridge and Howell is also wounded as Glover orders a retreat. Yet, while his buddies scale the cliff, Doss remains to search for casualties and rappel them down by rope to the ambulance jeeps below. Praying each time that he can find one more man alive, he risks running into patrols sent out to execute the survivors.

At one point, he is forced to take cover in a network of man-made tunnels and even pauses to attend to a wounded Japanese. But he is soon scrambling through the mud and rats to find a soldier half-buried in soil. Covering his face, Doss pulls a corpse on top of himself as a patrol approaches. But, while one zealous soldier bayonets the body draped over Doss, he is able to haul his companion to safety. Eventually, he drops into the shell pit occupied by Hollywood and Howell and uses a rifle as a handle to pull the latter over the rutted landscape on a tarpaulin. They reach the edge just as the Japanese start firing down on them. But Glover and a reception party mow them down and greet Doss with hushed awe, as he is led to the field hospital to have his own wounds dressed.

While Doss reads the Bible that Dorothy gave him, Glover calls Lieutenant Colonel Cooney (Matt Nable) to demand reinforcements for another assault. Having apologised for misreading his character, he tells Doss that the men have been so inspired by his feat that they won't go back without him. Despite it being a Saturday, Doss rallies to the call and goes over the top once more. The extra numbers tilt the balance in favour of the Americans, but the Japanese commander (Yoji Tatsuta) orders a false surrender that catches Glover out. Realising they have walked into an ambush, Doss begins batting hand grenades away with his bare hands. While kicking one away, however, he is wounded in the leg and a soldier hurries back to retrieve his lost Bible as he is carried away on a stretcher and lowered by a pulley rope.

As closing captions inform us that Doss became the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honour for rescuing over 75 comrades, we see the man himself modestly recalling his endeavours, along with his brother Hal and Glover. But nothing is mentioned about his postwar battle with tuberculosis and hearing loss or the fact that he remarried two years after being widowed in 1991. He died aged 87 on 23 March 2006 and was buried with military helicopters circling overhead in tribute. However, this worthy picture and Terry Benedict's 2004 documentary, The Conscientious Objector, will do much to enshrine Corporal Desmond Doss's achievement in the popular imagination.

Regardless of the personal motives that Mel Gibson might have had in making this feature, it more than serves its primary purpose, thanks to an empathetic performance by Andrew Garfield. Limning James Stewart in the Lynchburg and Camp Jackson sequences, he is charmingly gauche in his efforts to woo Teresa Palmer and achingly sincere in his confrontations with Vince Vaughn and Sam Worthington. But he comes into his own during the battlefield sequences, as his sincerity is matched by a physicality that makes Doss's courage seem all the more recklessly remarkable.

Shooting on location in New South Wales, Gibson is admirably served by Kiwi cinematographer Simon Duggan, effects supervisor Chris Godfrey and sound designer Robert Mackenzie. Working to Rupert Gregson-Williams's fulsome orchestral score, editor John Gilbert struggles to inject much momentum into the American segments. But he resists the temptation to flash cut the Okinawa footag, which is a small mercy as the mud-and-blood make-up makes it difficult to determine which of the sketchily drawn supporting characters have been felled.

Having decided to confront the audience with the savagery of combat, it's a shame that Gibson chooses to present the last attack in slow-motion, as it melodramatises the climactic conquest as much as the unnecessary depiction of the defeated Yoji Tatsuta's ritual act of seppuku. Yet Gibson and screenwriters Robert Schenkkan and Andrew Knight avoid a detailed discussion of Doss's core beliefs and why they retain their relevance at a time when a divided nation is facing another enemy ready to fight to the death. They also opt against placing Garfield in a situation in which his principles might be tested. But, for the most part, Gibson follows the effectively old-fashioned lead set by Clint Eastwood in Flags of Our Fathers (2006) in showing combatants on both sides as fragile human beings - although the bayoneting sequence leads one to suspect that Gibson won't be going to the trouble of making an equivalent to Letters From Iwo Jima.