Third Star

"Third Star" was released in 2010 and, had it been a bigger film, would have won Benedict Cumberbatch an Oscar. Stardom for him was inevitable, however, as shortly afterward, he shot to stardom as "Sherlock" in the PBS series. Now he's everywhere. And he deserves to be.

Made on a small budget and directed by Hattie Dalton, "Third Star" is about James, a 29-year-old (Cumberbatch) dying of rhabdomyosarcoma, a horrible cancer that attacks the muscles. He has very little time left and is dependent upon painkillers. He wants to go to his favorite place, Barafundle Bay in West Wales. So his three best friends Davy, Miles, and Bill (Tom Burke, J.J. Field, and Adam Robertson) take him, even though it's not a good idea. James is weak and has trouble walking due to the disease in one of his legs. The guys push him in a cart that also contains their luggage for the trip.

En route, we learn about them. Davy has been taking care of James since he became ill; Miles is a writer turned businessman, whose father was a successful novelist. Miles, once a very close friend of James', hasn't been in touch for a while, and we learn that he's written a book he hasn't shown anyone. Bill is living with a woman who is not the love of his life, but he can't seem to break up with her.

These guys fight, have outbursts of anger, tell each other off, laugh, and joke, each dealing with James' illness in his own way. And James deals with life and impending death in his own way. "I don't want to die. I want more time," he says, and tells his friends off for being "safe." "Life isn't about the hand you're dealt, but the hand you feel safe playing." Some tough confessions emerge. ("Your illness disgusts me.") but eventually James asks them for a final favor.

"Third Star" is beautifully acted, but the first 45 minutes or so are slow and a disorganized, if that's the right world -- by disorganized, I mean there's a lot of the guys fooling around and trading barbs, and it becomes a bit much.

Cumberbatch gives a breathtaking, heartfelt, devastating performance, but everyone is excellent. The very handsome J.J. Fields is a standout as well -- his role is a little larger than that of the other two friends, and there's an excellent cameo by Hugh Bonneville.

Stick with it, and you'll be inspired and uplifted. Caution: You'll want a large box of tissues nearby.

Third Star could almost be described as viewer reverse-engineered. Once you've seen the ending, it's fairly easy not only to justify the tedium of the rest of the film but to see meaning and relevance in material that almost sent you despairing to the nearest emergency exit. Several people even walked out in the press screening I attended, which is unusual. If I had just gone out for a nice evening's entertainment, I'm sure I would have headed off or even used my seat to grab a quick nap. I'm relating this in case you find yourself in a similar dilemma: if you do, my message is, DON'T LEAVE BEFORE THE END.

Four 30-something male friends set off for a remote area of Wales. One of them, James, is seriously ill with cancer. His mates are taking him for a holiday send-off in his favourite part of the world. External events soon make it plain they have bitten off more than they can chew. They have to surmount their insecurities to come clean and build a deeper level of trust based on total honesty. But that is only the start . . .

This is a film dedicated to the iPod generation. The society of urbanites who are more concerned with whether their iPhone will sync across several platforms than matters of life and death or even whether relationships need to be ideal when most people can, after all, "just settle for something that will do" and so let them get on with the day-to-day business of 'life.' Perhaps some people can relate better than I can to the bulk of this movie (some people did chuckle at the occasional humour). I love the beautiful opening, with the air blowing through the grass, the seawater, the fire of birthday candles flaming and then being extinguished. From thereon it seemed all horribly downhill until the end scenes – which, in total contrast, practically induce a state of shock.

Characters are routinely introduced, their backstories rather artificially introduced into the dialogue. They go off on their rather boring adventure, have boring little interludes such as a village fete turning into a brawl, and a meeting with a daft beachcomber searching for washed-up Daath Vader memorabilia. Of his parents, James says, "Sickness may be mine but the tragedy is theirs." And mine too, I think, for sitting through this stuff. Hair-pulling inanities abound in the trivial conversation. How can intelligent men mouth off such superficial rubbish? I allow myself to be distracted by the nice (if totally unoriginal) sunset photography. Halfway through, as a further treat for sitting there that long, I let my mind dwell on the most fascinating thing so far, a ferry price list that says, "Ferry £3. Return £6.50." This occupies me long enough to get through the next round of male hissy fits as they argue over individually failing lives. Another bit of pleasantly contrived photography comes up as they get to their destination – dancing and splashing in the sea, sunlight reflecting and sparkling (whoopee) classically off the water. Sound and vision is generally faultless, I should mention, and there's some good incidental music. What a waste (or so I thought).

