The best Tom Courtenay’s drama movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Tom Courtenay’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Tom Courtenay.
Doctor Zhivago
7.9/10
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.
The Aeronauts
6.6/10
In 1862, daredevil balloon pilot Amelia Wren teams up with pioneering meteorologist James Glaisher to advance human knowledge of the weather and fly higher than anyone in history. While breaking records and advancing scientific discovery, their voyage to the very edge of existence helps the unlikely pair find their place in the world they have left far below them. But they face physical and emotional challenges in the thin air, as the ascent becomes a fight for survival.
King of Thieves
5.5/10
London, England, April 2015. Brian Reader, a retired thief, gathers an unlikely gang of burglars to perpetrate the biggest and boldest heist in British history. The thieves assault the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company and escape with millions in goods and money. But soon the cracks between the gang members begin to appear when they discuss how to share the loot.
Summerland
7/10
A woman during the Second World War opens her heart to an evacuee after initially resolving to be rid of him.
Flood
4.8/10
Timely yet terrifying, The Flood predicts the unthinkable. When a raging storm coincides with high seas it unleashes a colossal tidal surge, which travels mercilessly down England's East Coast and into the Thames Estuary. Overwhelming the Barrier, torrents of water pour into the city. The lives of millions of Londoners are at stake.
45 Years
7.1/10
There is just one week until Kate Mercer's 45th wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.
Nicholas Nickleby
7.1/10
Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle.
Last Orders
6.9/10
Jack Dodd was a London butcher who enjoyed a pint with his mates for over 50 years. When he died, he died as he lived, with a smile on his face watching a horse race on which he had bet, with borrowed money. But before he died he had a final request, 'Last Orders', that his ashes be scattered in the sea at Margate. The movie follows his mates, Ray, Lenny and Vic and his foster son Vince as they journey to the sea with the ashes. Along the way, the threads of their lives, their loves and their disappointments are woven together in their memories of Jack and his wife Amy
King Rat
7.5/10
When Singapore surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, the Allied POWs, mostly British but including a few Americans, were incarcerated in Changi prison. Among the American prisoners is Cpl. King, a wheeler-dealer who has managed to establish a pretty good life for himself in the camp. King soon forms a friendship with an upper-class British officer who is fascinated with King's enthusiastic approach to life.
Quartet
6.8/10
The directorial debut of Dustin Hoffman, Quartet is a high-drama comedy about temperamental divas and old grudges, passion and pride, romance and Rigoletto. At a home for retired musicians, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and former wife of one of the residents. Expect poignancy and plenty of laughs.
Operation Crossbow
6.6/10
Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant.The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.
The Railway Children Return
5.5/10
Follow a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
7.3/10
Free-spirited writer Juliet Ashton forms a life-changing bond with the delightful and eccentric Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, when she decides to write about the book club they formed during the occupation of Guernsey in WWII.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
7.5/10
A rebellious youth sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as a prized athlete.
The Night of the Generals
7.2/10
An unusual World War II crime thriller about a Nazi investigation into the murder of a prostitute. Major Grau finds himself focusing on three suspects: the Generals Tanz, Kahlenberg and Seydlitz-Gabler – all three of whom, it seems, are also involved in a plot to kill Hitler
The Legend of Barney Thomson
6.2/10
Barney Thomson, awkward, diffident, Glasgow barber, lives a life of desperate mediocrity and his uninteresting life is about to go from 0 to 60 in five seconds, as he enters the grotesque and comically absurd world of the serial killer.
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye
6.6/10
Finds Indy vagabonding around the South Pacific on a treasure hunt for a fabled lost diamond. The war in Europe ends but a new adventure begins for Indy when a mysterious man's dying words, "The eye of the peacock!" send him and Remy on a thrilling treasure hunt for one of Alexander the Great's most prized possessions. Pursued by a dangeroud one-eyes man, Indy follows the trail of the diamond from London to Alexandria to the South Seas, where he has a run-in with a murderous band of Chinese pirates. The shipboard battle that ensues is a spectacular display of swords, guns and flying fists. Marooned by the priates on a remote desert island, Indy is captured by savage headhunters, but before they can turn him into a shrunken head and cannibal stew, he is rescued by anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, and makes a life-altering decision.
The Last Butterfly
7/10
Stage mime Antoine Moreau is compelled by the Gestapo to put on a performance for the children of Terezin, a "model" concentration camp, to convince the Red Cross observers that the camp is truly what it seems. Reluctant at first, Moreau slowly learns the true nature of the camp, including the meaning of the "transports" on which people leave. With a world-class orchestra (made up of people interned in the camp) and a cast of children, Moreau stages a show to end all shows.
Let Him Have It
7.2/10
In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.
Billy Liar
7.3/10
A young Englishman dreams of escaping from his working class family and dead-end job as an undertaker's assistant. A number of indiscretions cause him to lie in order to avoid the penalties. His life turns into a mess and he has an opportunity to run away and leave it all behind.
