A very different end of the world is imagined in David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense, one far removed from the meteor storms and solar burps.

Instead it is a slow burning apocalypse for us this time with the gradual diminishing of sensory perception on the cards and in the film, which was out here in the UK in early October after a successful festival run, we have the human plight captured perfectly with Ewan McGregor and Eva Green falling in love at precisely the wrong moment.

Jamie saw the film for us at the Edinburgh Film Festival earlier in the year and it’s well worth checking out the review, as this one may not have the CG budget equivalent to the GDP of a small country but it has far more to engage and effect.

Coming Soon ripped this from the walls of the internet and we’ve pasted it up on our little corner.

Arrow Films have released the official U.K. quad for Perfect Sense.

Directed by David Mackenzie (Hallam Foe), Perfect Sense stars Ewan McGregor (Beginners), Eva Green (Casino Royale), Connie Nielsen (One Hour Photo), Ewen Bremner (Black Hawk Down), Stephen Dillane (The Hours) and Denis Lawson (Local Hero).

A chef (McGregor) and a scientist (Green) fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Perfect Sense will open nationwide on October 7. Read our review from the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival here, where we called it “a beautifully intricate and personal piece of cinema”.

Poster removed at the request of the studio. We’ll replace when it comes out officially.

Essentially, Perfect Sense is a romantic love story set against an apocalyptic backdrop. It tells of how a chef, Michael (Ewan McGregor), and a scientist, Susan (Eva Green), fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions.

Kim Fupz Aakeson’s cunningly written screenplay imagines a world in which the inhabitants slowly lose their senses, one by one. The apocalypse is refreshingly personal and, to an extent, psychological. Whilst we are made aware – through cleverly placed and constructed newsreel-style footage – that the epidemic is happening globally, Perfect Sense chooses to focus on a handful of characters rather than the world at large. The most important of these are Michael and Susan, who are drawn together as their lives descend into chaos.

The storytelling style, though an enthralling rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows, is deliberately restrained, with Mackenzie cleverly approaching the material in a subdued, intimate and character-centric way – immediately setting Perfect Sense apart from other films of its nature. For the dark subject matter it’s also surprisingly optimistic: after each sensory loss, those affected look to find a way of coping by returning to some form of normality.

The film is also stunningly shot by Director of Photography Gilles Nuttgens, under the watchful eye of experienced filmmaker David Mackenzie. What’s truly breathtaking, though, is the way in which the editing superbly complements the separate stages of sensory loss – for the post-hearing scenes, for example, the sound is softened (if not muted entirely) to give viewers a real sense of what it would be like if this were to happen to them. It’s wonderfully achieved, and helps to include viewers in the characters’ struggle for survival.

Max Richter’s score adds to the mournful mood, building up tension and emotion when needed. The same, however, can’t be said for the narration which, after a while jars, and often detracts from the involvement in Michael and Susan’s story.

The cast works brilliantly together. McGregor and Green, in particular, play off each other’s emotions in a way that makes Michael and Susan’s unlikely relationship seem so believable and authentic. Their individual personalities, as well as their relationship with one another, evolve throughout the course of the film, almost as if they need one another’s love in order to cope with the death and destruction surrounding them. Connie Nielson, Ewen Bremner and Stephen Dillane make up the noteworthy supporting cast, delivering respectable performances in their subsequently diminished roles.

Perfect Sense – while not without faults – is a beautifully intricate and personal piece of cinema, bolstered by phenomenal direction, terrific performances and truly affecting, surprisingly original screenplay.

****~ (4/5)

Sigma Films, via MTV, have released the first official trailer for Perfect Sense.

Directed by David Mackenzie, Perfect Sense stars Eva Green, Ewan McGregor, Connie Nielson, Ewan Bremner, Stephen Dillane, Dennis Lawson and Alastair Mackenzie.

Perfect Sense will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival later this month.

The story of two people who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience
strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.

Watch the trailer below:

Moments after we posted the full synopsis and a brand new image for David MacKenzie’s forthcoming film, Perfect Sense, we are contacted by the excellent Sweet on Sigma Films who have just bagged the first look at the poster for the film.

Ewan McGregor and Eva Green lead the film, which is playing on the 24th of January at Sundance and will hopefully make its way to UK cinemas soon after. It’s an interesting premise and putting Green and McGregor together on screen should make MacKenzie’s film one to look out for in 2011.

Here’s the link the full synopsis and the images we posted earlier and the poster is below, and Sweet on Sigma Films have an impressive collection of articles on the film, tracking its progress through production when it was previously known as The Last Word, it’s well worth a look.

Premiering at Sundance on the 24th of January David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense has flown a little under our radar here, but the release of a new image and complete synopsis has changed all that.

Reuniting Trainspotting alum Ewan McGregor and Ewen Bremner, Perfect Sense also stars Eva Green, Stephen Dillane, Denis Lawson and Connie Nielsen, and until now only a few details had emerged about the film’s narrative.

A newly released synopsis gives us a greater indication of what to expect and it reminded me a little of what we know of Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia – that of a world suddenly changed without any power to change its new, presumably disastrous, fate.

Here’s the full synopsis,

The story of two people who begin to fall in love as the world begins to fall apart.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience
strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.

Here’s the new image, then a couple of previously published ones to complete the picture.

