Swing - Ritmos E Desejos

I watched this film on it's first showing in Great Yarmouth .The film starts a little slowly but really gets going when Oi comes on the scene. James Hicks, as the skinhead, was one of the key roles. Lisa gave a great performance and should sing more jazz. I really enjoyed the "feel good" nature of the show.

I had barely heard of this film when I caught the trailer in front of another video. Since I love swing music, enjoyed Hugo Speer in "The Full Monty" and like Lisa Stansfield's singing, I gave it a try and was not dissappointed.

The story of an ex-con organizing a swing band is like "The Commitments" only not as crunchy. But while it's unravelling, particularly during the musical numbers, there's little time to complain. The whole thing is really a fairy tale, with a demented lottery winner as fairy godmother and Stansfield's possessive husband--the cop who had arrested Speers three years earlier--as wicked witch.

Stansfield's singing of some classic jazz and soul numbers is simply terrific. And Speers turns in a kinetic performance that could make him a star if anybody else sees this film.

Where would a jealous cop try to forment a riot in a hotel to win his wife back from the leader of a swing band? In contemporary Liverpool, if this film is to be believed. Mind you, it also asks us to believe that the same band leader, who's a Catholic, vows to bring up his kids as protestants in return for the use of a band hall. _Swing_ can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a zany comedy of a piece of naturalism in the British Social Realist tradition, and this schizophrenia often irritates. It's got some entertaining scenes , though, some great music and good acting, particularly from the sexy Lisa Stansfield.

This director didn't miss a beat in developing these characters. The humour is dark and rich, with a really local flavour and a lot of geniune affection behind each turn. I was amazed at Lisa Stansfield whose performance was so natural you'd think she'd been treading the boards for years. While SWING shows Liverpool and the kind of poverty you can't shake off your boots, it begs you to be optimistic, let loose and come have a good time. Music, faith and hard work (with a bit of luck in the form of an hysterically funny "professional" lottery winner) transform Hugo Speer's world and I left the theatre with the lightest of hearts from experiencing his journey.

And forget about the soundtrack, everybody was tapping and grinning away throughout the film.

The reason I saw Swing at all is because I am a big Lisa Stansfield fan. When I discovered she was making her theatrical debut in a movie about a struggling swing band, I was excited not only to see Ms. Stansfield in her first acting role, but to hear her cover some great big-band standards with that signature voice of hers.

If you get nothing else out of this movie at all, the soundtrack is worth at least one viewing.

Overall, I thought this movie was rather entertaining and very charming, a characteristically cynical and quirky British comedy, with a few minor snags, mainly from plot holes and dialog. (Also, as an American viewer, it was difficult at first to get used to the heavy Liverpool accent.) The one-liners at times try too hard to be funny, but luckily those moments were often quickly followed by one of the movie's greatest strengths, its music.

It's not to say the film has nothing BUT its soundtrack to keep it entertaining. Hugo Speer gives a commendable performance as the frustrated protagonist Martin Luxford—an unlucky chap whose last get-rich-quick-scheme landed him a 2 year prison sentence. While serving time, he learns to play the saxophone from his inmate, and is inspired to change his ways during his parole by starting a swing band. Life is not easy for Marty—his parents live in the projects and his brother is a conniving thief who sells his unsuspecting targets the very security systems he breaks into. Things are so bleak you just beg for some light at the end of the tunnel. But Marty plucks right along persuading his friends to join in on his enterprise and holding out hope that he can live his dream. This set-up, while not thoroughly original, is played out well by Speer. When the movie is not rip-roarin' to the sounds of the jazz age, its up to Speer to make us root for Marty, which he succeeds in doing with devilish charm.

Enter Joan, the ex-girlfriend, played by Stansfield. Marty singles her out to be the lead singer of his developing band (surprise! surprise!) but there's one snag—Joan is married to the police officer who put Marty away in the first place. This sets up all sorts of wonderful possibilities for a love triangle, but Danny McCall comes off as almost unbelievably psychotic as Joan's husband Andy. He seems more obsessed with his job (the man wears police uniform pajamas to bed)than with keeping Joan's affections, and instead of insecure about his marriage he comes off as unreasonable and inexplicably bent on making Marty's life a living hell. It also becomes increasingly difficult to understand why Joan married the man in the first place, since he displays not even one iota of a redeeming quality. But it is fun to see Joan square off against Andy later in the film, in moments where Stansfield shines in ferocious—but fabulous—glory.

Despite some minor but persistent flaws, this movie is a pleasure to watch. Peppered with an odd array of supporting characters—including the intimidating Mighty Mac and his Orange Brigade brass section who look like they're armed for a hit(mob-style, not musical)—the film occasionally takes a delightfully bizarre turn even in otherwise predictable moments.

I would definitely recommend this movie—I have seen it several times—especially if you are looking for an easy, unchallenging but delightful story about the spirit to overcome adversity, an homage to the swing revival movement at the end of the 90's, or a chance to see Lisa Stansfield take down the Liverpool police department.