Purely Joyful Movie!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

No idea what to expect, but became totally hooked for these reasons: 1. Intelligent dialogue and storyline. A very well researched period piece dealing with both early 20th century British culture (a little American too); influence of music in culture (in this case mostly jazz); aristocracy relations with the poor (things never change); black (and other groups) relations with white power (money, politics, etc.). 2. Superb acting. 3. Superb period singing and accompanying music. 4. Most importantly for a quality film is attention to detail. 5. Suspenseful drama (Whodunit?). 6. Left room for a continuation which, unfortunately, doesn't appear to be in the works. 7. Interesting final episode of tidying up loose ends, even interviewing the dead as if they never died.

I got STARZ just so I could watch this mini-series but can only attest to the first three episodes. First, the production values--the costumes, set designs, lighting, etc. are stunning and Emmy-worthy. However,the storyline as a whole could use a bit of work. Personally, I have to care about someone in the story for the storyline to work and unfortunately the only person I cared about in the entire cast is killed off by the end of episode 3. I felt they tried to pull a "Lady Sybil" on us ala Downton Abbey, without the impact. I knew there would be a murder mystery of some sort, but didn't expect the victim to be a band member. And I wanted to see more of the Jessie character, who was really promising. The music is not as good as the "real" jazz back in the day, at least the jazz my dad used to listen to, and play when he was in a band. All of the other characters are relatively superficial, and perhaps too modern, if you will, to truly be believable as people from the 1930s. Would a white European woman really kiss a black man in public back then? Doubtful. Are the all-too-common nude scenes really necessary to move the story along? Nope, and not all that sexy either. I'm assuming the mystery will be solved by the end of the series, but I'm not sure I'll care.

This television series from the celebrated Stephen Poliakoff portrays 1930s upper class London but focuses on a Black Jazz band travelling the clubs of Britain, mixing with the high ups of polite British society but reveals an underbelly of prejudice, secrets and murder.Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Louis Lester, trained in the USA but his jazz band takes London by storm when armed with two female singers. Matthew Goode plays a music journalist who champions the band in his music paper. John Goodman turns up as a mogul who wants to buy newspapers.Although there are twists and turns, Poliakoff needs to stick to writing, needs a stronger story editor and get someone else to direct and interpret his words to the screen.It looks good, there is a fine all star cast from Jacqueline Bisset, Jane Asher, Anthony Head. The music and song which was written originally for the series is fine with a few memorable tunes but it meanders too much. The murder story has little mystery as you have a rough idea who the culprit might be.

This whole enterprise is so embarrassingly awful it is difficult to know where to begin. Is this play supposed to be a fantasy or some expression of reality? Jazz bands of whatever colour did not play in the dining rooms of expensive London hotels in the 1930s. Dance bands which may have contained the odd jazz man was the norm. The band in the play did not play anything remotely recognisable as jazz. Did band leaders stroll around London dressed like Fred Astaire in a Hollywood musical complete with opera cloak; I don't think so.This 'hugely popular' band seemed to spend its time playing to an audience of about twelve middle-aged diners.The cast of assorted weirdos and high society drop-outs was totally unconvincing. Where did the black band-leader acquire his impeccable accent; did he go to Eton perhaps? The play has simplistic plot lines and we know that the whole enterprise is going to end in tears. OK, we already knew that the assorted Windsor males were a set of privileged moronic uneducated fools and that sections of the upper classes would have gone along with fascism at the drop of a cocktail; but we could do with a rather more nuanced and sophisticated explanation than we are getting. I am only continuing to watch to see whether it will get any more awful.The author appears to be the BBC's equivalent of the Emperor who is forever indulged with his fantasies. Perhaps I can be the small boy who points out that it is all expensive self indulgent rubbish.