Themes: Down on Their Luck, Love Triangles, Age Disparity Romance
Main Cast: Pete Postlethwaite, Alan Williams, Emma Cunniffe, Rachel Griffiths, Steve Huison, James Thornton, Sharon Bower, Lennie James, Andy Serkis, David Webber
Release Year: 1998
Country: UK
Run Time: 90 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Simon Beaufoy, of The Full Monty, scripted this British romantic comedy-drama. Like The Full Monty, this is also set among the working class of Sheffield, England. With his pal Steve (James Thornton) and others, Ray (Pete Postlethwaite) paints electrical pylons across the Yorkshire countryside, and that work separates him from his wife. When young Australian hitchhiker Gerry (Rachel Griffiths) wants to join the paint crew, Ray signs her up. Despite the age gap, it's not long before they're a twosome. Gerry moves in with Ray, and at one point, they both run about nude in an abandoned nuclear power plant. When Gerry decides to seduce Steve, triangular tensions escalate. The BBC's Sam Miller made his feature directorial debut with this film, shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
Simon Beaufoy's screenplay and the direction of This Life veteran Sam Miller give this class-conscious British comic drama an unselfconsciousness that's miles away from both the grim nihilism of, say, Mike Leigh's Naked and the escapist, working-man's triumph of Beaufoy's own The Full Monty script. Set in an almost archetypal landscape of endless moors and impossibly tall electrical towers, the film finds its painter protagonists seeking emotional freedom as vast as the spaces in which they work. Rachel Griffiths uses her lyrical face and quiet intensity to power a typically unmannered performance, while Pete Postlethwaite wrenches all sorts of contradictions from his tight-lipped but almost cartoonish countenance. The romantic-triangle elements of the plot may seem conventional, but it's the story of the work itself that stays with you. The quiet pride of Postlethwaite's foreman character as he balances his workers' safety with their need to get the black-market job done quickly sets the stage for a working-class conflict that's prosaic but rarely portrayed. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
