Sing Sing movie review: This charming tale nicely balances darkness with humour and touching moments

SING SING

(15) 107mins

★★★☆☆

IT’S a rare thing these days to sit down to watch a film that feels very different from anything you have seen before.

And this charming tale, inspired by the Rehabilitation Through The Arts project in New York State’s Sing Sing maximum security prison, is just that.

Performed largely by ­genuine inmates playing themselves, it has energy, humour, sadness and optimism.

Yet it also has its faults, which feels cruel to write as it all feels so well intentioned.

The film focuses on John “Divine G” Whitfield (Colman Domingo), who drives the theatre programme.

He is a clever, articulate playwright who also acts as a mentor and confidant to his fellow inmates.

He’s a visionary who seems to have relentless positivity — and the real John Whitfield has a cameo.

A newcomer to the group, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin — also played, very impressively, by himself — who finds the acting class a bit excruciating and instinctively rebels against it.

But John spots something in him; a Hamlet waiting to get out.

So he tries to gently encourage him away from threatening other inmates, to believing in the healing powers of performance.

Meanwhile, he is going through his own private agony as his parole is, once again, denied and a close pal of his dies.

It’s a sterling performance by all involved, including the group’s director, Brent Buell (Paul Raci) who seems utterly believable as a passionate theatre-lover who has seen it all.

But Domingo looks and feels very out of place in this film.

His handsome face, Broadway-star ability to dance, and witty, intelligent conversation make him stick out like a sore thumb.

He spends his evenings sitting at a typewriter with his round spectacles on and his days rallying his fellow prisoners.

He’s squeaky clean and even dresses more fashionably than the other inmates.

While charming and likeable, I just couldn’t accept his story.

Directed by Greg Kwedar, he allows the scenes to run on and have a very natural feel.

It nicely balances darkness with humour and touching moments between men who wouldn’t normally show vulnerability.

Ultimately, though, this is a clear tribute to rehabilitation in prison and one that will educate the viewer into understanding that, no matter your crime, art can inspire and bind even the most difficult characters.

TOUCH

(15) 121mins 

★★★☆☆

WITH flashbacks spanning five decades and traversing countries this poignant Icelandic drama explores the legacy of a first love.

In 1969, as John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their bed-in, young Icelandic student and activist Kristofer (played by both Palmi Kormákur and Egill Ólafsson) abandons his degree at the London School of Economics to work in a Japanese restaurant in the capital.

He is mentored by the owner Takahashi-san (Masahiro Motoki) – who fled the aftermath of Hiroshima’s bombing to start a new life in the UK with his daughter Miko (Koki, and Yôko Narahashi) – and immerses himself in Japanese cuisine and culture.

Love blossoms with Miko, until one day she suddenly moves away with her father without saying a word.

Fifty years later, Kristofer is a widower and suffering memory problems, so he embarks on a mission to find his long-lost love before it is too late.

Uncovering the truth sees him travel from Iceland to London and ultimately to Japan as Kristofer and Miko’s emotional story unfolds in a way that is itself as gentle and profound as a Japanese Haiku.

Laura Stott

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO

(12A) 178mins       

★★★★☆

SEXY, swaggering and beautifully shot there is nothing subtle about this French language adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s 19th century swashbuckler.

Split into time-staggered but action-packed chapters, it retells the story of sailor Edmond Dantes (Pierre Niney), who after being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit, escapes and assumes the identity of the mega-rich Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on his accusers.

Despite the epic running time of just under three hours, this impressively avoids becoming an on-screen endurance test.

An energetic script combined with big dollops of suspenseful period drama, including sword fights, shooting duals and stag hunts, keep you invested.

As does the excellent cast including Patrick Mille as dastardly Captain Danglers, Julien De Saint John (Lie With Me) as hunky thief-turned-Prince Andrea and Anais Demoustier as smouldering Mercedes.

Stunning Mediterranean coastlines, romantic use of light and shade, and extravagant costumes all add to this deliberately overblown and very entertaining adventure.

Laura Stott