hello and welcome to the film review on bbc news. to take us through this week's cinema releases is mark kermode. 50 mark, what do we have this week? the big release is goodbye christopher robin, a film about the creation of winnie the pooh. we also have reese witherspoon in home again, a likeable if daft rom—com. and daphne, a very interesting and edgy home—grown pick. goodbye christopher robin. i used to make up stories for my kids, so i am fascinated by this. tell me i'm going to love it. i really liked it. i know it has divided critics, but it is basically the story of how the winnie the pooh stories came about. it begins with aa milne in world war i, coming back and suffering from what we now call post traumatic stress and what they then called shell shock. he leaves london for rural east sussex and wants to write an anti—war tome which his wife daphne describes as something that

sounds perfectly horrid. and he can't write anything and then one day he is walking in the woods with his young son robin and suddenly, apparently out of nowhere, comes this unexpected beauty and he starts writing poems and stories which touch everybody‘s hearts, particularly when illustrated by his great friend ernest. here is a clip. the creatures in the story are toys. they're toys, but the woods are real. the size is wrong. the bear should be smaller. yes. yes, that's it. are you writing a book? i thought we were just having fun. we're writing a book and we're having fun. i didn't know you could do both at the same time. you don't usually look like you're having fun when you're writing. it's not your turn, tigger. this is more than a few poems.

hmm. it's a little world. like you said, a hundred—acre paradise. be very, very quiet. vespers. this one's for daphne. you said it divided critics. one said it was like john lewis christmas advert. that is completely wrong, because it actually has a lot of darkness in it. the script is by frank cottrell boyce, and he has taken the of the great war, and this is a glade of happiness existing between the two wars, world war i and world war ii. much as with the winnie the pooh stories, it is something which has beauty and charm, but also underneath it has darker themes. it is film about btrayel, about the price of success when suddenly this child finds that his childhood is bought and sold.

there's a moment in which he is in london zoo in a cage with a bear and they are both basically on display. it's a film about his separation from his parents, particularly his mother, played by margot robbie, who is very unsympathetically portrayed as someone who is rather opportunistic in the promotion of christopher robin. i think it balances the light and dark very well. you saw in that clip, there was a bit of animation and some magic. the woods are filled with a spielbergian light, but it is not afraid of dealing with the horrors of the war. it is not afraid of dealing with the frankenstein—like idea of making something that then overshadows the rest of your life. i was moved to tears by it. i thought it was very well played. i went in feeling slightly cynical, same as with saving mr banks. you approach mary poppins very delicately, and it is the same with winnie the pooh. i thought this did it respectfully well and i was moved and charmed by it. so other critics, pish! now, home again with reese witherspoon. the story is that she has recently separated. she is a ao—year—old mum who has moved back to los angeles

to the house where her father who is a filmmaker lives. she meets three young film—makers, all of whom are slightly besotted with her. next thing, they're living in her guesthouse, which is difficult because she hasn't yet divorced her husband. they're just separated. basically, it's a wish fulfilment fantasy. it's the kind of film in which you are asked to feel sympathetic for somebody who has a guesthouse that can house three film—makers who happen to have wandered in and in which everybody is a potential suitor. but it works because reese witherspoon is really funny and charming. it is directed by the someone who comes from rom—com heritage. and despite the fact that it is flimsy and it is fluff and it is ridiculous, i ended up laughing with it and not at it. i thought it was sweet. michael sheen has fun as the ex who turns up like a bad penny at all the wrong moments. and again, much as i went in feeling cynical, i thought it was a laugh and i chuckled all the way through,

largely because reese witherspoon is a great screen presence who can hold this kind of thing together. and playing older roles now. well, playing a role that's appropriate to her age. what's interesting is that although there was a thing going on in the movie about this age difference, imagine if you reversed the age difference, and would anybody raise an eyelid? i laughed, and that is fairly rare. well, not that rare! now, daphne. a powerhouse performance by emily beecham. she plays a young londoner who has apparently drifted into her early thirties without much direction, but an awful lot of repressed angst. she works in a kitchen and she works very hard. when she plays, she plays hard. she drinks, she takes drugs, she sleeps with whomever she likes and some people she doesn't like.