Then the plotwinder kicks in with a vengeance. Dilemmas presented with frighteningly diminishing time-scales. Third Star is here fulfilling a major practical use of narrative art: making us ask, what would I do in such a situation? Any preliminary conclusions are rapidly challenged, as events shift the goal posts. Superficiality in the long lead-up becomes both a necessary factor for the denouement catching us off-guard; as well as providing commentary on how we push important questions aside for another day that (we think) never comes.

Third Star was shot in Wales on a budget of £450,000 using Super 16. Talented director Hattie Dalton and deviously clever scriptwriter Vaughan Sivell have, by accident or design, done annoyingly well. If you find yourself in a cinema watching their film, I advise you to either enjoy it or sit through it until the end. DON'T give up. Like James, 'feel the fight' in yourself one last time. You know it'll be worth it.

I am reminded of another excellent movie from a totally different genre that succeeded in misleading audiences just as as well as this one. Horror fans will recall Audition, an apparently laid-back, low-budget Asian effort. It lulled me into a sense of being able to handle with one eye shut anything such patently 'struggling filmmakers' might come up with. Only to revise my opinions with large helpings of humble pie that stuck firmly in my throat. I can't quite put Third Star in that category, but it is a damn clever movie. Even the less-than-shattering revelations mid-film, retrospectively become like the car backfiring in a noir movie (heralding a gun going off) or a door slamming in a slasher movie (heralding a bigger fright to come). But Third Star's issues are not from other-worldy fiction: they are a commentary on how we live, and how we routinely refuse to communicate on deep levels until almost too late.

Not so long ago I saw another British children's movie called 'Ways to live forever', what I was gonna say is this movie was kinda same but belongs to adult men. I have read somewhere online that a British newspaper quoted about it 'Facing death like men: with beer, jokes and a holiday', yes it was the movie will give you joyful time you spend for it simultaneously will break the heart. A true friendship movie which had an adventurous quest, the characters reveal their true nature while they all different from each other but one gang. When they came to know each other what happen between their long term relationship is lay on the question mark.

The story follows when four friends take a camping trip to a coastal region called Barafundle Bay. While the journey bit by bit everything starts to reveal behind their trip which includes love, friendship and sometime pain. What comes at the twilight of the story was the emotional tale. The places where the movie takes were breathtaking and stunningly captured on camera.

The screenplay was well written, the movie kick starts slowly without much development to what's going on, then constantly picks up the pace towards its destined. Phase by phase it often delivers some laughing out loud comedies to not to fall on boredom side.

Couple of mysterious characters enters into the story, one was a winged boy like an angel and another one was a man on his quest to expose what he heard from someone who lost it. These two makes temptation on quick turn and twist to the story which was already in constant flow. It all brings the surreal to keep things moving and make audience to keep guessing on what's coming next. Believe me you don't wanna miss this movie, I know it was not a masterpiece but a pleasant surprising tale about four guys.

Great film, powerful and moving. It ranges somewhere between "A Single Man" and "Tree of Life" and definitely belongs into the "Arthouse"-section. If you enjoy slow-paced, poetic storytelling and are not opposed to the odd figurative metaphor this is definitely a good tip.

Anyway, at first I was frustrated because I didn't understand a lot of the dialogue. But the subtitles distracted me from the scenes and so I turned them off. I only realized about half-way through the film that it was really quite unimportant what they were talking about. It was the mood that counted, the emotions and the dynamics between the characters. To me, their emotional journey was beautifully illustrated and underlined by the gradual loss of their luggage - their worldly possessions, so to say - and artificial means of help, leaving them literally on their own with barely anything besides their naked emotions in the end, and here only the stuff that really mattered. I think one can safely say that the film truly "boils down" to its ending. Here I have to say that ALL actors were brilliant. The breathtaking Benedict Cumberbatch might have had the leading role and the most screen time in total but EVERYBODY did a fantastic job at showing the conflicting emotions that occur in this kind of situation. I also thought that everything was pretty realistic, thanks to a fabulous script. The anger, being envious of the people around you for the time they still have, the regret and bitterness but also the peace and the feeling of security that comes with knowing your destination are all feelings that one can relate to.

Besides, the film was beautifully shot and edited. The quiet pictures of the sea or of birds wheeling overhead alternating with the scenes of emotional tension, the soundtrack... it all fitted together perfectly. Anyway, prepare a big box of tissues if you plan to sit through this one. BC's performance will break your heart.

I am not at the point this film displays, but I am 21 and face a tumour almost touching my brain. I'm nowhere near suicide tho so no worries there. This film felt obnoxiously real tho. I watched this because of Cumberpatch's performance as Holmes. An incredibly gripping film, I hated watching, until I watched the end. All actors played their role to perfection. The realities of facing the challenges that come up in life are so well portrayed. Messy situations lead to making a decision based on what we think is right now. All this leads up to the modern collapse of all morality. No one knows what is right and what is wrong anymore. Everything is right. Nothing is wrong.