Elephant Juice

This is a relationship movie set in London, involving a group of twenty somethings. There is the obligatory 'gay' couple, the philanderer with the stunning wife, the shy boy etc.

Although, this is not a bad film, in the current crop of 'Brit Flicks' it makes a change to see something other than a gangster movie.

That said, however, this film does not linger too long in the mind. The performances from an international cast is passable but this is a curious point in the story, why have we got an international cast for a very British film?

This is one that will not doubt be well received when it comes to TV.

Elephant Juice comes from the pen of Amy Jenkins, creator of television series This Life, and while it isn't good, it's not all-bad.

It is a longstanding cliché that British television writers can't write for the big screen and think small. Jenkins, unfortunately, does nothing to refute this. There are even pointless headings for different sections of the film, like it has been split into seven episodes.

While there are lots of interesting locations, it cannot disguise the fact that it's still just people talking. The dialogue might be very good, but there's rarely anything important at stake.

This is less due to the poor plotting than the poor characterisation. And that in turn is due to Jenkins decision to have eight major characters. You simply can't have that many in a movie as there isn't as much time to find out about them as there is in a television series. There are two characters who are almost adequately drawn but the motivations for the others is barely there - if at all.

There is an incident in the last act that is a surprise but not in a good way. There is no reason given for the character to do what they did, so rather than being moved we simply don't care.

Two of the characters lose partners they cared about and react as if they'd lost a five-pound note. While it seemed bizarre and confusing at the time, in retrospect it was just so those characters could get together at the end with fewer hassles. It's not a feel good ending if everything that enabled it is totally unbelievable.

To be honest I preferred all the other This Life writers to Amy Jenkins but she does know how to write and there's the makings of a good film here as she clearly knows her world but it needed another couple of drafts at least.

The irony is the script was rushed into production before it was ready to cash in on the This Life success but because it was rushed both the co-investors, Miramax and Film Four, refused to distribute it. In fact Miramax subsequently closed down their UK subsidiary that produced this due to "creative differences".

This won't be in theatres for long but make up your own mind about it when it's on free television, where it belongs.

I'll make this short and sweet. You will not like, empathise, root for or understand any of the characters in this pointless little London-based drama. They have the combined depth of a paddling pool. It's produced by the team who made 'This Life' for the BBC -- I never saw that show, but if it's anything like Elephant Juice... I'm glad I missed it. Avoid.

I think that unless you have lived in London, you cannot understand this film. It's not bad at all. If you hate the characters, well, that's another story, the problem is that all Londoners (British Londoners) are like that, sorry! It's all about sex and nothing else matters and who has got time to know if that's right or wrong, here comes another one....

What were they thinking of? I assume they thought, oh she's in the Sunday papers, she must be good. It's not true of mail order trousers and it isn't true about film makers either. People say that what's wrong with British filmmakers is that they shoot the first draft. This time they seem to have shot the first fart.