she is cynical and isolated and she is deliberately attempting to keep everybody at a distance. here's a clip. when you put it like that, that sounds negative, yes. no, no, i know what you're saying. all i'm saying is that so much of what's called love is really people just projecting their ideas of what a love object should look like onto someone else and then getting upset when that person fails to live up to those expectations, so then they fall in love with someone else, till they disappoint them too. right, so basically, it turns out i didn't know what you were saying. i don't know why ijust said any of that stuff. i don't actually think any of those things. what, about people basically being incapable of love that isn't self—interested? it's to do with expectations. i don't want you to expect one thing about me and then get mad when i'm not that. you do realise this is a first date, don't you? no need to be facetious. no, it's funny. we're on a date and you're

basically saying, "don't get your hopes up, pal". no. it's like i've gone to church, only to realise i've sat next to satan. it's funny. emily beecham is a rising star. she's fantastic. i have seen her in a few films and i barely recognise her from one film to the next. she was in hail caesar and she's a versatile player. in this, she is great. this character is quite frustrating and hard to be with and much as with darren aronofsky‘s mother!, the camera spends the whole time with her, but you absolutely care for and understand her because of her performance. you get to understand this very conflicted nature that on the one hand, she's missed to be alienated from everybody, but there was a sort of desperation and it. there is a random act of violence that she witnesses and she can't understand why she doesn't feel more empathy for it. so mixed up in her character development are a number of things pulling in different ways, and you understand them all and you understand them because of the way she portrays them.

it's a really intelligent performance, because it does that thing where the character doesn't have to be likeable for you to like and understand them. i thought it was really three—dimensional. you really get to grips with the issues she is dealing with and yet at the same time, you can find her company very exasperating. it's called daphne and it's worth seeing. emily beecham is terrific in it. what is best out at the moment? i love this film called in between about three palestinian women living in tel aviv, each independently struggling for their own independence. one is a lawyer with a boyfriend who is not as liberal as he seems. one is a dj whose strict christian parents don't know that she is gay. another is a muslim who is engaged to be married to a very sanctimonious and bullying guy. this has won awards everywhere from the israeli film academy to the cannes film festival. it has also ruffled some feathers. i loved it. i think it is this year's mustang.

it is a debt to converge. really vibra nt performances. again, you really get to care about these women and their lives. it is terrific. best dvd? city of ghosts. it is not an easy watch. it is a documentary about these journalists documenting what is happening in syria. they call themselves raqqa is being slaughtered silently and are using the internet to get the true story out. it is of with some very distressing images in it and distressing subjects. the tag line is, our word is stronger than their weapons. obviously, there was a danger with getting those words out, but it is really brave thing that they are doing and the documentary is a tribute to that bravery, although it is a tough watch. and also different from the kind of news coverage. we had a bbc team in raqqa this week, and this is different. it is absolutely ground level and what is being whisked by the journalists getting this stuff out is extraordinary.

the documentary attempts to show you enough that you understand what is going on. i don't think it is in any exploitative, but there are moments in it when i think anybody would have to look away. it is a very powerful piece and very well made. a tough watch, but an important what. i believe so. mark, thank you so much. a quick reminder before we go that you'll find more film news and reviews from across the bbc online at bbc.co.uk/mark kermode. and you can find all our previous programmes on the bbc iplayer. that's it for this week, though. thanks for watching. goodbye. good evening. september's weather

will not live long in our memories. it has been wetter than average. as we changing to a new month we will transition from what will be a bright start to the weekend to something turning white and rather windy with the threat of some gales. everything is coming in from the atlantic. things are fairly quiet and we have the rain moving away. showers will keep going in scotland and the south—west. in the east, clearer skies and temperatures may be lower than this. a chilly start to saturday. sunshine around as well. we have a few showers dotted about and they will get swamped by a cloud across england and wales. further north, it remains brighter. there could be some heavy showers for a while but they will ease down.

in northern ireland, the rain is not far away. further east across england, there may be some brighter skies. we have some showers moving in also. out towards the south west and wales where the showers will turn into longer spells of rain. the winds will be strengthening as well. the rain is becoming lighter but there will be a lot of low cloud. it will be a mild night on saturday night but the heavy rain comes back into northern ireland and over the irish sea. we will have one burst of rain pushing its way east woods followed by another one. the heaviest of rain in the west. some sunshine for scotland and northern ireland. a windy day and it will

ta ke ireland. a windy day and it will take the edge off the temperatures. we have low—pressure, an old hurricane maria that slammed into the caribbean that will slide some rain across the english channel. we have low—pressure to the north—east of scotla nd have low—pressure to the north—east of scotland and it will bring a windy start to the new week. gusts of up to 70 mph across the northern half of the uk. further south, the wind will not be as strong. there is the chance of some rain and drizzle. there will be a chilly feel on monday in the window and it will continue tuesday into wednesday. the weather for the week ahead, you can find it online. this is bbc world news today. i'm geeta guru—murthy. our top stories: crunch time in catalonia. tractors roll into barcelona as the region ploughs on with an independence referendum that spain has banned. these are the scenes at the pro—independence

campaign's closing rally. washington is also pulling most of its diplomatic staff out of cuba after a string of mysterious "sonic attacks". panic at a railway station in mumbai during rush hour leaves 22 people dead. plus the dust descends in yosemite as california's national park is hit by another massive rock fall.