Once Upon A Time In The Midlands (Rental)
The tale starts in Glasgow when Jimmy (Robert Carlysle) wakes up from a drunken binge to see his ex-wife Shirley (Shirley Henderson) turn down a proposal of marriage from her current partner Dek (Rhys Ifans).
The tale starts in Glasgow when Jimmy (Robert Carlysle) wakes up from a drunken binge to see his ex-wife Shirley (Shirley Henderson) turn down a proposal of marriage from her current partner Dek (Rhys Ifans), live on a daytime TV talk show. The passion he once had for her is reawakened and he resolves to get her and his daughter Marlene (Finn Atkins) back- but not without a bit of armed robbery first.
Jimmy and his gang, led by veteran actor James Cosmo, bungle a robbery but Jimmy drives off with the loot, leaving the gang to fend for themselves with the police, and heads south to hopefully rekindle the romance they once had and win her back.
Meanwhile Dek, the manager of a Nottingham fast fit garage, is still reeling from Shirley's public rejection and is trying to work out where the relationship is going. He's a bit of a wimp and has no fashion sense but he loves Shirley and Marlene very much and when Jimmy turns up, with the rest of the gang in pursuit of their share, and tries to take Shirley away from him, we find out just how far he'll go to keep his family together.
Tagged as a tinned spaghetti western set in the working class Nottingham of bingo, social clubs and shell suits, this is an excellent comic drama about real people and real relationships.
Review
As one of Film Four's last movies, they've gone out the movie business with a pretty decent production in this homàge to the westerns of Sergio Leone set in the East Midlands. The storyline and characters are very believable and the acting is solid - Ifans gives an excellent performance as Dek, the wimpy underdog trying as best he can to keep his relationship in one piece. Carlysle plays pretty much the kind of character he's becoming synonymous with - a small time ned, but he does it very well as usual and Shirley Henderson turn s in a reasonable performance as the woman torn between the two men in her life - one stable and reliable, the other dangerous and exciting. There's good support from Kathy Burke as Jimmy's foster-sister Carol and Ricky Tomlinson as Charlie, her estranged husband and a country and western club performer but Finn Atkins stands out as Marlene, the 12 year old kid in the middle.
The picture is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and, although non-anamorphic, it is pretty good. The music soundtrack was pretty good and worked well throughout but there were no sound options so, going by information in the credits, I'm assuming that it was in Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Given that it's a very dialogue focused movie, that worked pretty much well enough and the sound was clear throughout.
There are some nice touches in this film that help make it feel that much more real - like the Pot Noodle horde in Charlie's office/bathroom and his peeling wallpaper and half finished DIY projects and Dek's collection of model cars and hub caps. Most of the comedy comes from the hapless antics of Cosmo as the Glasgow hard man and his gang as they rampage around in various inappropriate vehicles, trying to catch up with Jimmy and their money but it doesnt detract from the real focus of the movie. I noticed that Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer played the parts of two of the clown robbery victims - maybe they thought it'd give them some kudos working with some real actors, who knows!
Extras
Like many rental movies, there wasn't much in the way of extra content, just a few trailers for other films…
Coming Soon - Trailers for Serving Sara, Angry Kid, The One & Only and Human Nature.
Overall
All in all, I was pleasantly suprised by how watchable this was. It wasn't quite what I was expecting and I have to say that I enjoyed it for what it was - an unanassuming comic drama about relationships and life at the slightly hard end of society. Worth watching but it's a pity the rental production didn't allow for adding on a commentary or much else!
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