The One and Only

This is one of the nicest and funniest movies I have seen recently, and is one of those titles you want to see more than a one and only time. It was tucked away on the bottom shelf of a Belgium videotheque; it never reached the cinemas in Belgium, nor in the Netherlands. Hence it didn't get any attention to a broader audience; what a shame! For starters the plot is as simple as it is good and the story build around sticks to it and is credible. The film breathes a certain low budget atmosphere and there is hardly any outstanding camera work, though it delivers quite some great stills. Comparisons are made with Notting Hill. Regarding that I would say the Notting Hill film has better photography with great color but has the rather slik Hollywood like fairy tale setting, where as The One And Only is definitely much funnier, not only in dialogue, has the better soundtrack and stands, again not only regarding the more prosaic dialogue, closer to reality. As a foreigner I wasn't bothered by perhaps not so good northern accents; they sounded perfectly genuine to me. And what a heavenly lass miss Waddel is!

I caught this on late night TV, and missed the beginning. After a few minutes I was sat up in bed. This had caught my attention. At the time I thought it was a TV production, similar to Cold Feet (one of my favourite series). Not as much 'warmth' as Cold Feet, but this was funny, sad, tragic, etc. All the ingredients needed for a black comedy. Comedy appeals to a wide spectrum, and this won't please everyone. But to me it is one of the funniest 'black comedies' since No Surrender (1985). I'm from the North East, and found the accents quite believable. In fact, I thought that the main actors were Geordies. Never heard of either of them, but I'll be looking out for them, especially Justine Waddell, who was a bit of a dish. I shall go out and buy the Video or DVD, and give a copy to those friends of mine, who are on a similar comedy wavelength to myself.

Jimmy Nail's Spender had already shown that the North East had some great locations, so I wasn't surprised at some of the great outdoor shots in this film. I have a feeling that there will be more to come from this area, and from Justine Waddell.

I've just seen this movie on DVD. Its sweet and surprisingly funny. And has two great performances from Richard Roxburgh and Justine Waddell. The best scenes in the film are when they're together. You really want them to have their happy ending. The direction is erratic, and the writing's weak, but they're charming so it doesn't matter. There's also a funny performance by Michael Hodgson. Newcastle looks good, and the movie has a fun soundtrack. I wish there were cast interviews and more behind the scenes footage on the DVD. It kind of looks like it was done on the cheap. But the movie itself is sweet and funny. A good way to spend a Sunday evening.

I saw this film on TV and must confess to having never heard of it before - but i cannot think why! Why wasn't this great little movie given more chance in the box office? Why wasn't it widely distributed???? It was genuinely very very funny. Not only did i find myself laughing out loud the whole way through it, but it also had great dialogue, a great story, excellent characters and a fantastic plot. All in all this was a very enjoyable and quite unexpected movie. If you get a chance - watch it! The plot surrounds two couples - one are everyday and unhappy in their relationship. The other are an Italian football star and his kept wife. Couple one adopt an African girl and couple two are trying to have a baby. But then Guy from first couple falls in love with kept wife. A great little side story involves the first guys friend who is an absolute slob who has crazy sex with some woman he happens to meet in late night supermarkets who also happens to be the sister of the footballers wife. There is far far more to it than all this thought! It is a fantastic story and a great comedy. I have to ask again...why didn't this get distributed better in the cinemas???? The distribution/production company were not doing their job!

Funny movie. I loved the Danish original and it's still my favourite. Story is the same though and still really good