I recently purchased this movie on DVD, hence my review. For those of you looking for it the DVD is available direct from the writer/director Barney Platts-Mills website www.platts-mills.com, price £13.
I was expecting great things from this film judging by the reviews already on IMDb and the critical reviews by professionals quoted from newspapers and magazines. And it is certainly a good film, but sadly not a great film in my opinion. Platts-Mills has an unusual style of script-writing/direction, perhaps comparable only to Mike Leigh (Abigail's Party, Nuts in May). This movie has a simple enough story, and stars the lovely Susan Penhaligon as Ann Halpern. She is the rather spoilt daughter of a wealthy stockbroker. She meets struggling author Peter Morrissey (Bruce Robinson) and their relationship develops. They go away to live together, initially in a remote cottage in Scotland, then subsequently in a London flat. He takes a job in London in an advertising agency as he can't get his books published. This movie centres around Ann and Peter's own relationship, their relationship with Ann's parents, and the relationships with their rather close circle of friends, one of whom is junkie.
All the characters are well-played in a semi-improvised style - it's just that, for me at least, the story doesn't really go anywhere. And some things I didn't like: far too many fluffed lines are left in the final cut in the interest of 'reality' and the sole use of the f*** word (by Ann) is dipped out from the soundtrack even though this DVD is distributed in the U.K with a 15 certificate.
We do at least get to see some classic British cars from the 1960s/70s in this film. Ann's father drives a Rover 3500 V8 and Peter drives a Triumph Herald convertible belonging to Ann (her father bought it for her but she doesn't have a full licence to drive!).
In summary: a good film but ultimately disappointing for me as I was expecting more.
