With multiple films in production, the leading man is busier than ever. Yet, he tells Esquire, he still finds time to talk to the plants at his Malibu home

Opera: Dead Man Walking Coliseum, London WC2 (020-7845 ...

Robert Hutton on Cinema SAM TAYLOR/NATIONAL THEATRE ● ...

Robert Thicknesse on Opera ● ON THE FACE ...

Alexander Larman on Theatre ● TO KICK OFF ...

ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,