Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter cover art

Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter Reviews

2005

Rated:
60
from 1832 members

Gideon Warner is a hugely successful public relations consultant. He gives his professional advice about hair, clothes and social activities to the wealthy, to politicians, to businessmen and rising starlets. But despite his success he has become disheartened about the business circles he mixes in and more concerned over his family. Read more

Starring	Bill Nighy, Miranda Richardson, Robert Lindsay, Emily Blunt
Director	Stephen Poliakoff
Genres	Drama

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Most helpful members' reviews (3) of Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter
View all
41 out of 41 people found this review helpful

Disc One is all you need

Please don't bother ordering disc 2. It is a 30 minute hagiography of Poliakoff that woul have made him blush. Just stick with watching the actual 'Gideon's Daughter'. This is excellent, incisive and moving.
- - A customer from Shropshire, England
  - Posted 28 Mar 2006 12:42
16 out of 17 people found this review helpful

Mesmerising and beautiful drama

Not always easy watching for the parents among us, but mesmerising at the same time, this brilliant drama explores the fears and anguish that can come with parenthood.

It cleverly positions these scenes against a backdrop of Britain in the late 1990s where Ministers and millionaire businessmen rely on the advice of PR advisors like a newborn baby relies on its carers for food.

Seeing Miranda Richardson and Bill Nighy topping the cast list usually means you can relax and know you are in safe hands. And this talented duo did not let us down with searing performances.

Miranda plays a woman struggling to deal with the tragic death of her young son in a road accident. She's found her own coping strategies to deal with the 'if only' thoughts that haunt her.

Then she meets Gideon, played by Bill Nighy, the PR guru that everyone comes to for advice. Outwardly calm he is tortured by fears for the safety of his beautiful, wilful, teenage daughter as she leaves the safety of school for the world outside.

And it's a world Gideon knows is full of dangers which emerge hourly in the news bulletins - including one huge news story that breaks on a Sunday morning concerning the death of another beautiful woman as her car is pursued by Paparazzi through the Paris streets..........

Spend a couple of hours with this thought-provoking and beautiful drama and it will be time well spent.
- - A customer from Burton-on-Trent, England
  - Posted 28 Feb 2006 09:14
14 out of 14 people found this review helpful

Bonus Disk

Just to let folk know, this is a bonus disc.

Disc 1 is the full film, and it is not split over 2 parts.
- - A customer from London
  - Posted 07 Jun 2006 13:03
Most recent members' reviews (2) of Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter
View all
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

Good tv drama, better than expected

It started off a bit slow and I was starting to wonder if I'd bother watching it all but I persevered and it was actually pretty good. Don't bother with Disc 2 as the drama is all on Disc 1 so I was disappointed when the second one arrived and it wasn;t worth watching
- - A customer from Andover , England
  - Posted 12 Apr 2006 22:59
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

Not a film

This is just a documentary about the making of Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter. What a waste of an evening
- - Bianca C from hants UK
  - Posted 07 Jun 2006 21:15

41 out of 41 people found this review helpful

Disc One is all you need

Please don't bother ordering disc 2. It is a 30 minute hagiography of Poliakoff that woul have made him blush. Just stick with watching the actual 'Gideon's Daughter'. This is excellent, incisive and moving.
- - A customer from Shropshire, England
  - Posted 28 Mar 2006 12:42
16 out of 17 people found this review helpful

Mesmerising and beautiful drama

Not always easy watching for the parents among us, but mesmerising at the same time, this brilliant drama explores the fears and anguish that can come with parenthood.

It cleverly positions these scenes against a backdrop of Britain in the late 1990s where Ministers and millionaire businessmen rely on the advice of PR advisors like a newborn baby relies on its carers for food.

Seeing Miranda Richardson and Bill Nighy topping the cast list usually means you can relax and know you are in safe hands. And this talented duo did not let us down with searing performances.

