Utterly dire, the worst type of contemporary British film - was this Lottery-funded, I wonder? Allegedly a comedy drama it is neither funny nor dramatic - the sort of piece they used to call 'heart-warming' for want of anything else positive to say.
Dillane is catastrophically miscast - about as Greek as an Asda moussaka. Not the most inspiring screen actor at the best of times, for the first half he stands around looking stunned-to-blankly moody, saying little and little apparently going on inside either. But that's better than when he does finally start saying something - so bland he seems to have suffered a stroke. The script, the direction, the editing unutterably clichéd, unimaginative, predictable and SLOOOOOW - and I *love* slow when the slowness lets you watch interesting things going on. No such luck here.
The most unbelievable brothers since Schwarzenegger and DeVito in 1988 - but this time it's not meant to be a joke. And finally the traditional British film failing: some really embarrassing supporting turns which should have been ruthlessly excised - the guy playing Lars, the Scandinavian money man, gets my award for the worst foreign accent of the decade...nearer German, if anything, but like one in a bad war film of the 1950s. The only Greekness I detected anywhere was in the music, but even that relentlessly trying to tell us what we should be feeling and when (the script and action having failed to do so) - sad, hopeful, joyful, sad again (and again and again)...and finally triumphant and (you've guessed it) heart-warming.
At one point a character (Dillane? I forget) says, "This doesn't feel right" - the most truthful line in the movie, I'm afraid.
Dillane is catastrophically miscast - about as Greek as an Asda moussaka. Not the most inspiring screen actor at the best of times, for the first half he stands around looking stunned-to-blankly moody, saying little and little apparently going on inside either. But that's better than when he does finally start saying something - so bland he seems to have suffered a stroke. The script, the direction, the editing unutterably clichéd, unimaginative, predictable and SLOOOOOW - and I *love* slow when the slowness lets you watch interesting things going on. No such luck here.
The most unbelievable brothers since Schwarzenegger and DeVito in 1988 - but this time it's not meant to be a joke. And finally the traditional British film failing: some really embarrassing supporting turns which should have been ruthlessly excised - the guy playing Lars, the Scandinavian money man, gets my award for the worst foreign accent of the decade...nearer German, if anything, but like one in a bad war film of the 1950s. The only Greekness I detected anywhere was in the music, but even that relentlessly trying to tell us what we should be feeling and when (the script and action having failed to do so) - sad, hopeful, joyful, sad again (and again and again)...and finally triumphant and (you've guessed it) heart-warming.
At one point a character (Dillane? I forget) says, "This doesn't feel right" - the most truthful line in the movie, I'm afraid.