Scottish Mussel

A bit of an eco romcom set in the Scottish highlands, except the romance is minimal the eco is no more than a plot device. It's a fun movie though with enough laughs to eclipse the thin storyline. The cast are quite charming though, even Joe Thomas and his diabolical attempt at a Scottish accent - which isn't the worst by a long way. Unfortunately Talulah Riley's acting comes across as rigid and forced especially alongside the effortless Compston who breezes through the lightweight script. Some good comic turns from Thomas, Paul Branigan and the supporting cast.

I recorded this a while ago and finally got round to viewing it. What a lovely film. Beautiful scenery, comedy, a gorgeous otter. Simply superb. I just love Scottish humour and it was one of those films that leave you feeling good after watching it.

Hesitant about watching since the rating was so low, but there are some great actors here, so decided to watch for 5 minutes to see if I could get into it. I was pleasantly surprised. Funny and sweet about an important subject. Give it a try!

As a Scot, many of the non-native attempts at Scottish accents were challenging at first (for my money Russell Kane's was the best). Then I just tried to enjoy the film and not worry about how the casting came about as the non-Scottish cast are all enjoyable screen presences.

With that caveat, enjoying the film was easy. The accents improved as the movie progressed and the character dynamics were very sweet.

The location scout(s) did a great job and, as a Scot, the whole ceilidh idea was entirely believable. This is not the tab A into slot B stereotypical "shortbread tin" depiction of Scotland that some other reviews have suggested but if you're not from Scotland then I suspect you'll enjoy the film even more.

The soundtrack reads as a bit lazy but works great with the film and they've bagged some great tracks from some brilliant singer-songwriters.

Of course it would be nice to have more Scottish talent on screen but I'm glad that the movie exists as it is rather than not having been able to have been made at all.

Talulah Riley's direction is confident and never appears to be vain regarding the character she plays and I look forward to her joining a very long list of great female directors.

This is a light "feel good" romantic comedy that's fun to watch and warm-hearted. Plotwise it follows the boy meets girl, boy screws up, boy seeks redemption arc very effectively.

The pacing is perfect, and overall the acting is good with the notable exception of the odd American accent for boy's love rival. Why he has to be American is never really evident, although the character is pretty unbelievable to begin with, so being a foreigner may be the only reason? There are also a lot of characters and again it's not clear why that's necessary, but those are the only flaws. Harry Enfield is particularly well cast as the food truck owning mentor, and running mollusc jokes are well played.

This is not a movie with any serious pretensions and I really don't see why the first reviewer here has to spill so much bile over it. It's not going to win any Oscars and it isn't Serious Cinema (TM) -- did I mention it's fun and entertaining, in addition to being well made and edited? It's not awful, it's just a mostly well-executed light- hearted rom com.