Miranda plays a woman struggling to deal with the tragic death of her young son in a road accident. She's found her own coping strategies to deal with the 'if only' thoughts that haunt her.

Then she meets Gideon, played by Bill Nighy, the PR guru that everyone comes to for advice. Outwardly calm he is tortured by fears for the safety of his beautiful, wilful, teenage daughter as she leaves the safety of school for the world outside.

And it's a world Gideon knows is full of dangers which emerge hourly in the news bulletins - including one huge news story that breaks on a Sunday morning concerning the death of another beautiful woman as her car is pursued by Paparazzi through the Paris streets..........

Spend a couple of hours with this thought-provoking and beautiful drama and it will be time well spent.
- - A customer from Burton-on-Trent, England
  - Posted 28 Feb 2006 09:14
14 out of 14 people found this review helpful

Bonus Disk

Just to let folk know, this is a bonus disc.

Disc 1 is the full film, and it is not split over 2 parts.
- - A customer from London
  - Posted 07 Jun 2006 13:03
9 out of 9 people found this review helpful

Poliakoff classic

If like myself you feel indifferent for Poliakoff's work then just choosing whether to watch this or not will be a toss-up. I was not convinced after seeing the trailers on TV and would have avoided it if there had been anything worth watching on t'other side. I am so glad I watched it. It really was beautifully written and was quite simply easy watching.

Poliakoff is clever, in all of his plays, at capturing human emotion and this is no exception. I do like Bill Nighy but his acting is quite one dimensional. This part though was perfect for him and he is extremely likeable in his character. Richardson is always good.

Gideon's Daughter is a film about celebrity and grief. Nighy plays a PR guru in the nineties who loses his wife and tries to cope with his daughter who hates him because of his philandering. Nighy's character lives in a world of grief and worry for his daughter and his concerns about her leaving home or dying. His already strained relationship with his daughter is not made easier when she decides to drop a bombshell regarding her future plans. Richardson plays a woman whose son is killed in a road accident, the incident breaks up her marriage and she withdraws into her own world to try to come to terms with her grief. Their meeting is the catalyst for understanding, hope and recovery.

Splendid stuff. I was moved.
- - Merlin from London
  - Posted 28 Feb 2006 13:41
7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

Not a film

This is just a documentary about the making of Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter. What a waste of an evening
- - Bianca C from hants UK
  - Posted 07 Jun 2006 21:15
6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

Good tv drama, better than expected

It started off a bit slow and I was starting to wonder if I'd bother watching it all but I persevered and it was actually pretty good. Don't bother with Disc 2 as the drama is all on Disc 1 so I was disappointed when the second one arrived and it wasn;t worth watching
- - A customer from Andover , England
  - Posted 12 Apr 2006 22:59
nice watching

i sat back & enjoyed this film
- - A customer from lincoln
  - Posted 07 Apr 2006 15:23
Excellent

Thought provoking. All the film is on the 1st disc. The 2nd is a resume of Poliakoff's life & works - interesting, but not Gideaon's Daughter.
- - A customer from Bristol, England
  - Posted 08 May 2006 09:39
Excellent

Thought provoking film - very good. Don't bother getting disc 2 - all the film is on Disc 1. Disc 2 is a resume of Poliakoff's work, which is interesting, but not the film.
- - A customer from Bristol, England
  - Posted 08 May 2006 09:47
Pretentious?

I read a review of this in a national daily that criticised this film for the way in which it slotted currect affairs and politics neatly into little boxes, isolating events from the world at large. But isn't this the point at work here? Poliakoff is surely highlighting the ridiculousness of doing this very thing in showing us Gideon's downfall, having spent his career turning catastrophes into PR gold. I for one was gripped: the acting was immaculate, as was the direction and photography. Gideon's feeling of being inside the eye of the hurricane is intoned perfectly through the carefully metred pace, colours and the perspective from shots of television screens to bedrooms to open fields matching his internal progress into reality.
- - Sophie Millward from Marlow, England
  - Posted 24 May 2006 17:55