Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter on DVD (2005)

A customer from Shropshire, England , 28/03/2006

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.

  18 out of 18 people found this review helpful

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A customer from London , 07/06/2006

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

Disc 1 is the full film, and it is not split over 2 parts.

  10 out of 10 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Burton-on-Trent, England , 28/02/2006

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.

  10 out of 11 people found this review helpful

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Merlin from London , 28/02/2006

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.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful

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Bianca C from hants UK , 07/06/2006

This is just a documentary about the making of Stephen Poliakoff's Gideon's Daughter. What a waste of an evening

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Andover , England , 12/04/2006

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

  3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

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