Before You Go

I can't understand why somebody would bother assembling such an amazing cast - Julie Walters, Tom Wilkinson, Victoria Hamilton etc. - and then waste them on such appalling material.

No wonder Britain doesn't have anything approaching a film industry if projects such as this are seen as worthy of funding. TV movies starring Kate Jackson or Lyndsay Wagner ('Please Don't Take My Owl - The Jodie Lee Boxheimer Story' etc. etc.) are eminently more watchable than this trite, aimless, middle class nonsense.

Britain has some of the greatest acting talents in the world. Is this really the best we can come up with for them?

Shameful.

When their mother passes away, estranged sisters Theresa, Mary and Catherine come back together for the funeral. Theresa is the eldest and expected to hold everything together despite her own stresses. Mary is being "haunted" by visions of her dead mother, bringing buried secrets and pain to the surface – a situation not helped by her already fragile relationship with married lover Mike. Meanwhile youngest sister Catherine seems no different from the last time she was seen – spinning from man to man, keeping everything soft with drug use. As the funeral approaches, secret or buried hurts come out within the family.

From Lewis Gilbert and featuring a great cast when I read the credits in the paper, I had reasonable hopes for this film. Sadly they were mostly dashed in a film that didn't seem to have a handle on what it actually wanted to do. The result of this is that the script is keen to embrace a quick joke or attempts at colourful characters but seems either unwilling or (more likely) unable to get to the heart of the matter and deliver and emotionally engaging film that is full or real hurt, real healing and real people. This leaves the film floating around in a way that is not bad but is certainly not any good – meaning that I got more and more bored as the film went on, to the point where I left the room for five minutes but couldn't be bothered to pause the DVD.

The cast aren't able to do much without the help of writer or director. Walters flaps around but is nothing more than a flustered comedy character who doesn't actually produce laughs. Whalley is handed the greater responsibility and the stronger character but fails to do much with it; she and her mother share the strongest scenes but neither is that good and their scenes lack a real emotional hook. Hamilton is only ever annoying and feels like an easy cliché for the writers, once they had written the first two characters. The male support is so-so mainly because neither Hannah or Wilkinson are really given much to work with and are very much on the edges of the film.

Overall this was a disappointing film that didn't do anything that it had the potential to do. Not bad per se but it certainly isn't any good as it roundly fails to deliver on the promise of complex relationships. The cast offer much but aren't given anything to work with and only do OK. Not really worth a look to be honest.

In a film industry where the lack of money spent on script development for the big-budget movies is constantly bemoaned, films like this are supposed to come along and make the viewer yearn for the good old days when movies were rich in character, colour and conversation. After this dire effort, though, I'm back to waiting for the X-Men and Matrix sequels. The cast list suggests better, but the performances across the board are very weak, the characters totally one-dimensional and the story JUST NOT INTERESTING. I suspect it was supposed to be a study of the different ways we deal with personal grief, but the director failed to put this across in any kind of coherent or engaging fashion. I hate to single anyone out for particular criticism, but Joanne Whalley was school-play awful. Save your 90 minutes and do almost anything else.

An excellent film with superb acting by all the cast. Encapsulated the lives of three sisters with humour, tragedy, pathos and humanity. A welcome change from some of the more digitalised and violent films of the recent era. Difficult to pick out which was the best actress they were all so good and so different. The funeral scene at the end was brilliant. The audience reaction was one of pure pleasure at a good story well acted and presented. Top marks to the Director.

This film was a joy from start to finish. The diversity of characters was interesting and the acting by all was superb. The story is touching, full of laughs and no one really takes centre stage. This film truely delivered what it was meant to. Julie walters was wondeful as the eldest sister and had me laughing out loud in places as did the younger sister. The male support was amazing, it couldnt be anything else with Tom wilkinson. Very colourful characters, a film that really does get to the heart of the matter in a way thats easy to watch. This film makes you laugh and smile and want to watch it again and again. The last review makes a criticism that the cast arnt able to do much without the help of the writer or director but then goes on to say the cast offer much but arnt' given anything to work with.

For anyone reading this that hasnt had the opportunity to watch this film, please watch it. Its wonderful