harte-chris

A very enjoyable film that has quirks rather than twists. The direction can be slow at times letting the action drag a little, which is why I gave it a seven rather than an eight.

The characters are believable and played by a cast of fine actors. A loser, his hot wife, a slimy bank manager and a police officer whose personal life is not perfect. (But you know what, they just sit down and talk about it. That is how it is done 'soap operas'). And of course an enigmatic stranger of dubious morality and fabulous culinary skills.

The action starts with a bunch of coincidences that makes fiction so enjoyable. From then on the world moves on completely ignoring the main protagonist, so just like real life. With a great ending.

Well worth a watch.

Surreal, in the literal sense of the word, because dreams do play quite an important part in this film. Filmed in the entirely fictional town of "Northampton", well at least I hope so, this is the journey of a character looking for... something. Full of fascinating characters from the hitler lookalike lead singer to the ghostly mortuary attendent this is a very engaging movie. Alan himself makes a cameo as... well, Alan Moore really. The highlight for me though was the twelve year old detective who provided his own hardboiled voice over as he interacted with the main character. Lots of witty in jokes and pop references that are not obscure, (I think we all know who Robert Mitchum is).

Very entertaining and very watchable. What more (Moore?) could you ask for.

This film is impossible to categorise. Adjectives include weird, quirky, unusual and most of all, hilarious. Filmed in less than a month with no budget this film relies on a very good script. Two hollywood superstars, James Caan and Billy Crystal, just phone their parts in and are all the better for it. Matt Lucas, who is very well known to British audiencies, carries this movie along effortlessly. The mishaps and blunders make it borderline slapstick. But with very good dialogue delivered by a very good cast this is witty and intelligent in equal measure. From the toenails in the post to the staged suicide it is difficult to convey how genuinely strange this movie is, but it is well worth a visit.