I’ve been a long time waiting but I finally got the Stella cinema experience I’d been dreaming of since hearing about their opening last October. Equipped with novelty beds in the front row, plush leather arm chairs throughout, and couple couches at the back - Stella offers you an evening of entertainment you won’t get anywhere else in Ireland.

I kicked off my evening with some White Russians in the cocktail bar upstairs, the staff were very welcoming and added to the class of a theatre which already overwhelms you with its sophisticated decor and 1920’s refurbishments. The food menu is nicely priced and can be delivered to your seat, I opted for the double cheese burger which left me in good form and change from a tenner.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society was the perfect movie to see in the Stella as the atmosphere of the theatre added to the wartime period story and vice versa.

The film has so many great characters, the quirky singleton Isola Pribby is played by Katherine Parkinson who pulls off a gin drinking Phoebe (friends) type character, although at times I feel like she will mature into Ms Doyle from Fr Ted.

Penelope Wilton is perfectly cast as Amelia Maugery, the matron of the society, who shows a compelling range of emotion from her cold first appearance to war torn tears later on.

The feisty Elizabeth McKenna (Jessica Brown Findlay) is the moral compass of the story, sacrificing her own personal comforts and putting herself at risk in the name of liberty, equality, and potatoe peel pie. Not all heroes wear capes.

The story of course centres around the writer Juliet Ashton (Lily James), who starts out as a bit of a love struck book worm but grows in strength and character as the film goes on, she’s also rather attractive in a Wallace & Gromit kind of way.

In a nutshell it’s the feminist movie Wonderwoman failed to be, the central characters are all female with the love interests made up by supporting males and the main themes being about female struggle and empowerment.

The love story is simple enough so I’m not going to give anything away, but the plot is quite interesting and is a gentle reveal which harbours enough suspense to keep the movie flowing. The film is also littered with war time shots and some very gripping scenes of life in a nazi occupied territory.

There are some great cinematic moments such as Juliet’s night at the ball, her arrival on the island, Dawsey Adams’ (Michiel Huisman) tumultuous entrance to the book club, and the air force carrier take off on the sandy beach towards the end. To be honest the film is full of little moments which you soak up like a sponge and only realise how individually brilliant and significant they are afterwards.

There are also some incredibly cheesy and theatrical moments such as the engagement but I think these are common from the art of exaggerated storytelling and they help create a sense of identity within the film, after all this is an adaptation from a bestselling novel where the main character pursues the identity of a man from a book club based on a shared love for the works of Charles Lamb.

Although the engagement story is a bit cliché it does add to Juliet’s character development and is central to her successfully finding her true identity and ability to become the writer she wants to be.  

All in all it’s a nicely shot movie with great characters and a family friendly story line that’s worth a watch. 

Tom Hardy plays Leo Demidov, a Ukrainian orphan who swears allegiance to Soviet Russia. The film starts out with Leo raising the flag for the mother land, a war hero without a watch who has no idea how long this movie feels. Leo matures into a loyal MGB agent in the post war Stalinist era, we get introduced to him as an agent with a pragmatic mind and an honest heart who falls in love with his wife to be Raisa Demidov (Noomi Rapace), an unrestful citizen with an honest mind and a pragmatic heart.

The film gives a strong portrayal of a tyrannical state where people live in fear of questioning their government; several characters hide their tears in the face of the truth in fear of persecution.

The dominant mantra that ‘crime cannot exist in paradise’ explores the theme of courage, can Leo Demidov find the strength to oppose tyranny when he uncovers a child serial killer in the midst of Moscow, whose tracks have been covered by agents of the state. The gritty backdrop of fear and firing squads is this movies real strength, but the plot is a major let down.

When the first victim is revealed the movie is set for a gruesome manhunt, but it fails to live up to the chase as it stays focussed on cloaks and daggers instead of building on the crime thriller. The killer is even given some tardy psychological background when he’s revealed as a psycho with a towel and a bag of sweets, could we not come up with something better than a peado with a bag of toffees and a travel pass.

The movie also concludes with a life lesson that love is in fact a pragmatic consequence of environment, so the film which starts out with a romantic vibe fails to win hearts or stimulate minds.

I guess you should see this movie if you like to see actions scenes involving Tom Hardy using a knife, or if you like action scenes with Tom Hardy punching someone in the face, or if you like action scenes with Tom Hardy fighting in the mud, or maybe you just want to see Tom Hardy kicking ass in a different accent. Otherwise if you can control your popcorn addiction for a week it’s worth giving this one a miss as it doesn’t offer a whole lot more than fancy dress prepared for Netflix subscriptions. 

The following is a brief review of singularity in cinema, the life of Stephen Hawking from his college days to the publication of his theory on the universe.  The movie begins in 1963, we get an insight into the everyday life of a young genius, he’s fun, he’s flirty, he’s a messer just like most young college kids. His charm and intellect captures the heart of the poetically sensitive Jane Wilde and love begins to bloom, but the tide soon turns on Hawking as he’s diagnosed with motor neuron disease and given two years to live. Hawking comes to terms with his mortality over a game of croquet with the very lovable Jane, I have to say I don’t really understand croquet very well so I think I missed out on some of Hawking’s game but he ends up with the girl in his bedroom so he obviously plays it just right. I think the rest of the movie plays out a little like ‘Love & Other Drugs’ but it replaces risqué romance with risqué mathematics. All in all the film is a slow moving drama, it’s concerned with the decline of the human body when afflicted with Motor Neuron, it’s about changing views in science, the depth of the cosmos and the more complicated intricacies of love. 

There’s a brief Michael Jackson moment where Hawking is left holding his baby and you’re not sure what’s going to happen, but other than that the film doesn’t really deliver on suspense. The movie doesn’t challenge the various relationships that develop within the household and fails to really deliver on the science kicks, it’s too appeasing to be entertaining and you’ll get more insight on the life of Hawking from Wikipedia. The movie is well acted and pays huge respect to a man who’s dedicated his life to scientific development, but if your inclined to see the film I’d recommend waiting for the DVD or for free-view tv to pick it up because it’s not going to have you on the edge of your seat, it’s not going to change your life and it’s just not worth venturing to the cinema to see.