Masterpiece Contemporary (TV Series) Page Eight (2011) User Reviews

Well made film, good acting and script.

[oddshoes · 8/10 · 16 March 2014]

The person who reviewed this film and gave it two stars because it is anti-American and anti=Israeli misses the point. This is a good film ,well made, with high class production values and great acting. I like good films. The Americans, Israelis, British, French, Chinese, Saudis, the list is very long, do very bad things. I would not trust any of them as far as I could throw their gold-plated bullet-proof Cadillac, but it's still a good film. Dr Strange love is pretty anti American, but it doesn't stop it being a great film (10 stars). I also rather object to having to write so much to get the review published, so I'll just waffle a bit 'till the ten lines are up - do they think people are incapable of writing a useful review in less than ten lines!- that should do it.

What does one think?

[joercronin · 8/10 · 4 December 2014]

Strange that some viewers see Page Eight as an anti-American or anti-Israeli movie. I see it as a story about the unscrupulous underworld of secret service operatives and a well crafted thriller. This seems a judgement that is agreeable even to those who hold it to be anti-"all-that-is-good-and-right-with-the-world." I find this type of shallow, tedious observation to be more fittingly done by the PR workers for the North Korean leadership than by quality seeking viewers of Public Television. My only objection to the program is that it has been very difficult for me to find the next airing on PBS. By the way I think it should be kept in mind by all rabid seekers of "all-that-is-good-and-right-with-the-world" that neither the United States nor Israel has been a constant adherent to that quest.

I'D LIKE SOME JAZZ

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 18 May 2019]

This BBC made for TV movie opens up with many loose ends. Bill Nighly stars as Johnny Worricker, an MI5 agent. His neighbor, Nancy Pierpan (Rachel Weisz) suddenly takes an interest in him. Sitting in her flat is Ralph Wilson (Tom Hughes) who must now leave because Bill showed up.

At work, Bill's boss (Michael Gambon) shows him a Top Secret document. Bill is most interested in "Page Eight." There is a concern for future terrorist attacks. Meanwhile Bill's daughter (Felicity Jones) is a famous artist who paints morbid pictures of despair. At a showing of her paintings, Ralph Wilson happens to be there too. Bill doesn't like these coincidences in his life.

***Midpoint plot spoiler*** Page 8 of the document is rather boring by 2010 standards. It seems Americans have secret interrogation sites across the world where they torture prisoners AND the Prime Minister knows about it. Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) is the Prime Minister of England. The political and legal ramifications are discussed, but there appears to be no moral outrage. More coincidental things happen in the film to make you go hmm, but it is not really a mystery as there is no puzzle, or is there?. All we have is Johnny Worricker's gut feeling something isn't right.

Good acting. Interesting plot twists. A movie which asks moral questions for our modern society.

The movie initially uses some good old fashion gumshoe jazz as a way to connect us to simpler times. But it's the 21st century now...

F-bomb, No sex, no nudity

Pure anti-American, anti-Israel propaganda

[celr · 2/10 · 24 February 2013]

This movie has good production values and masquerades as a political thriller when in fact it is pure propaganda. It has some good actors and the camera work and cutting suggests a sense of movement and suspense, but when you find out what it's all about you see there is no story there. Not only is the story absent and the characters unconvincing, it contains a nasty anti-Israel, anti-American subtext. We are asked to believe that a desiccated, boring, old Brit secret service agent (Nighy) has claimed the moral high ground and sacrificed his career and pension to please a pretty girl (Weisz) and expose his PM as a collaborator with the evil Israelis and Americans. Who are the enemies here? Certainly not the terrorists, they hardly receive any notice except a bit of hand-wringing over the possibility of their mistreatment. This flick is aimed at a liberal audience outraged at the conduct of the war on terror of Tony Blair and George W. Bush.

Now, lately, we have seen a turnaround: with Obama as President there appears to be far less concern about secret facilities where terrorists are supposedly tortured, and there seems to be little concern about drone attacks which under W. would have outraged the haughty BBC audience. Of course Israel is always on the agenda, any attempt to defend herself against barbarians brings her under attack from the enlightened snobs at the Beeb. Political thrillers are supposed to be about the fight against the bad guys, not trashing allies.

Bloody awful

[raoulduke333 · 1/10 · 10 December 2023]

It's a shame that a film with good production and decent actors has been ruined by the terrible script. The plot and characters are completely unrealistic. Everything is so clichéd.

This film is only one step removed from the realm of action adventure spy's who jump out of windows and dive through fire to make a getaway that no one else can follow.... except here our suave protagonist can elude special branch by walking down an alley or politically out manoeuvre a top politician with a few few glib comments and a wry smile, whilst simultaneously failing to create a back story for himself, so the first time anyone says "what is it that you do" he has to come clean and admit "ah, you got me, yeah, I'm a spy".

I could see it was crap from the start and I'm now really annoyed that I didn't turn it off immediately.

If you haven't seen it already, watch Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy instead of this fake spy news. I mean most spy thrillers are far removed from reality and require the suspension of disbelief, but there's not 1 grain of realism here. Totally vapid.