Framed

National Gallery in London is flooded. Elitist curator Quentin Lester organizes the transfer of the collection to an abandoned mine in north Wales. Local teacher Angharad Stannard soon uncovers the secret operation. Quentin confuses little boy Dylan Hughes' love of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a love of the Italian masters. The locals start seeing the art which leads to changes. The weird butcher renovates the local pond. Dylan's mother is struggling after her husband disappeared and decides to open a cafe in their gas station's garage. Daughter Minnie Hughes is casing the cave. The Sellwood sisters have come out of their seclusion with their own painting. Questin is not a hunky lead or a terribly romantic lead. The town is full of quirky characters. They're all likable. This is a light quirky movie. The little boy is compelling. It's fun. It's heart-warming.

This begins at London's National Gallery, at which a waterline break floods the museum, causing National Gallery Director (James Woolley) and his assistant, Marnie Pope (Nina Sosanya), to close shoppe for the day.

Quentin Lester (Trevor Eve), a painting and fine arts connoisseur, who operates a slate mine along with partner Reynolds (Guy Henry), returns to his rural community, located somewhere between London and Wales.

Angharad Stannard (Eve Myles), a bicycling schoolteacher, also presents a great deal of knowledge regarding the fine arts and seems to encounter Quentin just about everywhere he turns, as he, in turn, encounters several of her pupils around the community, including the Hughes children, who play heavily into the film's theme of desertion and poverty, as they assist their mother at her roadside diner, Cafe Da, at which the uncultured aspiring artist Tom Ellis (Matthew Aubrey) also assists, by designing a window display, and helping out with the children in his own special way.

Bethan Hughes (Nicola Reynolds) has been separated from husband Daffyd Hughes (Mark Lewis Jones), who has disappeared to London to attempt to earn provisions for the family, consisting of Marie Hughes (Gwyneth Keyworth), their elder daughter, Dylan Hughes (Sam Davies), their elder son, Minnie Hughes (Mari Ann Bull) their younger daughter, and Max Hughes (Ruby Lewis) or Max Hughes (Ella Lewis), as the baby, whom Marie especially supervises.

Mr. Davis (Robert Pugh), who has lost his lost 3-year-old in the lake after an accident on the pier, serves as the town butcher, and, along with Dylan Hughes, Angharad Stannard and Quentin Lester, also holds an interest in art.

Edna Sellwood (Gwenyth Petty) and Edith Sellwood (Margaret John) reside in the community as elderly sisters, who drive to the park to sell a painting of Edna as a child, which they report their father has painted, even though Edna, now blind, is unable to steer their automobile, and so Edith holds the steering wheel, while Edna operates the accelerator and brakes, or at least Edith tries to control the vehicle, which town-folk fear when the sisters Sellwood approach outdoor gatherings.

PC Gary Evans (Tim Treloar) inspects the Hughes diner to inform Bethan that 2,000 pounds are due in taxes, while his young daughter, Jade Evans (Jodi Bird) tauts Dylan, and while another Gary, listed as "Gary," (Anton Saunders) serves as a different officer.

After Quentin experiences difficulty in ordering out-of-season lamb from Mr. Davis at Love Meat Tender, chickens cross the road at Cafe Da, causing Quentin to meet Dylan, who helps to retrieve the fowl although a rooster, Donatello, enters Quentin's automobile, to attack him once he reaches a lamb crossing and is forced to stop his vehicle.

Dylan then catches up with Quentin to rescue Donatello, impressing Quentin with his knowledge of Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, and plans to discuss the classic artists at a later time. Angharad also catches up with Quentin on her bicycle, which she often does, also to discuss the arts and other topics, such as her schoolchildren and the slate mine.

But when Angharad takes the children on a field trip to the slate mine, Quentin and Reynolds become cautious that they might face danger without their hard-hats even though the schoolchildren already brought them along, but Quentin also expresses caution when Tom and the children discover Quentin's underground art gallery down beneath the mine.

