Reviews this week

Sugar-coated fluff with a 1970s taste
Woody Allen’s latest film contains a healthy dose of wish-fulfilment writes Andrew M Brown

A nubile 22-year-old (Rachel Evan Wood) develops a crush on a sour, self-absorbed misanthrope (Larry David)

The gentlemanly art of invading other countries
Former Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd has written an essential guide to his predecessors, says Jack Carrigan

Hell hath no fury like a humanist scorned
A book about the plot against Pope Paul II comes out as scatter-gun history at its best, writes Jonathan Wright

Older reviews

French melodrama without feeling
Wild Grass treats lecherous obsession as a bit of cheeky gallivanting, says Andrew M Brown

Shades of good and evil in the Second World War
Michael Burleigh offers a brilliant moral assessment of the War, says John Hinton

The future belongs to the children of believers
Secularists may die out, finds Ed West

Stiller undergoes a mid-life crisis
Andrew M Brown is delighted by newcomer Greta Gerwig in this gloomy comedy

Scholars wasted a lot of ink doubting Shakespeare
At last there's a book that asks why the identity of the Bard is challenged, says Jack Carrigan

Europe's problem with Israel
Why anti-Semitism still fuels hostility to the Jewish state, by Ed West

Violence that left me unable to think
The brutality of Michael Winterbottom's sultry adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1950s pulp fiction novel left Andrew M Brown stunned

Perky thriller with a shaky grasp of history
The flirting and flouncing Giordano Bruno in SJ Parris's frothy thriller bears little resemblance to the actual Bruno writes Jonathan Wright

Fighting the colonial fight under desert stars
he reality of the Foreign Legion is richer than the fiction, says John Hinton

Cistercians caught in a civil war
At Cannes, Laurence Green enjoys a mesmerising film about the 1990s war in Algeria

The poignant story of Henry VIII's final wife
Jonathan Wright praises a fun and frothy biography of one of the King's better wives

Pullman's fairy tale is inspired by spleen
Jonathan Wright on one of the most self-indulgent books published in a long time

Herzog adds iguanas to grimy tale
Andrew M Brown finds the remake of Bad Lieutenant superior to the original

Shrouded in mystery: the image on a linen cloth
Investigators into the Turin Shroud often see what they want to see, says David V Barrett

A ripping yarn
More than just a memoir, this is a nuanced chronicle of a fallen nation, argues John Hinton

Robin Hood inflated to epic size
Andrew M Brown says Ridley Scott's new Robin Hood sags under the weight of its own plot

The British press: lying, stubborn, honest and open
One of our best journalists turns his gaze on the media in this intelligent new book, says John Hinton

Losing your head for the love of men and music
Anne Boleyn’s political influence was not that great writes Alexander Lucie-Smith

Wazzocks who want to be martyrs
Andrew M Brown on a slapstick jihad that mixes the crass and the deadly serious

We should all squabble with this dead genius
Jonathan Wright on two splendid additions to the Newman canon

A pilgrimage without the strolls and picnic baskets
Jonathan Wright is enthralled by Peter Stanford's tour of Britain's sacred places

After war, a village comes to life
Claudia Llosa’s study of grief in the aftermath of Peru’s bloody civil war finds beauty in ugliness, says Andrew Brown

An eccentric novelist turns gumshoe detective
A legendary writer has produced one of his oddest and most confounding works, says Matt Thorne

The woman who grazed the nose of Mussolini
John Hinton is intringued by the story of the mad Irishwoman who almost killed the Fascist dictator

The murky crimes of sunny suburbia
Solondz shows the effect of messing up the boundaries between children and the adult world writes Andrew Brown

The longest-surviving institution in the world
Jack Carrigan is impressed by this concise, scholarly and sympathetic history of the Catholic Church

Myths of modernity
Luke Coppen hails Marilynne Robinson as one of the world's best novelists