The Synopsis and new image came from BBC Films and the three other images came from Sweet on Sigma Films

Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Tom Wilkinson and Stephen Dillane in a cockney hard man dialogue driven love story set almost entirely in one room. Could you want any more from a movie? Some people definitely will and probably won’t like this film, but I adored what 44 Inch Chest offered and feel it’s going to be misunderstood when it’s being compared to Sexy Beast so much. The only similarity is Ray Winstone, Ian McShane and some swearing…..A lot of swearing.

The intriguingly titled 44 Inch Chest smashed me in the face from all  sides as the stunning cast took me on a dodgem car ride of emotions from start to finish that left me in complete awe of what I saw. From the writers of Sexy Beast, Louis Mellis & David Scinto, and debut director Malcolm Menville, I was thinking 44″ was going to be a London gangster film in same vain as Sexy beast but it was however a completely original film about male emotions, relationships and heartbroken love that had to deliver strong character performances to pull it off and it had the cast to do so.

The basic story is about Colin (Winstone) who finds out his wife Liz ( Joanne Whalley) is leaving him for another man and so being the close friends they are Colin’s cockney family pals, Peanut (Hurt), Meredith (McShane) Archie (Wilkinson ) and Mal (Stephen Dillane) kidnap the offending “Other man” known as Loverboy (Melville Poupaud) and take him to their run down hideaway in the East end and here the film focuses on Colin’s state of mind wanting to kill him but having to deal with his broken heart and broken mind at the same time while his pals raise the tension through verbal abuse directed at Loverboy at every possible moment as his time to live ticks away.

The film is nicely broken up from the intense tension and claustrophobia in this lone room as Colin requests his mates to leave the room to be alone with Loverboy and we follow the fantastic quick fire foul mouthed conversations between Peanut, Meredith, Archie and Mal passing the time with brilliant banter and stories that added much needed humour whilst in the next room Colin tries to come to terms with why Liz left him and wanting to kill Loverboy, it’s a brilliant interchange of situations and emotions.

It’s tense, it’s darkly funny and it’s in my opinion a great film to watch unfold. The performances from the guys are strong and genuine, Winstone shows some incredible moments as a broken man with a brilliant monologue expressing his feelings to Loverboy that is just mesmerizing. John Hurt was superb as the puritan old man Peanut who is an old school cockney. Tom Wilkinson was the anchor to the lads keeping some sort of order and was as always enjoyable to watch. Stephen Dillane was excellent as the short leashed terrier and Ian McShane was a calmly ominous homosexual that stole most of scenes with his bravado and hilarious quips, one of which featured an excellent cameo from Steven Berkoff. All of them added to a very believable, enjoyable and understated film.

Then of course there is the swearing, If you don’t like swearing then your not going to find much in the film you will like as 44 inch chest has more swear words than most films i’ve seen, put together! But for me the swearing works as it fits the characters and the situation as the swearing takes over from the lack of shown physical violence as the predominant form of attack on Loverboy and to each other at times that makes it more psychological in it’s assault. Maybe over used at times throughout the film the c*** word makes it shocking enough but definitely memorable as hearing John Hurt saying it with such vigor and realism after years of acting sophistication makes 44 Inch Chest a real unique and aquired taste.

Overall I loved it, I believe Winstone and co deserve so much praise for their performances for such a simple concept and almost stage play like feel that examined damaged masculinity and male friendships which never ventured away from that emotional side of the story as Colin struggles to understand what the hell happened in his marriage and also dealing with taking a persons life at the same time.

44 Inch Chest is out in cinemas on 15th January. Go see it!

Last week we showed you this new poster for Ray Winstone’s latest movie, ’44 Inch Chest’. Today, Momentum Pictures have given us the brand new trailer for the movie which is written by the same guys who did Sexy Beast,. Louis Mellis and David Scinto. You can tell straight away that the writing is going to be excellent from the opening 30 seconds of the trailer.

44 Inch Chest is directed by Malcolm Venville and has an amazing British cast which as well as Winstone includes Joanne Whalley, John Hurt, Ian McShane, Stephen Dillane and Melvil Poupaud. It’s scheduled for release 15th January and we’ll hopefully bring you a review early in the new year. Check out the synopsis and trailer below.

44 Inch Chest, a powerful and explosive drama of retribution and is the feature film debut of renowned photographer and commercial director Malcolm Venville.

Colin Diamond (RAY WINSTONE) is in agony, shattered by the bombshell of his wife’s (JOANNE WHALLEY) infidelity with a young French waiter. His motley crew of friends – Old Man Peanut (JOHN HURT), Meredith (IAN MCSHANE), Archie (TOM WILKINSON), and Mal (STEPHEN DILLANE) – kidnap Loverboy (MELVIL POUPAUD), and assemble a kangaroo court so that Colin can restore his manhood with revenge. A very bumpy night ensues for Loverboy whose life is at stake as Colin wrestles with heartbreak, anger, madness, love and gargantuan self-pity.

Here’s a new poster (click to enlarge) for Ray Winstone’s latest movie, 44 Inch Chest. This movie reunites Winstone with Ian McShane for the first time since Sexy Beast in 2000 which shocked me! I can’t believe that was nearly 10 years ago! 44 Inch Chest also stars Stephen Dillane, John Hurt, Joanne Whalley and Tom Wilkinson.

The poster debuted on Empire yesterday and here’s their plotline:

Empire: Winstone plays Colin Diamond, a cuckolded husband who hatches a plot with his mates to get revenge on his wife’s lover. As we all know, revenge is a dish best served cold, which might go some way to explaining why everyone on this poster looks like they’ve been shoved in a freezer for four hours.

44 Inch Chest is directed by Malcolm Venville and is out 22nd January.