Jackie Scott-Mandeville Renting this DVD in 2010, the film encapsulated the decade of the noughties in all its extreme materialism, consumerism, and negation of personal relationships. To begin with, I thought the film was going to be too depressing and overly precious in style and content, but as the themes developed, the intricacies and subtleties of character and plot wove carefully into a seamless whole, and the result was a satisfying, if excruciatingly cynical, survey of London society at the beginning of the 21st century. As it is necessarily a work of fiction, and not a reality show, the characters were allowed their melodrama, such as Penelope Cruz playing a prostitute dying of cancer, inexpertly 'helped' in her distress by a wonderfully subtle performance by Rhys Ifans as a social worker. Some of the darkest scenes in this dark, dark story, depicted the state of the social work system and its inefficient, uncaring way of managing those in need of the service - a scathing critique worthy of Dickens. In many ways, this film worked like a novel - it had a beginning, middle, and end; the structure was deliberate and meticulous, the style perfected, and the whole brought together by a superb cast of actors. Kristin Scott-Thomas is, to me, one of the best British actresses ever; she can play any part with subtlety and nuance and express the minutest detail of emotion with a change in her eye expression, or a slight movement of her mouth. She is painfully affecting as the ignored and bored wife, shopping expensively to no purpose, neglecting her son because she has neglected herself, feeling frustrated, and considering breast implants to restore her self-esteem (a knock at the prevalence of cosmetic surgery in present society). Her performance, understated, with more expression than dialogue, presages her Oscar-worthy acting in 'I Have Loved You So Long'.Having just seen Damien Lewis in a bravura performance as Alceste on the London stage in 'The Misanthrope' - a brilliant re-working of Moliere's play by Martin Crimp - I could see the origins of what he brought to the character of Alceste in the way he played Marcus in this film. All Marcus really wanted was to play the guitar in a band, not waste his life in the corporate world of high legal protection of privileged and corrupt professionals.Ben Chaplin, Ralph Fiennes (playing himself as usual, but effectively), Ian Holm, and Harriet Walter, were all equally good and as the disparate characters weave in and out of each others' lives, the ensemble piece comes together in a moving and impressive drama. I was not sure about the redemption ending, but maybe Martha Fiennes felt the film was just too deeply dark not to have some kind of cathartic closing. After all, Dickens does the same and we love him for that. So you will love this film. Stay with it: you will not be disappointed.