Perhaps stick to comedy, Gervais
The comedian's latest film shows a new striving for seriousness, says Andrew M Brown

How to sell 65 million books and then disappear
A new biography struggles to reveal the true Salinger, says John Hinton

Moving beyond a postmodern wilderness
Brian Welter on a hard-hitting book that takes on the sceptics of truth

‘Silence becomes music. It has grace’
Michael Whyte’s documentary No Greater Love is a tender and sympathetic account, says Andrew M Brown

The enduring first love that changed our history
This new book on Elizabeth I reads more like a murder mystery than a historical work, says John Hinton

How to read the Old Testament properly
Brian Welter enjoys Steven L Bridgem's argument against fundamentalist reading of the New Testament

Extravagance that may make you ill
Art and love are hard to find amidst the profusion of Victoriana at the new Victoria and Albert: Art and Love exhibition in the Queen's Gallery, says Alan Caine

Let's go out and listen to the 'cultural Catholics'
Disaffected US Catholics have something to teach us, argues Jonathan Wright

A long reach
Francis Phillips is delighted by these unusual and affirming portraits of converts to Catholicism

Pilgrims seen as joyless waxworks
The characters in Lourdes are treated as if they are beings from another planet, says Andrew M Brown

Exploring the 'second story' of Jesus Christ
Jonathan Wright welcomes a splendid new book about Christ's place in other religions

When Churchill was seen as a Left-wing menace
There was a time when Churchill was accused of being unpatriotic, says John Hinton

Staging the pity and horror of history
Delaroche is superb but limited, finds Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

A befuddled bishop in a bewildering situation
These homilies are the closest we will ever get to the real St Augustine, says Jonathan Wright

This Dream sounds wrong without boys
Young women are no substitute for the husky, adolescent voices that Britten requested, says Michael White

Sweden, a land of sadistic monsters
To call the men in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo misogynists is to drastically understate things, says Andrew M Brown

If only philosophers could wake up to a sense of God
Universities need to rediscover the old tree of Catholic philosophy, argues Lucy Beckett

Power of prayer
Lady Antonia Fraser has remained a committed Catholic all her life, says Maria Perry-Robinson

Souls coaxed out of wood and stone
Many of his works hint at human presences, with uneasy shapes and swellings, writes Alan Caine

Even in the limelight Barack Obama remains a figure of profound mystery
This over-written, gossipy book fails to capture the US President, argues John Hinton

India: the best audience for Shakespeare in the world
William Barlow reviews the extraordinary lives of 93 Imperial and Commonwealth men and women

Fanatical Moore wobbles off course
Andrew M Brown finds Michael Moore's polemic against capitalism full of skewed Catholic teaching

Jesus’s trip to Stonehenge and other bizarre notions
David V Barrett is fed up with ‘speculative history’ that defies the basic principles of logic

Five cities that shaped western civilisation
Brian Welter enjoys a history book that understands the central importance of Christianity in western civilisation

The exile whose work is so good that it hurts
Alan Caine reviews the splendid painful art of Arshile Gorky

The speech that changed the course of history
King was just 34 when he delivered his brilliant 'I have a dream' oration, says John Hinton

A painted history of women and reading
Forbidden Fruit manages to excavate a fresh and fascinating corner of art history, says Stav Sherez

As immaculate as a perfume advert
Tom Ford’s first film offers style but very little substance, says Andrew M Brown

The Queen who had the gift of alienating people
Anne Boleyn was more a politician than a wife - and she paid for it, says Alexander Lucie-Smith

This white elephant has a weary tread
Maciejewski’s Requiem does what you expect in a long-winded way, says Michael White

Eastwood plods through inspiring tale
Despite Morgan Freeman's performance, Invictus does not live up to its billing, says Andrew M Brown

The Dragon Lady: poise, charm and ruthlessness
Sometimes a biography can be too exhaustive and its author too in awe of its subject, says John Hinton John Hinton