Well, Angharad expresses a disagreement with Quentin over his attitude toward the children's mishandling fine paintings beneath the slate mine or something like that, and so any hint of romance between the lovely schoolteacher and the slate miner who knows his art history is quickly nipped in the bud, or at least until he somehow surprises her with a lobster dinner deep in his underground slate mine gallery amid a wealthy display of illuminated paintings, which, of course, ought to surprise just about anyone.

And when Little Minnie schemes to champion Dylan's cause, she cleverly stifles the slate mine's security system to sneak Dylan into the slate mine gallery to switch a valuable Van Gogh with a collage of snapshots which Maria has taken of Baby Max to immortalize him the way Edna Sellwood's late father once did, before the Van Gogh gets mixed up with the painting of young Edna.

Somehow, this Hughes family cannot afford provisions, but they certainly stock plenty of photography film and art supplies at Cafe Da.

And now, on the eve of Dylan's birthday, Bethan attempts to locate Daffyd, not for her sake, but for the sake of the children, so it just may be up to Quentin to save the day for the Hughes family and for Angharad and her other schoolchildren, and the sisters Sellwood, plus the slate mine and the National Gallery, and, perhaps, the remainder of the impoverished community, which really needs to learn a few pointers on the arts.

The cast is rounded out by Olwen Medi as Mrs. Porty, Livia Hughes as London Schoolchild, Melanie Abbott as Reporter, Frank Cottrell Boyce as Car Boot Dealer, Aneirin Hughes as Petrol Representitive, and Sian Boudreaux as Florida Terrible Jones.

Comment: Now, I haven't seen Trevor Eve since "MSW: Tinker, Tailor, Liar, Thief" (1992), but he, Eve Myles, Nicola Reynolds, Robert Pugh, Guy Henry and Matthew Aubrey handle their material especially well here, as well as do several of the character actors and child actors.

If not for the inclusion of some delightful Welsh accented actors (apart from sone of the annoyingly cocky child actors), and the lovely scenery, this really contrived movie is almost like an old Pink Panther show. The wasted talent here is a shame, as is the mundane dialogue. The most annoying but for me was the constant overwhelming use of very inappropriate background music, which at times was almost cartoon-like. A very amateurish production that does not favours to Wales, art or the people who are being portrayed here. The characters are fairly one-dimensional and Trevor Eve is just not a good fit here at all. A disappointing film and only watch if you have time to waste or are sick in bed.

Must say I agree with the "bingedrinking..." user name comment. This was an awful film, totally racist and insulting to Wales and the Welsh people. It made the Welsh out to be a bunch of bumbling village idiots from the get go, akin to that "The League of Gentleman" show on the BBC. The horrible comment right at the beginning of the film about the Welsh tourist board laughing when the secretary called up to ask for a 3 star hotel was disgraceful. It was essentially saying "a 3 star in Wales, you must be joking!". The producer also gave the school teacher a deliberate overbite and large gap right in her front teeth, how cruel and crude. Most of the children were also given large gaps in their front teeth also. It was shameful. It was also set in North Wales, yet no one, and just to be clear, NO ONE, had a North Welsh accent, they were ALL from South Wales. Was the producer and researchers who made this film being deliberately derogatory to Wales or were they just ignorant and absolutely thick? I watched this joke of a film for a short time before switching it off in disgust. I was abroad in the US and was hoping to see something of North Wales in all it's true glory and absolute splendor. North Wales is absolutely stunning, the people extremely friendly and highly educated. Wales also outperformed the rest of the UK in terms of exports last year (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-26465497). Yet this horrendous film would just try to belittle Wales and the Welsh. I will be writing to the producer of this film for an explanation.

Framed is a terrific, comedy drama, with a story about discovery and self discovery.

People are offended by this? Seriously? As a proud Welshman I loved every minute of it, the performances are joyous, it's charming, cosy, funny, moving and heart warming. It has some really surprising scenes.

The two old ladies are a comedy joy, Margaret John a much missed legend, so funny. Eve is fantastic as the serious curator who receives a wake up call. Some fine young Welsh talent, with most doing very nicely now.

I didn't want it to end. 9/10