Christopher Plummer is excellent as Mel, a TV director who gathers together a cast to film a pilot series called ‘Manhattan’. Each member of the cast has a secret or past of some kind: a druggie wife, an abusive husband, an ongoing blackmail, and more…

While all these parts are played very well, contrasting the (mostly) smooth performance of the filming with the horrors of their private lives, and the whole is nicely done, the story all seemed rather plastic and unreal. I suspect this was more to do with the plot of the book on which it was based than the film itself.

Not bad, I suppose, but I doubt if I’ll see this again. I’m glad it was just a freebie with a weekend newspaper.