A tough and violent era of political Christianity
This new take on Dark Age Europe offers a fascinating look at the Church under the Franks, says Brian Welter

Van Gogh's long, hard struggle for greatness
A new exhibition of Van Gogh's art and letters at the Royal Academy reveals the toil and sweat of the artist, writes Alan Caine

The king who rallied his drenched troops to victory
Henry V was an inspiring military leader, but he had no mercy for the defeated, says John Hinton

Atheism won't get you through the night
There are two God debates, one is beautiful and the other loathesome argues Jonathan Wright

Free-range parenting in Aussie idyll
Outstanding child performances save The Boys Are Back, says Andrew M Brown

My father, the world's most wanted terrorist
Osama Bin Laden has made his wives and children suffer for his cause, says John Hinton

Is Mother Julian bad for modern Christians?
Her interior vision of Christianity may encourage believers to focus yet more on themselves, suggests Brian Welter

How good guys survive an apocalypse
The Road is a grisly vision of what's in store for our planet, and emotionally draining to watch. writes Andrew M Brown

So nasty you'd never guess Agatha Christie
wrote it
Robert Tanitch reviews a new play based on Agatha Christie's A Daughter's Daughter

The moral maze of occupied France
Jack Carrigan reviews a book which explores American expat life in occupied Paris

A cheeky chap with a broken heart
Sam Taylor-Wood’s biopic of the young John Lennon gives Andrew M Brown a lump in his throat

The New Testament as Dan Brown conspiracy theory
Fr Richard Ounsworth OP finds this new re-imagining of the gospels contrived and irritating

The rational case for the protection of animals
Deborah Jones applauds an authoritative book on animal rights

How Catholic women left their mark on our nation
Francis Phillips is enthralled by these bold and inspiring portraits of heroic women

Ships of steel
The various generations of HMS Revenge kept Britain safe and secure, says John Hinton

There is room for love in our economy
Brian Welter on why both Left- and Right-wing politics undermine the family

The gentle art of caring for corpses
For a film about corpses, says Andrew M Brown, Departures is surprisingly invigorating

Dido's luck gets worse in Highgate
Michael White reviews a back-to-back production of Dido and Aeneas and Venus and Adonis

Why the Templars have always attracted obsessives
A Vatican filing error helped to fuel centuries of conspiracy theories, says David V Barrett

The cleaner who painted wild visions in blood
Yolande Moreau conveys brilliantly the artistic intensity of French primitive painter Séraphine, says Andrew M Brown

You've never had it so good - and never will again
John Hinton goes back in time to rediscover the world of Bovril, Dinky Toys, trad jazz and smog

The best and boldest of Christian theologians
Jonathan Wright gives a B+ to Kerr's new guide to Aquinas

Suffering piled on with gleeful sadism
Andrew M Brown on A Serious Man, a modern take on Job

The diarist who lived his life in a bubble of despair
This biography of James Lees-Milne is deliciously addictive, says Petroc Trelawny

Struggling to grasp the Pope’s vision in its entirety
Brian Welter finds Rausch’s criticisms of the Pontiff’s thinking rushed and too brief.

Emmerich stomps on St Peter's
Andrew M Brown on Roland Emmerich's end-of-the-world disaster flick

Oil, terrorism, spending sprees and a shaky alliance with the 'infidel' West
Claus von Bülow hails a brilliant study of the government of Saudi Arabia

Joseph: the plaything of moralists and poets
Jonathan Wright thinks about re-reading old favourites after reading Bernard Long's scholarly new book

A chaste affair amid the daffodils
Andrew M Brown on the entrancing story of Keats and Fanny Brawne

The revolution that the USSR didn't see coming
The evil empire of Communism collapsed under the weight of its own folly, says Jack Carrigan

The Tablet editor who was a spy of genius
John Hinton enjoys a passionate biography of the author's father – a spy in wartime Spain

The English church that embodies a papal vision
Fr Anthony Symondson on an exhibition that celebrates a matchless Midlands church

