The Woman In Cabin 10 (2025)

On a superyacht off the coast of Norway, a journalist (Keira Knightley) sees a woman go overboard one night, but none of the other guests – a who's who of the business and entertainment worlds gathered for a charity event – believes her, in this Ruth Ware book adaptation that is first third run-of-the-mill murder mystery set-up (assorted characters gather on board a yacht), second third effective thriller that borrows liberally from Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, full of shocks and surprises as the journalist finds herself increasingly isolated, labelled mad, and drawn deeper and deeper into paranoia, and final third messy denouement – a terribly cliched gala event showdown – that makes no logistical sense; the middle third makes it worth watching the whole.

★★★☆☆

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Silent Night (2021)

What a dreary exercise this is, about an annoying group of family and friends, like all those twerps from Four Weddings And A Funeral, gathered for Christmas Eve, and as if that alone were not a situation ripe for high tension and aired grievances and awkward revelations, it also happens to be the eve of the end of the world, so all these goofuses face a decision that is sufficiently ghoulish to keep you watching through the drudgery to the end: they can die painfully from a poisoned atmosphere, or take a pill and die peacefully before the agony starts, Merry Christmas.

★★☆☆☆

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A Dangerous Method (2011)

This drama depicts the professional relationship of Jung and Freud in the early 1900s, raises fascinating ideas regarding their psychoanalytical methods, and features a terrific performance from Keira Knightley as real life patient and mistress of Jung, Sabina Spielrien, but the movie remains as clinical, as austere and removed as the psychoanalysts themselves.

★★★☆☆

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Love Actually (2003)

This saccharine romantic comedy is replayed on television about three times a week and I've grown to loathe it, but at least on the first occasion it is a pleasure, featuring an ensemble all-star cast in a series of interconnected stories that share the central theme of messy love.

★★★★☆

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

The always charismatic Chris Pine steps into the lead role of this fifth Jason Bourne Jack Reacher Ethan Hunt Jack Ryan movie which is a glossy, youthful addition to the Tom Clancy film series but one that completely runs out of steam when Keira Knightley as Jack's fiance turns up unexpectedly in Paris mid- his first deadly assignment, is told her husband's secret business there, and then with a glib "while you're here" is enlisted by CIA zombie Kevin Costner to front up to a dinner assignment with a hideously violent Russian bad guy...and of course ends up a hapless pawn...yawn.

★★☆☆☆

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