My dear reader(s), as I am enjoying a week of vacation and Halloween festivities are behind us for another year, I hope to check in with a few reviews for your perusal.
Today's offering: Brian and Charles.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers if you've seen any, which I haven't. I fell over this one completely by accident.
Following an especially harsh Welsh winter, a lonely inventor builds himself a robot companion.
Now that I'm out of the habit of going to the cinema, I often spend hours browsing the titles available for home viewing, only to decide I can't bear the thought of any of them...or I'll start a movie and give up when it fails to hold my attention, which tends to be early and often. I picked Brian and Charles at random because it looked like the sort of thing that never fails me, and, indeed, it did not fail me.
Brian and Charles is a documentary-style tale of Brian (David Earl), a lonely, awkward man who lives alone with his many inventions. He builds Charles (Chris Hayward), and for much of the film their relationship is like that of parent and child, Brian making choices to keep Charles safe (Brian's version of safe), and Charles rebelling as he desires more freedom. There's a bit of romance thrown in for good measure (spoiler alert: NOT cross-species between the leads), a moral about bullying, and a curiously action-packed penultimate act, but for the most part Brian and Charles is the heartwarming tale of a unique friendship. The bleak Welsh landscape perfectly underscores Brian's loneliness, but charming performances by Earl, Hayward, and Louise Brealey (as Brian's equally awkward would-be love interest) keep things quirky and mostly light, rather than sad or preachy.
Brian and Charles clocks in at 90 minutes and is rated PG for "language, mild violence, and smoking."
Brian and Charles is a sweet film that's charming in its execution and gentle in its message. Of a possible nine Weasleys, Brian and Charles gets eight.
Brian and Charles is now streaming on Peacock.
Until next time...