From flying buttresses to modernistic mini-towns
We should enjoy great buildings for what they are not what they used to be, argues John Hinton

Fighting like gentlemen over barren desert sands
With cocktails, poker and ragtime, First World War pilots fought a civilised war. But it was also deadly, says John Hinton

Art that goes beyond the bounds of propriety
The brilliant Sacred Made Real exhibition may stretch your tolerance, says Alan Caine

Iraq may have a future of soaring steel and glass
John Hinton marvels at the optimism of a businessman with grand dreams for his shattered homeland

Maugham: a thread of sympathy for the faith
Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith on a biography that reads like that of a stockbroker, not a literary giant

Gilliam dazzles without purpose
Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all conspire to create a film that lacks fizz, says Andrew M Brown

Germany's Catholics: neither cowed nor craven
Francis Phillips hails a stunning study of Catholic resistance to National Socialism

World War II: the forgotten fight against Vichy France
John Hinton finds that the French did fight tenaciously in World War II – for the Nazis

The conflicted city that cannot be summed up
Peter Ackroyd's dazzling history of Venice leaves Jonathan Wright feeling rather cross

The dazzling science of medieval churchmen
Jonathan Wright finds much in this account of a world of idiocy and wonder

His own man
Neville Cardus was more than a journalist, says John Hinton. He was also a great educator

Hollywood blunts Gervais's edge
This unconvincing, even odious new film is a long way from his best work, says Andrew M Brown

Ireland: the dark side of a great Catholic nation
Jack Carrigan finds a study of Irish attitudes towards sexuality deeply depressing

How Paul changed a society from inside
St Paul and his followers, rather than upsetting the order from without, sought a revolution from within, finds Brian Welter

A sickly Darwin crushed by grief
Andrew M Brown says the portrayal might irritate Dawkins

The bishop who knew the glory and misery of man
Jonathan Wright explains why he sometimes wants to punch St Augustine on the nose

These aliens are the suffering face of 'the other'
The science-fiction movie District 9 explores Hegel's master/slave dynamic, says Fr Robert Barron

Catholicism Inc
This new study treats the American Church as if it were General Motors, says Brian Welter

Agribusiness devours the natives
Andrew M Brown on a powerful film about farmers and Indians and a rom-com that's too perfect in its goofiness

The battle between a hard and humane kind of Islam
Urgent questions are left unanswered in these allusive plays, says Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

Learning to love those beastly foreigners
Cologne, inkstands, pistols - Victorian Britons did not travel lightly, finds John Hinton

A portrait that growls and squelches
The new Dorian Gray bludgeons the viewer with exaggerated ghoulishness, says Andrew M Brown

'He didn't like horses and talked interminably'
An impressive biography lifts the lid off the Queen's least favourite PM, says John Hinton

The cult of nice
The crowd-pleasing, George Herbert model of ministry must be dropped, says Jonathan Wright

Staying on the right side of whimsy
Andrew M Brown finds the Polish film Tricks leisurely paced but pleasing

Pynchon's LA: a boat full of unruly 1960s sailors
Pynchon's hugely enjoyable seventh novel is his most accessible by far, says Matt Thorne

Love is the key
Civilised society does not depend on fine wine and landscaped gardens, reads Francis Phillips

Redemption tales
George Pelecanos offers a tale of hope and penance, writes Stav Sherez

Film noir with screwball elements
Almodóvar's latest film is shot in vibrant colours but the subject matter is dark, says Andrew M Brown

How to answer the New Atheists without words
Quentin de la Bédoyère says Karen Armstrong makes a brilliant defence of theism

Hope: the history of a much-derided virtue
Jonathan Wright on why hope is more than just idle fancy

Turning us all into teenage voyeurs
Andrew M Brown thinks Antonio Campos's new film about teenage voyeurism will be a tough sell

Changing times
The 19th century saw both a decline and revival in Christianity's fortunes, says Jonathan Wright

