One for the Road

A black comedy about alcohol addiction. If that makes you think twice about watching it then don't. As you can imagine, a film dealing with such a subject will be pretty dark and this definitely is. Disjointed at times with a plot that doesn't really cover the relationships that the characters are ruining through their own addiction lets this film down. The acting performances are competent and there is some empathy that you develop occasionally. At times it is very, very funny and the film is done in a mix of The Office style documentary and fly-on-the-wall film which works very well. Not the greatest but again significantly better than most of the guff that Hollywood turfs out. 7.5/10.

One For The Road is a dark, daring and painfully funny exploration of men, drink and friendship. Never patronising the audience or offering easy justifications for its characters often repellent behaviour, the film nonetheless builds up an intoxicating mood that echoes the characters own descent into booze and violence. With great natural performances all round -especially from Greg Chisholm as the nominal 'hero' Jimmy, and from Mark Devenport as a carless taxi driver - and looking like little else being produced for the big screen in Britain today, One For the Road feels like a breath of fresh air, albeit tinged with the stink of booze and puke.

I love comedy so much I'm willing to travel across London at 10:30 am to see

this one. I did laugh - not as much as I should've but that's the producer's mistake for putting on a screening at this unfunny hour. Really great premise of pulling together a group of comedy losers at an 'alcohol re-education seminar for convicted drunk drivers' and some wonderful characterization, especially the stoned slacker 'Mark' played brilliantly by Mark Devenport.

The reason I made the extra effort to see this movie was that it said it was

improvised, it wasn't. Had the team realized sooner, that you can't easily use the power of impro in this medium, they'd've written a better script that the initial idea suggested. Shot on DV for reasons which even after the Q&A with the

writer/director/producer/editor et all were never explained, the film suffers for it. The DP didn't pull his weight, pity, he gave us TV not cinema.

This is a promising writer/director and although he says he has no ideas

himself, he obviously knows where to get them. He'll have learnt a great deal making this film and his next film will benefit from it.

Bring on the next one.

I really wanted to like this film, but it boiled down to Lock, Stock and Two Broken Whiskey Bottles.

The plot concentrates on a group of convicted drink-drivers and their journey through 'alcoholism therapy' - how they deal with their misdemeanour and the effects that their drinking have on friends and family. However, it's not a dour tale of depressed drinkers or even alcoholics; it's four men going through crises and spending a lot of time in the pub.

The characters were strong, but have all been done before in 'Lock, Stock' and 'Trainspotting' - the young lad, the lairy misfit, the nice bloke trying to do good and the sensible one, but the plot was shot through. There was no real bite to the story, no surprises and no thrills. The tone was patronising and the visuals Trainspotting-esque.

Somewhere inside this film is a half decent idea - that idea is in seeing how normal people cope with their mistakes, attitudes, frailties and personalities - this idea is a comedy. For the two minutes this idea is given an airing the film is entertaining.

Unfortunately the other 90 minutes are abysmal. The plot is truly appalling. Confusing, irrelevant and most importantly deafeningly boring. The acting is likewise pitiful, although the characters are so badly conceived, two dimensional and irritating that it's possible (although unlikely) that the cast has some talent.

Not surprisingly therefore given the quality of the script it won't be a shock to learn the overly artsy directing is of equally low standard. I've seen this film and its director compared to other British directors, notably Shane Meadows and Ken Loach. Those are two talented directors who have interesting stories to tell, unlike Cooke in every sense. Britain's have produced enough films of note that we don't have to accept rubbish like this. Dead Mans Shoes and Dog Soldiers have proved we have true class in the film making stakes - not to mention a certain C. Nolan. You would need to drink as much as the characters to believe that this is anything other than a shallow, worthless film.