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Well, the Christmas and New Year celebrations are over and it’s time to get back to work! I spent the New Year period with friends and during this time, we watched Mamma Mia! on DVD. When this was first suggested by our host, the idea was greeted with a chorus of “Oh No” by the men in the house who wanted to watch The Dark Knight or similar action movie. However, after watching the ABBA musical, even the most sceptical had a smile on their face and were secretly humming an ABBA tune or two!

I have to say that it’s an entertaining film and something for the whole family to watch. It’s no surprise that Mamma Mia! is now the largest selling DVD in the UK and 1 in 4 households now own a copy.  Pretty impressive for a DVD that was only released in November.

The Wire is a TV series made by the US cable channel HBO. Another Sopranos, you might be thinking. You’re wrong, it’s better than that! The final episode of The Wire has just screened on UK TV. Here’s my overall review of the whole series.

The Wire starts off as a slow-burning story about Baltimore cops trying to catch a drug gang. So far, so conventional. However, the real-life nature of the programme, the large cast of characters over its five seasons, and the uncompromising, but entirely plausible, storylines make this the must-watch TV series of all time in my opinion.

The fact that it has not won a string of awards is bizarre. Perhaps it is the nature of the story and the almost documentary style of the narrative that goes against it. However, give it a few episodes and you’ll be hooked like I was…

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Waitress is a film by the late actress-director Adrienne Shelly. It is a bittersweet comedy romance based in a small American town. Keri Russell plays the main character, Jenna, who is a pie-making waitress in a typical American diner. The story revolves around her life, married to an overbearing husband, her pregnancy, work at the diner, an affair with her doctor (played by Nathan Fillion), and the life choices that she makes.

I found the film moving and very funny but it’s not an over-the-top gag fest like some other modern films. The humour centres around the characters and their personal foibles. In particular, Jenna’s relationships with the other waitresses (Adrienne Shelly and Cheryl Hines) and the diner owner (played by Andy Griffith) are sympathetically illustrated with realism and warmth.

One of the main themes of the film is Jenna’s pie making which she uses to reflect her life. Each pie is made and named in her mind according to her daily mood. For example, “I Don’t Want Earl’s Baby” pie (an egg and cheese pie with ham!)

The film is made even more poignant by the murder of the director Adrienne Shelly in New York just after the film was finished. It’s a real life tragedy that puts everything into perspective.

Happy Go Lucky is a film by the British director Mike Leigh who is known for his character-driven films about British culture. It centers around the character of Poppy, played by Sally Hawkins, who has on overwhelmingly positive and humourous outlook on life.

The story revolves around her relationships with friends and people that she meets. In particular, the story focuses on her driving lessons with a driving instructor called Scott, played by Eddie Marsan, who has a completely different outlook and a sometimes threatening demeanour. Poppy’s attempts to inject some humour into the driving lessons and the effect of this on Scott are brilliantly done.

The driving lessons are the main story but the film covers quite a lot of ground, ranging from Poppy’s social life, her job as a primary school teacher, bullying at the school, Poppy’s relationship with her sisters, a meeting with a tramp, and the start of a relationship with a male social worker.

Overall, the film is more cheerful than some other Mike Leigh films that I have seen and I finished the DVD with a smile. The main character really shows her compassion and positive approach throughout the film and I found that it was impossible not to like this.

Buy Happy Go Lucky at Amazon UK

LoveFilm.com is a website that provides DVD and game rentals, downloads and purchases for a monthly fee or on a pay-as-you-go basis.

I have been a DVD rental user of LoveFilm for several years now and it has worked really well in my experience. You sign up for a monthly fee, add DVDs to an online list, and LoveFilm does the rest. They send you the next DVD on your list as soon as you return the previous one. There are no late fees and the website has a wide range of DVDs to choose from.

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