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Once Upon a Time in the Midlands
***1/2
Cinema Releases - September 6, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. UK.
104 minutes. Directed by Shane Meadows. Written by Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows.
Starring Rhys Ifans, Robert Carlyle, Shirley Henderson, Kathy Burke, Ricky
Tomlinson, Finn Atkins, Ryan Bruce, Andrew Shim, Kelly
Thresher.
There is a scene in "Once Upon a Time in
the Midlands" where three guys put tights on their heads and proceed
to hijack a clown van. No, really. And the clowns put up a fight, too. Crowbars,
fists and silly makeup go a-flyin' before the thieves make it off with the
money.
This is a strange, colourful and original movie,
the one that finally sees Shane Meadows successfully take the texture of
short films like "Smalltime" and "Where's the Money, Ronnie?" to the big
screen. The director's debut feature, "TwentyFourSeven", was an emotional
comic drama in black and white; it was a good movie, but Meadows was not
working in the style that made his name. "A Room for Romeo Brass", the follow-up,
had more of the filmmaker's stamp, but it was a toneless mess, full of mumbling
characters, annoying aesthetics and unsurely creepy plot
points.
Meadows has so far been at his most distinctive
when he fills the frame with tacky shell suits, formal clothes that match
badly and random characters in fancy dress. They talk in regional accidents,
often loudly and screechily, in rhythms only slightly exaggerated from genuine
British working class speech. The characters are funnier and more interesting
than those of, say, "The Royle Family"; Meadows knows the people of this
country, and how we talk, and how we live, and how our flaws and cheap little
eccentricities manifest themselves. He hasn't just picked up enough to adapt
our vernacular into punchlines.
"Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" stars Rhys
Ifans and Shirley Henderson as an unmarried couple raising a twelve-year
old daughter; they're happy, in a way, but she doesn't want to get married
just yet. The daughter's real father is a no-good clown-robbin' hood played
by Robert Carlyle; he's living in Scotland, but decides to track down his
ex-wife when he sees her new family on Vanessa Feltz's chat show having a
ramble about their love lives. In the background of all this is Carlyle's
sister, a loud old bird played by Kathy Burke, and her ex-husband (Ricky
Tomlinson), who likes to dress up in a cowboy hat and sing country-and-western
classics at the pub.
The film is billed as a 'tinned spaghetti western',
but the connection to westerns is a little laboured. Yes, the title reminds
us of Sergio Leone, the soundtrack has Ennio Morricone twangs and the plot
sees Ifans and Carlyle being insecure men having showdowns over a girl, but
that's about it. What the hell, though: It all adds to the general eccentricity
of the thing, which never seems like it's stabbing in the dark, because Meadows's
stylistic choices are done with conviction, so they come across as instinctive
filmmaking whether they make sense or not.
What we have here is an odd, delightful balancing
act, a kind of "Royal Tenenbaums" for scrubbers. The camera dashes around,
capturing farcical arguments and declarations in a colour palette that never
quite settles to anything tasteful, and great laughs are gotten. But Meadows
also knows when to calm things down and study his players tenderly without
his key scenes seeming tacked on. Henderson, for example, has a girlish,
mousy voice, that seems funny at first but also cannot help be sympathetic.
Ifans is constantly complaining about being mocked and under-appreciated,
and initially we giggle at his nasal whining and sorry slumps... but when
he really gets depressed, it's poignant, because he is a sensitive guy, trying
to do his best and wondering if it's all worth it. Who can't empathise with
that?
"Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" is offbeat,
daring and really quite a treat. What's surprising is how involved we are
when the emotional payoff comes. After the movie ended, I was excited, recalling
how interesting Meadows's short films were at the time, and thinking, well,
maybe the guy's not just a flash in the pan.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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