The Possibilities Are Endless

Scottish musician Edwyn Collins is best known (if at all) for his hits "Rip It Up And Start Again" (with Orange Juice) and "A Girl Like You" which became a worldwide smash in 1994. Despite only having the two hits he was a constant presence in the UK music industry and his witty and opinionated views made him a radio regular. It was after an appearance with Andrew Collins on BBC6Music that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and entered into a coma. This film charts his recovery, his relationship with his partner, and his attempts to make new music.

The problem is it's hard to see who it will appeal to: the film is far too wishy-washy and fails to pin down it's subject. While we watch atmospheric visuals and listen to amazing sound design we drift merely around the edges of the man himself, who barely appears for an hour.

If you've never heard of the man, there is no context. Nothing to say why you should care, and barely anything to show what he was like before the coma. A few brief clips from "Conan O'Brien" and "Top of the Pops" aside, the film remains stubbornly in the etherworld of Collins' coma.

The first hour is dreary, insubstantial indulgence by the film-makers. The last 20 minutes goes some way to redeeming itself by showing more of Edwin at work and with Grace, but the whole thing is lacking. It needed more voices, more history. You learn much more, and are moved more, by the BBC Radio 4 programme "Mastertapes" that features in this film and can still be heard on the Radio 4 website.

I should probably start this review by disclosing that I've been a fan of Edwyn since he released his fantastic solo album "Hope and Despair" in 1989, and have followed his career closely since then.

You probably know Edwyn from his song "a girl like you" which was a huge hit in 1995. Less of you will know that he had a stroke 10 years later, leaving him unable to walk, read or write. His speech was also severely affected, "yes", "no", "Grace Maxwell" ( Edwyns wife), and peculiarly, "the possibilities are endless" being the he only words he could say.

The film chronicles the story of Edwyns recovery from those harrowing times up to the present day, but not in a standard documentary style, instead using abstract images and audio of Edwyn talking about his experience, creating an eerie atmosphere, perhaps trying to recreate the confusion felt by Edwyn after his stroke.

The later part of the film is more straightforward, and not as "arty farty" as Edwyn put it! It shows the extraordinary relationship between Grace and Edwyn, Grace having fought so hard to help Edwyn in his recovery. The bond between the two would melt the hardest of hearts, and is the real star of the movie. It's a love story about them, and to life itself. Don't worry though, it's not a Mills and Boon novel, there is plenty of good humour and bickering between the pair.

The filmmakers deserve credit for not going down the mawkish, misery memoir route, which would have been easy to do. Instead they let the the protagonists tell their own story, allowing Edwyn plenty of space to do so.

The soundtrack is hauntingly beautiful, using music performed by Edwyn and two of his musical collaborators Carywn Ellis and Seb Lewsley.

It's not often a music documentary can move one to tears, but this marvellous film manages it. I defy anyone to watch and not be moved by the remarkable recovery made by Edwyn, and I can't recommend the film highly enough.

I think the biggest problem people have with this film is that they were expecting a regular documentary about Edwyn. Forget that. The film is designed to reflect his struggle back to health and the result is jaw-dropping. It begins fractured and barely coherent, a series of scattered images on screen - sea, sky, a grainy 16mm image of a walk with a loved one, snippets of half-remembered conversations and lyrics.

Make no mistake, this was done deliberately to try and instill in the viewer some tiny amount of the disorientation that Edwyn would have felt - a struggle to think clearly or even construct intelligible sentences. As the film progresses it becomes more linear as we follow the singer's road back to health and his determination to play live once again.

Only the most cold-hearted would not be inspired and amazed by his journey - a lovely guy hit by tragedy who lucked out with having an incredible woman by his side.

Most people of a certain age will know who Edwyn Collins is even if it's just because they know the 1994 song "I've never met a girl like you before" but not everyone will know his recent life story and a very sad one it is. in 2005, Collins said he felt unwell , two days later he suffered a major cerebral haemorrhage to his brain and his life completely changed . This documentary follows him and his wonderfully supportive partner Grace on part of the long hard road to recovery. Although the story is sad it's quite an uplifting documentary. It's obvious that due to the massive brain injury that Collins will never be the same as he was but that isn't stopping him doing what he loves best. Playing music. This does suffer from being a little bit too arty at times but nonetheless is still a film you should see.

I am watching this and wondering why. I have never been a fan of Edwyn Collins - he is a typical pop star of his time. Talentless and simplistic music which appeal to the sort of people who do not like to think about their music. His lyrics are trite and awkward. He does not look particularly good and has zero charisma. How the hell anyone thought him worthy of a documentary like this escapes me totally. Of course it is a tragedy for anyone to suffer a catastrophic brain injury which Collins did but his importance in the music scene is far too much emphasised and the scene has not suffered one jot from his absence. This film is inept in almost every respect - it puts his medical event into no kind of context -we have no idea of how he was before the incident and the viewer becomes disinterested before the story even begins.