The greatest change in the history of Europe
This mild-mannered journalist's predictions for Europe's future are devastating, says Ed West

Getting a taste of Roman summer
Andrew M Brown is charmed by a tale of life in a Roman heatwave

Turning an age-old tussle into a preening cockfight
Jonathan Wright on a defence of faith that uses the same hectoring tone as militant atheists

The hard life and times of the earliest Franciscans
The Franciscan order has struggled to preserve its charism,
says Brian Welter

The bankrobber with a big mouth
Mesrine: Killer Instinct pits an outlaw against an equally savage state, says Andrew M Brown

Forget Tom Cruise - this novel is the real deal
Jack Carrigan hails a book that charts the collapse of German culture under the Nazis

'Riccardo' Wagner: the mascot of Venice
The beauty and mystery of the city jolted Wagner's thinking,
finds R J Stove

Out of tragedy came a classic dress
Andrew M Brown enjoys an elegant Coco Before Chanel – but a remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 has the sensibility of an adolescent male

Power-worship: the last principle of party politics
Peter Hitchens loathes New Labour and wants to abolish the Conservative Party, discovers Ed West

The thinker who says we are all mad for believing
Patrick West on A C Grayling's Ideas That Matter

Surrender to a gentle, floating dream
L'Amour de loin is a fabulous opera that deserved a longer run at ENO, says Michael White

'I was tired of a Christ who had evaporated'
Thomas Merton's letters show that he had a deep love of orthodoxy, says Brian Welter

Take notes, Dan Brown. Here's a real papal thriller
Piers Paul Read's latest novel is ingenious but never improbable, says Francis Phillips

The brutal absurdity of a racist state
Andrew M Brown on Skin, a film about a white couple who give birth to a black daughter during apartheid

Harry Potter enters dark waters
The latest instalment has a palpable feeling of evil, says Andrew M Brown

Trying to understand a father's monstrous crime
This insightful study tries to put Fritzl's crimes in a historical context, says Matt Thorne

Don't forget John Buchan, a writer for painful times
By David Twiston Davies

Quivering skies and the clatter of the city
The key elements of Futurism, according to its proponents, were ‘courage, audacity and revolt’. By Alan Caine

Searching for the truth about a monstrous crime
The James Bulger case was not the first incident of children murdering other children, says John Hinton

No work and all play makes Alain a dull boy
Alain de Botton cannot help but sound ironic when discussing other people's working lives, says Jack Carrigan

Weasel faces at war with society
Sympathy is spread too thinly for Public Enemies to be truly engaging, says Andrew M Brown

The enchanting gardens in the shadow of St Peter's
It is difficult to get into the Vatican Gardens, but it is well worth making the effort, says John Graham

Why Luther nearly collapsed celebrating Mass
An outrageously accomplished book shows that Luther's theology is more interesting than is often supposed, finds Jonathan Wright

Few giggles to be had at this lazy Bible caper
The humour of Year One is childish but not endearing,
says Andrew M Brown

The American university is a novelist's nightmare
Matt Thorne on how the country's best writers have been persuaded to teach their art on campus

St Francis and the Sultan: the making of a pious myth
Jonathan Wright on a wonderful book that explains how a legendary meeting was reinterpreted over eight centuries

Caught between two evil regimes
Poland's terrible tale is brilliantly told in Katyn, says Ed West

Dawkins is wrong. The world is turning back to God
John Hinton welcomes a balanced and authoritative new book about the return of religion to public life

Viewing the world through the mystery of Jesus Christ
Von Balthasar put metaphysics back at the centre of theological thought, argues Brian Welter

Marilyn: Protestant, Catholic and Jew
Marilyn Monroe was a woman of many faiths, discovers Andrew M Brown

Cantona adds light touch to fable
Looking for Eric is set to be a whopping commercial success,
says Andrew M Brown

