An astonishingly wise/sweet funny movie to find among the endless variations on ignorantly cool/cruel now dominantly littering both the commercial & critical marketplaces. Like tripping over a ripe melon while traversing a lunar (or polar) landscape? Vastly sager on mean cop mentality than the arrested punk norm. Reminds us that permitting character growth can succeed, that connecting with our own cultural history may yield more than trying too hard to invent something dazzlingly new, that love need not be misrepresented as an obvious death force, that blind stupid loyalty has its up/down aspects. Beyond that, Lisa Stansfield CAN sing, is an honest-to-goodness white soul/swing diva, even better than Dusty Springfield in Dusty's prime. She can also act, express exasperation/pleasure calmly, appears to find/release a voice as she goes, which is true, fair/accurate, how it happens.
The sensibility behind the effort is not completely different from the sensibility driving the cinema vogue, but everything, instead of little or nothing, is ventured/risked/revealed. Brit street lingo is employed as properly/liberally as in "Trainspotting", but leads elsewhere. Lisa plays a strictly decent, if shaggable, wench. Warmly erotic with her shirt on? It's hers, but Hugo Speer does just fine & every performance is at least adequate. All of the players had genuine fun playing? One feels so, smiles. The leader of the Irish Orange horn section earns a special mention for perfect ref/riff/bow to what was beautiful in "The Blues Brothers". BUY the video or DVD, & BUY a CD or three too. Earns its title. Has IT, whatever IT is. Plenty smart but also deeply generous/charming.
The sensibility behind the effort is not completely different from the sensibility driving the cinema vogue, but everything, instead of little or nothing, is ventured/risked/revealed. Brit street lingo is employed as properly/liberally as in "Trainspotting", but leads elsewhere. Lisa plays a strictly decent, if shaggable, wench. Warmly erotic with her shirt on? It's hers, but Hugo Speer does just fine & every performance is at least adequate. All of the players had genuine fun playing? One feels so, smiles. The leader of the Irish Orange horn section earns a special mention for perfect ref/riff/bow to what was beautiful in "The Blues Brothers". BUY the video or DVD, & BUY a CD or three too. Earns its title. Has IT, whatever IT is. Plenty smart but also deeply generous/charming.