Peereddi I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

masterblaster1975 MI5 discovers a political scandal in Britain. As the boss of MI5 dies (natural causes), everybody involved tries to cover his ass. Furthermore, a girl tries to learn the truth about her brothers killing by Israelis. Bill Nighy is perfect as cool old dog. The kiss was unnecessary and implausible.

hiekkaroopi-23236 I was so disappointed with the film. The opening scene was so lovely. Harking back to the old days of black and white movie classics. I had expected the storytelling and script to be so much better. I prefer to watch European detective stories because they usually offer either a more realistic angle or a plot or delight the audience with fantastically witty humour which the American thrillers often lack. Not so this time. I wonder if Mr. Hare created this boring and stiffly acted out drivel just to bring about his own political world view on Palestinians and thus have this silly off handed go at the Israelis. These actors could have done so much better than this. What a waste of their fantastic talent! I fell asleep at then end and woke up just in time to see the last comment made by MI5 officer Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy). "Change the channel" "I wanna hear some Jazz". My sentiments entirely! Don't bother watching this when you could be spending your time listening to some awesome jazz instead. Oh and the 1 point I have given this movie went to, you guessed it, to the jazz of course.

Modern Monsters A BBC2 movie with a dream casting, Page Eight is a quiet spy drama in the John Le Carré's vein, extremely well written, elegantly directed and, not surprisingly, supremely well acted. It is best enjoyed for its deadpan dialogues, wryly delivered by some of the best British thespians around. A small gem with not an ounce of violence but filled with menace and danger.Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy, who can load a seemingly innocuous line like "I've got a question" with chilling tension), is an old school MI5 analyst reporting to his Cambridge friend Benedict Baron (Michael Gambon, great in an old chap role he could play in his sleep) with whom he "shares a wife", Emma (Alice Krige, always gloriously venomous). She was pregnant with their daughter Julianne (Felicity Jones) when he left her for another woman and she married Baron. Julianne resents her father to have let her and her mother down and expresses her anger and resentment through troubled paintings, which Johnny, a fond art collector, does not appreciate. He lives a quiet, discreet life in an apartment which walls are covered with art, and listens to jazz. He doesn't believe in the Special Relationship with USA.Two events disrupt this routine in rapid fire. He meets his neighbour, Nancy (Rachael Weisz, a guarantee of quality in herself), daughter of a Syrian activist and whose brother has been killed by the Israeli while waving a white flag, and a possible set up. His boss dies after presenting out of the blue a report to the Home Secretary (Saskia Reeves, whose great first line is "Let's start the bloody meeting!"). The report, from a secret American source, proves that USA have secret prison facilities abroad and its page eight establishes that the British Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes, reptilian as ever) has knowledge of it.The conundrum is the following: is the report wrong, in which case USA has left Great Britain in the dark, or is it true, in which case the PM has left his Home Secretary in the dark? Head of MI5 Jill Tankard (Judy Davies, not seen often enough) does not appreciate to be caught unbalanced and threatened Johnny to fire him if he does not return the top secret report he has in his possession. Will Johnny take a stance or yield to pressure? One won't tell, but the way he navigates this tricky waters makes for some very good, if subdued, espionage.The job of an analyst is to know who to trust. The legacy of Johnny's friend and boss is "a matter of honour". Faced with spin doctors and treacherous politicians, he remains "an all-round decent person", the trait we love in British people even though it largely remains a mystery, like most of Angliana. Asked why he changed his mind at some point, he eludes "Oh you know, wind, caprice…" A feast of understatement, Page Eight is an all-round decent movie, well, more than decent, actually. No question.

Prismark10 The film starts of with a very snazzy title sequence and unveils a starry cast list led by Bill Nighy which will begin a trilogy of films dealing with this MI5 agent.Johnny Worricker out art collecting, jazz loving analyst stumbles across important information on Page 8 of a dossier he has been given to read by his boss (Michael Gambon) who incidentally is also married to his ex wife. The dossier implicates the British government to unsavoury practises in the war on terror with the American government such as rendition and torture.Johnny also becomes friendly with a neighbour in his flat (Rachel Weisz) who wants his help to get rid of a boring date and they become friendly but Weisz had a brother who was killed in the Middle East and she is too close to home for comfort.The film is essentially a stage drama between different protagonists despite location shooting as they deal with themes and rules of espionage in the manner of a John Le Carre novel. The rules of the old is making way for the rules of the new and some are finding this hard to stomach.Leading the charge on the war on terror is the Prime Minister (Ralph Fiennes) who enters the proceedings with a swagger surrounded by his henchmen. We have a Home Secretary wanting more draconian laws. It is clear the film is set during the New Labour administration and writer/director David Hare is a left winger who likes to take pot shots at the type of left he despises although in this case he has good cause to be critical.At the end Worricker has upset the Prime Minister, the rules of the game in MI5 has suddenly changed and he finds himself wondering where to go next.The film is well acted and tense in places but it is also too wordy and dense which means its not always as stylish as its tile sequence.