Suburbanite

I saw this on TV back when London-area ITV would show random oddities like this late at night. In the many years since then I have occasionally come across people who have also seen it, but unsurprisingly not many. The title character prides himself on having eaten everything there is to eat in the world, and becomes gloomy when he thinks there is now nothing else to try - until an acquaintance convinces him to eat something NOT of this world.

For such a short film that I only saw once it has stuck in my mind so it must have had something going for it. I felt there was a general message of how we can always remain unsatisfied if we keep trying to push our boundaries.

By the way, something else that stuck in my mind - the IMDb entry lists Charles Gray's character as 'The Gourmet'. But the character does have a name, one of my favourite character names in fact - Manley Kingston. Somehow, that really does sound like a gourmet.

First, a warning: if you want to see this series do NOT read the earlier review entitled 'Middle-Class Angst' as its author has thoughtlessly related the entire story including all the concluding revelatory plot details and leaves you with nothing else to find out.

My comments are based on the memory of how this series struck me at the time. I haven't seen it since a repeat showing in 1983 so I'm writing this 30 years since my last viewing! The story hinges on May's marriage to a stuffy Colonel despised by her grown-up children Oliver and Elizabeth from her previous marriage. They all flee the big, cold, gloomy house he's pressured her into buying, including the Colonel's own daughter, the cripplingly shy Alice - palmed off into her own dull suburban marriage.

We then see 4 developing stories - May and the Colonel whose behaviour becomes more unsettling, Alice in her unwanted marriage, dilettante Oliver trying to find some purpose while lusting after aloof unattainable rich kid Ginny, and Elizabeth whose domestic cookery services lead her into an unexpected relationship. The idea of the series title, of things hidden, is threaded through all these stories very nicely. Through the 30-year haze I recall good performances, a compelling set of story lines, and emotional penultimate scenes. I also recall surprise that the older sister in children's comedy drama Kids From 47A had blossomed into the stunning Christine McKenna, playing insufferable trust-fund child Ginny.

I wonder what happened to David Gwylim, who played Oliver. The Gwylims were an acting family if I recall correctly. Oliver's some-time girlfriend Sukie was played by Diane Bull, who sadly died in the late 1990s at the too-young age of 46.

I'd love to see this show again. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it, as not having seen it for 3 decades it might look rubbish now. Elizabeth Jane Howard's original novel is well worth a read though. But stay away from that other review!

I enjoyed this very much and find many of the deeply negative comments here are really exaggerated. I concede there are problems with this film and yes it's pitted with plot holes, some of which irritated me, but it generally overrode these with tension, great visuals and some very good acting.

There isn't anything I can say to add to a description of the plot, pretty much everyone knows what it's about. Spielberg has opted to show everything completely from the main character's point of view and this technique works very well. And it means that some of the usual sci-fi invasion film clichés are mercifully absent, such as the gruff military commanders, stubborn government officials and argumentative scientists, simply because Ray is the focus of the story and he just doesn't encounter any of these people on his travels (though there is a minimal army presence a couple of times).

It also means that we don't get to see too much of the invaders, certainly as far as the machines they travel around in are concerned, as Ray spends most of his time running away from them. Consequently they are not over-used in the action, which makes them very effective. I found them quite unnerving, and the horrible low trumpeting noise they make really stuck in my mind. In fact, the sound effects generally are one of the film's strong points. In one of the scenes where Ray is hiding in a basement we hear them making repetitive mechanical noises but as he (and therefore we) can't see them, we have no idea what they're doing. Comparing this to other alien-invasion films, these alien machines are possibly the most scary and unsettling invaders I've seen. The creatures themselves, I agree with others, aren't so great and should have been kept partially seen at most.

The direction is as slick and skillful as you'd expect and uses a lot of upward shots to give a dizzying perspective of how immense the alien tripods are. The emergence of the first tripod is a terrific scene and very memorable, and Cruise's reactions good to watch. The overall feel of the film is one of unremitting bleakness, even before the invasion begins, save for a smidgen of schmaltz at the end. Disregard any remarks about "post-9/11 references" - yes we briefly see a wall of photos of the missing, but before 9/11 there were films about invasion threats and cities being destroyed, and there will continue to be - it doesn't necessarily have any significance.