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Last day of the fest, which is always a bittersweet day. (I'm exhausted, but sad to see it end for another year.)

Title: The Libertine
Director: Laurence Dunmore
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Recommended
Johnny Depp plays the Earl of Rochester, a famous wit and rake in the court of Charles II. The Earl had a real talent for writing, but chose to spend his energies more on drinking, whoring, and using his cutting wit on friends and enemies alike. The Libertine presents a fascinating, grotty and muddy view of Restoration England and neither the director nor his star flinch from presenting the unsavory aspects of the Earl.

Title: Ladies in Lavender
Director: Charles Dance
Country: U.K.
P's Rating: Okay
I picked this film mostly on the strength of the cast, and that's where its chief pleasures reside. Just before the outbreak of WW II, two spinster sisters (Judi Dench & Maggie Smith) find a young man (Daniel Bruhl of Goodbye Lenin!) washed up on the beach of their Cornwall home. While the two sisters become infatuated with their charge, he becomes involved with a young Russian painter staying in the village. There aren't any real surprises, but the film also doesn't proceed in quite the way that you expect, and in the end it's a pleasant entertainment.

Title: Steamboy
Director: Katsuhiro Otomo
Country: Japan
P's Rating: Recommended
Steam punk done in Japanese anime. Ray Steam is a youngster working in a Manchester factory of the 1860s while his father and grandfather are in the employ of a mysterious foundation in America. When his grandfather re-appears, chased by agents of the foundation, Ray is thrown into the middle of a race to keep a new steam technology out of the hands of the wrong people. Steamboy is a gorgeously designed cautionary tale about both the dangers and wonders of technological progress.

Title: Saw
Director: James Wan
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Not-so-good
I was dubious about this film, but going to the final midnight screening is a long-standing tradition amongst my festival pals, so I figured what the heck. I'm not sorry I went (the final midnight is a trip unto itself) but the film wasn't good. It opens as two men find themselves shackled to opposite sides of a grotty abandoned bathroom with a dead body in between them. Turns out they've been abducted by a serial killer known as Jigsaw, who gives people a chance to escape from his traps if they're willing to be extreme enough. A potentially nifty concept, but the plot revelations all seem more than a bit naff and for me there were no big scares. The acting doesn't help either. Both the name stars, Cary Elwes and Danny Glover, are pretty atrocious, though the co-screenwriter, Leigh Whannell, is not bad as one of the victims.