Cemetery Junction (2010)

Cemetery Junction is a movie starring Christian Cooke, Felicity Jones, and Tom Hughes. A 1970s-set comedy centered on three young working class friends in a dreary suburb of Reading.

Directors:

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

Writers:

Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant

Stars:

Christian Cooke, Felicity Jones, Tom Hughes

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Hughes	...	Bruce Pearson
Ricky Gervais	...	Mr. Taylor
Christian Cooke	...	Freddie Taylor
Ralph Fiennes	...	Mr Kendrick
Matthew Goode	...	Mike Ramsay
Jack Doolan	...	Snork
Steve Speirs	...	Sgt. Wyn Davies
Jessica Jones	...	Girl in Street
Madeleine Dunbar	...	Wife in Bar
Andrew Brooke	...	Husband in Bar
Burn Gorman	...	PC Renwick
Anne Reid	...	Freddie's Gran
Julia Davis	...	Mrs Taylor
Albert Welling	...	Mr. Waring
Katy Murphy	...	Mrs Waring

Storyline

It's 1973 in Cemetery Junction, a Reading suburb. Three working class lads, best friends, are coming of age. Freddie wants to rise above his station, taking a job selling life insurance, wearing a suit and tie. Snork works at the railway station and wants a girlfriend some day. Bruce talks of leaving but seems on track to work at a factory, drink and fight, and become like his dad, in front of the telly with beer on hand; and he's trying the patience of the police officer who gets him out of jams. Freddie's job leads the lads toward a few small changes. He runs across a childhood friend, Julie, his boss's daughter who's engaged to the firm's top seller. Can the lads break out?

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Plot Keywords:

railway station | police officer | coming of age | fight | jail | 

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Taglines:

Be Young. Be Free. Be Somebody.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexual material

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 April 2010 (UK)

Also Known As:

The Men at the Pru

Filming Locations:

Taylor's Bellfoundry, Freehold Street, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, UK

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£641,218 (United Kingdom), 18 April 2010, Limited Release

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures, Sony International Motion Picture Production Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Three years after making this movie, in which they play father and daughter, Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones played lovers in The Invisible Woman. In a 2013 interview with Jones and Fiennes on NPR, Jones said that it was "weird" and "very Freudian" to go from playing one relationship to the other, but Fiennes disagreed, saying "It's just a job. Come on."

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Goofs

During the live band scene a powered speaker appears on stage (then disappears). It's a Mackie SRM450. These weren't invented until the 1990s.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mr Kendrick: Frederick Taylor. Freddie Taylor. Welcome to Vigilant Life Assurance. I see you grew up in Cemetery Junction. Went to Stone Meade, the worst school in the south of England.

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Connections

References Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

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Soundtracks

Five Variants Of Dives And Lazarus
Written by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Performed by the Bournemouth Sinfonietta
Conducted by Richard Studt

User Reviews

What are these two up to?

Loved this film. It really took me back. They don't quite nail the period, but you can tell when Fiennes is talking about his schooldays at the start, about leaving at 14, that they're blurring things a bit, or at least his character doesn't realize how things have changed... The preoccupation with obscenity, for example, is more 60s than 70s. (They work the idea so much of the Swinging 60s passing Cemetery Junction by that it's almost homage to Tom Courtenay and Rita Tushingham and that crowd!) It's England before punk, before the computer revolution, when the establishment thought they had won the argument that there was no cause left worth rebelling for/against, when there was still a workshop rather than silicon chip flavor to working life.

You can criticize the Hollywood stuff if you like, but Gervais and Merchant like to work where they can at different levels, as long as they get to take the mick out of all of them. I didn't hear the old radio shows much, but enough to know that. This is no exception. Not a strong plot. You have seen it lots of times before. Billy Liar is a better variation. But great dialog, great comic acting , beautifully observed, very funny, fantastic soundtrack. The only time I have ever liked the Osmonds' Crazy Horses. Great entertainment. You'd need to be really hard to please to be disappointed on that score. Personally I'd have liked a bit more sync with the Reading Festival, maybe some Rory Gallagher on the soundtrack, but bluesy Zeppelin will do, I'm not complaining. I'll take 2 stars off, though.

You still have to read between the lines to see the influence Ireland is starting to have. Made me wonder if they were starting to chicken out a bit from the path they've established, but we'll see, and I think there is something there. In the meantime, if you fancy a really funny film set in Belfast (different decade, 73 in Belfast was hell) there's always "An Everlasting Piece". But Cemetery Junction is not as petty and insignificant as some of the reviewers suggest. What exactly were they expecting? "Jane Eyre"? "War and Peace"?