The Gospels are not the Communist Manifesto
Terry Eagleton just doesn't understand the complexities of theology and religion, says Jonathan Wright

A disastrous marriage that horrified the whole nation
John Hinton on a tale so tragic it would scarcely be credible as fiction

Can we get Arnie back, please? Bale is boring
Andrew M Brown on Terminator Salvation

The strange, prickly ways of Flannery O'Connor
Anna Arco on a gripping and long overdue biography

The men who fought and died to protect the Pope
When the Vatican came under attack 20,000 Catholics took up arms to protect the Pope, finds John Hinton

How Bob Dylan changed the world through song
Stav Sherez on three new books that attempt to unravel the great Dylan mystery

Cannes hit by creative downturn
Laurence Green reports from the 62nd Cannes Film Festival

Our Lord's Resurrection was real, not metaphorical
Brian Welter on a refreshingly faithful account of Easter

Creepy malevolence by the seaside
ENO's Peter Grimes is gripping and the performances are wonderful, says Michael White

A Bible that is 'truer than the vulgar Greek'
Fr Richard Oundsworth OP worries that the Douay-Rheims Bible will go unread

How history shaped the theology of the Eucharist
Brian Welter on an insightful analysis of the Eucharist in the ancient and early medieval period

An awful mess of plots and chases
I'm no fan of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, says David V Barrett. But the film version is worse

The sparkling saints, political players and plain rogues that ruled the Church
Quentin de la Bédoyère says the endurance of the papacy is a sure sign of God's providence

A Catholic novelist's take on love and torture
Glen Duncan's latest novel is acclaimed in America but is certainly not his best, says Matt Thorne

A nostalgic remake that fans will love
The new Star Trek is a thrilling, ear-bashingly loud blockbuster, says Andrew M Brown

The day Britain stopped being a Christian country
A N Wilson's witty account of Britain's decline is marred by attempts to settle old scores, says Francis Phillips

Up for debate
Jonathan Wright applauds a simple and sober account of how Vatican II changed the Church

How Trent released the energy of Catholic art
The marvels of the Baroque were essentially Catholic, says Patrick Reyntiens

When science and the imagination took flight
There was a time, 200 years ago, when scientists and poets shared a vision of the world, says John Hinton

The thinker reconciling Islam with modernity
Brian Welter on a sympathetic account of Tariq Ramadan's Islamic reform

From gladiator to paunchy journalist
State of Play brims with expert performances, including Russell Crowe as a principled hack, says Andrew M Brown

At last, the liturgical establishment is taking on its critics. Let the debate begin
But this book is too thin to tackle the critiques of Vatican II reform, says Alcuin Reid

A Messiah that skips with Christian joy
At Westminster Abbey it was sung as it should be: with delight, not stiff-backed solemnity, says Michael White

Funny bits baggily strung together
In the Loop feels like a TV show stretched out uncomfortably for wide screen, says Andrew M Brown

Bible translations left most people scratching their heads
The 16th-century scriptural revolution led to confusion, not enlightenment, argues Jonathan Wright

Jerusalem: where reality is taken over by fiction
Rival groups compete with ever more fanciful myth-making, says Brian Welter

Marvel at the beauty of confident Islamic art
The British Museum exhibition shows the brilliance and self-confidence of the Shii form of Islam, says Patrick Reyntiens

The student who took a stand against the Reich
Simon Caldwell salutes the courage and conscience of Sophie Scholl in resisting Nazism

Bolaño truly was a genius beyond all imagining
His novel 2666 is a masterly, imperfect, path-blazing work,
says Matt Thorne

Outrageous! Actually, just irritating
Religulous is a shallow and mildly annoying attempt to mock religion, says Andrew M Brown

There is no such thing as 'American Catholicism'
There are many different, competing Catholicisms in the United States, says Jonathan Wright

Surgery as art
Operations are harrowing to us but to a surgeon can be a thing of beauty, says Andrew M Brown

Reviews Archive