johnnyboyz I feel as if I should've liked Chromophobia more than I did. It's funny; the things that should work in the film's favour actually contribute in it being of the ordinary and unspectacular kind rather than the broad, masterful and interesting. These things are the things like the cast, in which so many huge names are a part of the production that the film gets bogged down and lost concentrating on them all, as if they were all fighting for the limelight. Secondly, the multi strand narrative approach works against the film ever so slightly due to the overall concentration. There are times when certain scenes from certain strands are played out and you feel rather immersed in how they'll contribute to the overall piece but the mini-narratives will come to a sort of sudden ending and the film will focus on something else that isn't as interesting.The Chromophobia of the title refers to a definition of a piece of art within the film. It's a long and complicated definition that we do not get enough time to digest, a tactic director Martha Fiennes uses on purpose to get across the epic and broad feeling she wants the film to have. Chromophobia is the title of the film and the definition of the title reads something like: '.....an advanced piece of art that juxtaposes the genre whilst......blah blah blah.' This self recognition and deliberate attempt to tell the audience what they're watching through preachy visual aids is one of quite a few weak points in the film, but when the film is weak it comes across as either quite pompous or quite uninteresting.Within Chromophobia are three different strands of groups of people. The most interesting is probably the one involving Gloria (Cruz) and Colin, played by Rhys Ifans in one of his 'Once Upon a Time in the Midlands' roles rather than a 'The 51st State' or a 'Kevin and Perry Go Large' role; calmer and more aware. Colin is a social worker that visits call girl Gloria to check up on her and her young child; Colin is an ex-cop but he does not carry that rugged look an ex-cop might and I think he is completely miss-cast. This strand works because it is focused more on characters than actions and reactions; it carries a fair amount of antagonism and sexual tension between the two that works quite well on a dramatic level.The film also focuses on victim of the post-modern age housewife Iona Aylesbury (Scott-Thomas) and her post-modern home complete with metallic feel and transparent look whilst keeping with her relationship with husband Marcus (Lewis) and potentially disgruntled son Orlando (Tibber). In terms of character, she represents the more sensitive study of the film; a descent into potential madness with suspicion threatening to dominate her feelings to do with her husband and there is a level of ignorance surrounding her son, who clearly has some sort of problem, but she doesn't seem able enough to either deal with it or inquire into how to. She is more focused on a matching set of televisions displaying the same image in perfect tandem than the well being of her son's (and her own) health.I got the feeling that a part of this juxtaposition between whatever it was the quote said earlier on is evident in the early exchanges. The film flicks from the post-modern house mentioned complete with ambiguously diegetic piano music to a rough council estate in a few cuts that I presume was supposed to force us to sit up and take notice. Around this area is where Stephen Tulloch lives and he's played by Ralph, Martha Fiennes' brother. The role is perfect for Mr. Fiennes as the passive but eerie in a shifty way guy that doubles up as the villain, as seen in Red Dragon. As a contribution to the film, Stephen acts as one of the more chilling characters in the piece and makes sure he gets in some Apple Mac. product placement as well "Yes, it comes with a webcam(!)" but while the paedophilic narrative ideas are there, they are underdeveloped and consequently anti-climatic echoing what I said in the first paragraph about how individual situations are played out but come to a premature finish. Through one event or another, the scariest or evilest character in the film is placed in a hospital bed for the rest of the film.The other strand involves old buddies Trent (Chaplin) and Marcus Aylesbury again, in a weekend away for shooting and hunting and so forth but Trent being a journalist manages to screw the friendship up through a powerful event that will create ripples for weeks to come. I think in the end, there are just too many characters that all pile up and tussle for recognition on the screen. There is so much going on and so many different emotions to try and connect with so many different characters that it borders on overload. We cannot feel empathy or pity towards one person because we know what they're like when they interact with another in another strand and we cannot, as human beings, evoke various different reactions on demand as the finale rounds things up. The film's heart seems to be in the right place and certain things are pulled off to a decent degree but it remains underwhelming and, like I said, a missed effort.

rosemary_ds So far only seen at Cambridge /Oxford special showings. A visually distinctive, intelligent, beautifully scripted, classy contemporary drama.Marcus, a successful lawyer (Damian Lewis) is the son of a High Court Judge (Ian Holm) now married to a dog-&-garden-obsessed - though emotionally repressed wife, (Harriet Walter). Gloria - an immigrant, single mum and Hep C suffering sex worker is played by Penelope Cruz - who finds herself aggressively resisting the tentative aid of a fragile social services worker, (Rhys Ifans). Marcus's wife, Iona (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a privileged, sexually frustrated, shoppaholic mother who becomes perturbed by her young son's relationship with his godfather, (Ralph Fiennes). At work, Marcus unwittingly discovers a momentous secret - ripe for exploitation by his old friend Trent (Ben Chaplin), a struggling investigative journalist, desperately in need of a break.The stories interweave with others and the film explores the psychology, dynamics and value systems of modern city life. Each character is forced to confront their lives and their disengaged flawed lives they inhabit.A brilliant cast all acting their socks off, the movie is a thought provoking visual feast. This is a thinking, feeling emotional/ psychological film. Gripping and sumptuous. It is a contemporary and challenging.

bobandtup I totally disagree with the negative comments I have read about the film Chromophobia. I went to see the film with no preconceptions at all and I came away feeling I had had a thoroughly entertaining evening. The film was fairly bleak in parts but I came away feeling positive and uplifted.The characters were complex and the script kept them totally believable. There was contrast in the subject matter and storyline as well as in way it was filmed. I think there were some highly ambitious ideas explored in the movie. The pace was perfectly pitched and hit the emotional level it was trying to achieve. The cinematography was superb and the music pulled the whole movie together. I felt the film was not a showcase for famous actors but rather a way to use their talent in a very modest way. The casting was spot on and created the opportunity to give the actors some challenging work.