>
Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mantel's reviews only count toward the Tomatometer® when published at the following Tomatometer-approved publication(s):
The Spectator
(Photo Credit: David Levenson/Contributor/Getty Images Entertainment /Getty Images)
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Rita, Sue and Bob Too! (1987) |
The film asks us to like [Rita and Sue] and pity them, to find them funny and to find their lives funny, but in fact the girls appear desperate and pathetic - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) |
The film's entertainment value outweighs its irritations. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Accused (1988) |
Kelly McGillis can make little of her underwritten role; economy is commend-able, but a woman in all her complexity cannot be represented by a pair of outsize shoulder-pads. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Wild at Heart (1990) |
The scattergun nastiness is, after a while, profoundly unaffecting. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) |
Engaging as the film is, its inconsequentiality soon begins to grate on the nerves. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Too Beautiful for You (1989) |
Flashbacks and fantasy sequ- ences disrupt the narrative line, but do little to disguise a lack of substance and development. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Working Girl (1988) |
Mike Nicols's comedy is frothy, fast-moving and impeccably put together. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Crossing Delancey (1988) |
It's all rather old-fashioned and unlikely, no doubt, but there are enough good jokes and touches of individuality to make Crossing Delancey one of the pleasantest films around. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Krays (1990) |
Peculiar but very interesting film. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Overboard (1987) |
God bless us all. And send us better films next week. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Talk Radio (1988) |
Yet despite its faults this is a strikingly intelligent film, which keeps its chilly grip to the end. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Au Revoir, les enfants (1987) |
Without portentousness or pretension, it achieves genuine tragic depth. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Dawning (1988) |
Decorous direction and a stately pace render it indistinguishable from all those other films where sweet gels in pretty frocks take tea in the garden. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Strapless (1989) |
Indeed, the film's inadequacy lies in its failure to interweave its different themes. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Mama, There's a Man in Your Bed (1989) |
You do not have to believe in the ending, you simply have to hope that it could be so; this is a shrewd fairy-tale, aware of the transforming power of money as well as the transforming power of love. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Slate, Wyn & Me (1987) |
The film looks good, but continually disappoints, working against itself for much of the time. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 11, 2019
|
|
|
|
Colors (1988) |
Colors is - almost incidentally a riveting and skilful piece of work, but it is made with an integrity and seriousness of purpose which will be confusing to some of the audiences it may attract. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Business as Usual (1987) |
Above all, the film suffers from a fatal lack of tension. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Born on the Fourth of July (1989) |
As Kovic, Tom Cruise gives a performance that is adroit, moving and mature. The devices of fiction illuminate fact, but the film gains in power because we know that it is telling a true story. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Maurice (1987) |
It is difficult to sympathise with [Maurice], however dire his predicament. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Stepfather (1987) |
There is not much original here; but it is a neat idea to have the myth of Mom and apple pie subverted by its own successes. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) |
It is not an unintelligent film; but it is prone to caricature and to queasy decorative touches; the magic is the icing on the cake. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
The War of the Roses (1989) |
DeVito's sprightly, slightly skewed approach can both surprise and please. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
(undefined) |
The man [lain Glen] portrays has charm. The rest of the film works against his portrait. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Prick Up Your Ears (1987) |
Alan Bennett's script is Ortonesque, but without the theatrical extravagance; it suits the cinema, in other words, and it is witty, acute and economical. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Anna (1987) |
Anna is a traditional, even predictable tale, but thoughtful direction, solid performances and snippets of originality make it into almost a very good film. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Burning Secret (1988) |
The chief culprit, though, is Faye Dun away, who looks pained throughout. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Joyriders (1989) |
If Aisling Walsh can preserve its strange virtues into her next feature, she will be a director to watch. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
The Commissar (Komissar) (1988) |
But at times, thanks largely to the performance of Nonna Mordyukova as Clavdia, [director Alexander Askoldov] achieves a stunning economy of effect. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Resurrected (1988) |
There are good performances from David Thewlis as Deakin, and from Rita Tushingham and Tom Bell as his parents. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Longtime Companion (1990) |
Typically, we enter a scene a moment too early and leave it a moment too late, while the camera lingers over-long on faces expressing the obvious emotion. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Wild Orchid (1989) |
No connoisseur of the preposterous should miss it. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 10, 2019
|
|
|
|
Steel Magnolias (1989) |
In the Robert Harling play from which is it adapted, the events take place entirely in the town's beauty parlour, and director Herbert Russ has opened the action out quite successfully. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Far North (1988) |
Sam Shepard is a talented actor and writer, but his directorial debut is a disappointment. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Cinema Paradiso (1988) |
Giuseppe Tornatore's film is a charming and gently humorous work of semi-autobiography, composed with an attentive painter's eye and a cinematic cross- referencing of images and motifs. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Another Woman (1988) |
One struggles to find something to admire in this slight, wintry, austere film. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Homeboy (1988) |
Just as it oozes self-satisfaction so it oozes sincerity. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
White of the Eye (1988) |
It is a violent and ambitious thriller. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) |
Glenn Close copes very well with the precise, formal, waspish lines; this is a fastidious, distinguished and exciting performance. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Dick Tracy (1990) |
The under-twenty-fives who form most of the cinema audience have no special reason to warm to a comic-strip hero devised in 1931. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Reunion (1989) |
[An] intelligent film, written by Harold Pinter with sensitivity and a sharp wit. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Full Metal Jacket (1987) |
We look to the director for some judgment, or even an indication of his opinion, as to whether his carnage artists are born or made; but we don't get it. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Extreme Prejudice (1987) |
The film depends entirely on the more banal con- ventions of the western - the only novelty is that the baddie wears a white hat. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
My Left Foot (1989) |
You may not want to see My Left Foot, fearing that it will be too harrowing and possibly too sentimental. There are times when it is both, but take courage and see it if you can, because it is one of the most remarkable films of the year. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Angel Heart (1987) |
'The banality of evil' is a phrase one hears. It doesn't mean that you can represent evil with cliches. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Playing Away (1986) |
Several engaging performances put flesh on the film's bones. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Manon of the Spring (1986) |
Claude Bern's direction is confident and controlled, and the performances of Daniel Auteuil and Yves Montand have great authority; but perhaps the casting of Emmanuelle Bean is less happy. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Fatal Attraction (1987) |
A quite unremarkable film in most ways, with its B-movie conceits, cliché- strewn screenplay and derivative effects. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
A Handful of Dust (1988) |
Something small but vital has gone wrong with this adaptation, but a great many things have gone right. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|
|
|
|
Salaam Bombay! (1988) |
A warm and lively film, made by Mira Nair with only a handful of professional actors. - The Spectator
Read More
| Posted Apr 09, 2019
|