Main Cast: James Nesbitt, Olivia Williams, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy, Lennie James
Release Year: 2001
Country: UK
Run Time: 107 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
The first feature by director Peter Cattaneo since his award-winning British smash hit The Full Monty, Lucky Break is another comedy in the same mold, this time taking place in prison. Small-time crooks Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James), after years of no success, decide to pull a bank job, where they are both captured and incarcerated. Jimmy is then transferred to Long Rudford, run by the steely security chief Perry (Ron Cook). Jimmy again runs into Rudy (whom he left to take the initial rap) and shares a cell with Cliff (Timothy Spall), a portly man prone to depression. The prison warden, Mortimer (Christopher Plummer), is heavily into Broadway musicals and offers Jimmy an opportunity to stage his long-unproduced work, "Nelson: The Musical," which Jimmy will use as a means to bust out of the prison. After working hard on the new tuner, the boys try to find a way both to do the show and to continue their arduously planned escape. The Sixth Sense's Olivia Williams co-stars as a guard Jimmy falls for, and British comic actors Bill Nighy and Frank Harper appear in supporting roles. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
Review
Peter Cattaneo can't exactly be accused of adding to the parade of Full Monty rip-offs. After all, he directed The Full Monty, so he's only stealing from himself. But that doesn't change the fact that his prison comedy, Lucky Break, once again gathers all the standard characters and contrivances of Monty's dogged army of successors, which have surfaced with machine-like regularity since its release. However, it should be noted that Cattaneo has a special talent for the "blokes in a pickle" sub-genre he pioneered, which alleviates some of the familiarity. His casting is especially strong. James Nesbitt, the jovial pig farmer from Waking Ned Devine, matches well with Lennie James, a bumbling diamond thief in Snatch, to form the film's central partnership. The producer/director then fills in the edges with established touches of class: Timothy Spall, Olivia Williams, and Christopher Plummer. The performers lend some credibility to a script that is otherwise by the numbers, relying on its spry tone to earn limited favor. Because the film is permeated by a sense that nothing could ever really go wrong, it makes Cattaneo's few attempts at serious prison commentary seem misplaced and unconvincing. Too bad, because this limits the wonderful Spall's effectiveness in the one truly dramatic role. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Ron Cook - Perry; Frank Harper - John Toombes; Raymond Waring - Darren; Christopher Plummer - Graham Mortimer; Julian Barratt - Paul; Peter Wight - Officer George Barratt; Celia Imrie - Amy
Credit
Peter Cattaneo - Director, Anne Dudley - Composer (Music Score), Stephen Fry - Songwriter, Barnaby Thompson - Producer, Peter Cattaneo - Producer, Ronan Bennett - Screenwriter, Nick Adams - Supervising Sound Editor
Feelgood prison-escape movie that sees a group of prison inmates (including James Nesbitt and Timothy Spall), put on a theatrical show of Nelson: The Musical to cover their daring break-out attempt.
Cast list
(first billed only)
James Nesbitt as James 'Jimmy' Hands / Lord Nelson in Show
