Themes: Saintly Fools, Fathers and Daughters, Nothing Goes Right
Main Cast: Rachel Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys
Release Year: 2001
Country: FR/UK
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
A Welsh woman is belatedly forced to come out of her shell when poor fortune befalls her family and friends in this kitchen-sink comedy. Annie Mary (Rachel Griffiths) is a woman in her early thirties who seems never to have finished growing up; she still lives at home with her widowed father Jack (Jonathan Pryce), hasn't established much of a life of her own, and can't get her relationship with her boyfriend Colin (Rhys Miles Thomas) to go anywhere. Jack, an enthusiastic ladies' man with a passion for opera and no modesty about sharing his vocal talents with those around him, runs a bakery, and is known to sing the occasional aria for the edification of fellow motorists as he delivers bread. Annie-Mary has been slowly saving up money for a down payment on a flat of her own until disaster strikes and Jack suffers a stroke. Confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, Jack is incapable of running the bakery, and it falls to Annie-Mary to keep the business afloat. Attempting to rise to the occasion, Annie-Mary decides to give the bakery a make-over, with limited success, but as she tries to keep the business going and care for her father, Annie-Mary discovers that one of her closest friends, Bethan (Joanna Page), is suffering from a serious illness and hasn't long to live. Bethan has always wanted to visit America and see Disneyland, so Annie-Mary hatches a plan to raise the money by winning a local talent show; despite her feeble dancing ability, Annie-Mary decides to form a pop group with her friends, in hopes of fulfilling one of her foiled ambitions from her teenage years. Though shot in 1999, Very Annie-Mary didn't find its way to theaters until 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Tim Ellis - Art Director, Joyce Gallie - Casting, Lesley Stewart - Co-producer, Caroline Harris - Costume Designer, Stuart Renfrew - First Assistant Director, Sara Sugarman - Director, Robin Sales - Editor, Stephen Warbeck - Composer (Music Score), Alice Normington - Production Designer, Barry Ackroyd - Cinematographer, Damian Jones - Producer, Graham Broadbent - Producer, Colin Nicolson - Sound/Sound Designer, John Hayward - Sound/Sound Designer, Sara Sugarman - Screenwriter
After her father suffers a stroke, a woman is forced to take care of him but uses the circumstances to emancipate herself and find the courage to sing once again.[3]
The film was shot in summer 1999. It was scheduled to be presented at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and the Dinard Festival of British Cinema but failed to show at either event.[5]
Reception
A BBC News review said the film, with few exceptions, was an "embarrassing and desperate attempt to create a heartwarming comedy out of a collection of ancient clichés, outrageous stereotypes and slapstick humour."[6]Variety magazine called it a "half-klutzy, half-engaging eccentric comedy...bolstered by good turns from leads Rachel Griffiths and Jonathan Pryce" but "falling prey to a general disorganization in tone and structure.[5]The Guardian called it "a broad comedy with a very derivative Monty-ish plot, but likeable and good-natured."[7]The New York Times called the film "alternately mushy and farcical" with an "undertone of satire" that keeps the film from "choking on its own cuteness"; it "churns up a few genuinely funny bits" including a climax "that is almost worth waiting for."[8]
