High Heels and Low Lifes
The trailer tells us this is the next Thelma and Louise,' but this wild and spicy flick is more like Starsky and Hutch meets Absolutely Fabulous. Brought to us by the veddy British, Fragile Films, the same people that brought us Spice World and is currently between two Wilde takes; 99's Ideal Husband' and next year's Importance of Being Ernest.' Girls just want to have fun.
The overall theme is that old-time-Hitchcock-religion where Joe Everyman becomes unwittingly entangled into crime and intrigue. The stars are Minnie Driver and Mary McCormack as a nurse and thespian respectively. These are the two Joanne Everybodies with a UK twist of sophisticated slapstick like Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau.
These women are presented as smart, strong and beautiful. Yay. And all the guys are either corrupt or useless. Just like real life. Min has a dumb boyfriend who's electronic eavesdropping picks up a cell phone mid-bank heist. Mary, the actress, fresh from a looping session with an animated tomato, sees the overheard phone conversation as an economic opportunity to squeeze the bad guys. `They'll never listen to a woman,' insists Driver. Mary says, This is the twenty-first century and we do all jobs now.' Minnie crosses with `Do you want to extort money or raise consciousness?' Mary's answer, `Both!'
The rehearsals for the blackmail phone calls to the bad guys are a hoot. The writing comes from two comedy vets from the BBC, Km Fuller who cut his teeth on Red Dwarf' and Georgia Pritchett from the sassy Smack The Pony' and nicely directed by Mel Smith who did Mr. Bean.'
Highlights include a very nice travelling matte midsection when both sides rally to battle reminiscent of the opening title sequence to Knots Landing and a smashing performance from Sir Michael Gambon, the great character actor which is another word for interesting.
