Hand in Hand mit dem Tod

The picture is set in a little town from North Wales, where a vagrant named Tin man(Om Puri) is wrongly framed of murdering. Years later, a newcomer local policeman(Ioan Gruffud) investigates the deeds .When appears a local woman named Tina Trent(Susan Lynch) just returned, along with her daughter(Emmy Rossum) in the little place. The daughter bears a remarkable resemblance with the disappeared girl. As suspects are Marcus(Paddy Considine)and his friend(Richard Coyle). The policeman is helped by the local barber(Robert Pugh), killing girl's father, and the Tin man.

This agreeable movie displays suspense, thrills, Welsh costumes, mystery and enjoyable performances. Main casting is frankly well, with actors today making American career, such as Ioan Gruffud (Arthur) as intelligent local policeman, Emmy Rossum(Phantom of Opera) in a double role as shy adolescent and Susan Lynch as attractive mother. Furthermore, excellent secondary cast as the nasties Paddy Considine and Richard Coyle . Glamorous cinematography by Richard Greatex(Flawless, Detonator,Chaos, A knight's tale). Atmospheric musical score by Dario Marianelli(V for vendetta, Brothers Grimm, Shooting dogs, Pride and prejudice). The motion picture is well directed by Philippe Cousins in his first and only movie, though previously won a Bafta prize for TV. Rating : Acceptable and passable.

My friends and I laughed from start to finish with this superb, witty black comedy - the many original characters were well played, yes there were a couple of holes in the plot (how do you escape from the boot of a centrally locked car?) but, hey, I went to be entertained and I was.

We saw this at the Welsh Film Festival - why on earth has it not yet been distributed? We want to see it again to remind ourselves of all those great one-liners.

After Sara Sugarman and Darren Ripley you might have thought that SGRIN and The Welsh Arts Council would have had enough of camp, self effacing comedians - but no, despite its chocolate box wrapping, Phillipa Cousins debut effort fails to raise many laughs and succeeds in compounding negative welsh stereotypes. I suppose the success of Kevin Allen's cult hit Twin Town started this movement but I wish it would end, quickly.

On a more positive note, there are many promising elements in Happy Now. The locations have been well chosen and atmospherically photographed in cinemascope by Richard Greatrex. The sound design and music are also noticeably good.

In fact the production values as a whole make Happy Now feel like Hollywood. The strongest scenes include the cult sacrifice of a cat and the engagement of a local black magician to 'disappear' the films young protagonist . If only Happy Now had dropped its knowing self parody and tackled more seriously the darker ingredients of its story it might well have achieved its ambition be 'a Welsh Twin Peaks'.

The dark comedy concept of this film was a plus. Some American viewers might find the Welsh/British accent is difficult to understand; however, there are some good one-liners. The movie seemed a bit rushed in places. For example the love story just happened rather suddenly. Most of the casting was good. However,the father's appearance left one wondering how he could have fathered those two girls. The detective (Ioan Gruffudd) was quite able, sensitive, and strong.

The comedy along with the attractive and quirky characters could make this into a cult favorite. It's certainly worth a look.

Writer Belinda Bauer and director Philippa Cousins have turned out a stylish looking Welsh movie that doesn't know if it wants to be a sick black comedy or a semi-serious psycho based murder drama. It clearly wants to be an Alfred Hitchcock copycat film that's too obvious for any success in either genre.

Those with a yen for bizarre and nasty characters or gross situations will find this somehow agreeable but it flounders in typical, modern BFI style and ends up sinking itself in tastelessness.

Best attributes come via the good looking cinematography by Welsh born Richard Greatrex and an OK cast. Otherwise it's another cold and soulless modern wannabe failed 'classic'.