(International sales: HandMade, London.) Produced by Andrew Eaton. North Americans may also have some trouble with McCrory and the kids’ thick Scottish accents.Ī Polygram Filmed Entertainment release (in U.K.) of a Paragon Entertainment Corp./HandMade Films/BBC Films presentation of a Revolution Films production. With so much talent on display, and a busy music track that swings from prerecorded songs to referential bursts of Ennio Morricone, “The James Gang” should have been much sparkier, and funnier, than it is. Ben Seresin, both TV-ites making their feature debuts, give the movie a cinematic look, the latter making striking use of limited depth of field in widescreen, strong saturated hues and occasional overhead shots that are well complemented by John Krausa’s colorful, slightly wacky costumes. (The role is seamlessly played by identical 11-year-old twins Darren and David Brownlie, who filmed on alternate days).ĭirector Mike Barker and d.p. Of the men, Hannah is charmingly disreputable as a kind of ’50s retro bum, and Flemyng, as his brother Frank, is a far more forceful presence here than in the ballet-dancer-with-AIDS outing “Alive and Kicking.” The goofily dressed kids, too, are a delight, with a weirder edge hinted at (but not really developed) in the character of the eldest son, Spendlove Jr., who’s also the part-time narrator. Last seen sporting a perfect Welsh accent as the tough working-class mom in Karl Francis’ “Streetlife,” McCrory is the astounding engine of the movie, as a ballsy Scot who can juggle motherhood, bank robbing and dealing with a slob of a husband without breaking sweat. With a more mature screen presence than Collette as the cop, the subplot of the growing bond between the two women might have worked but the Aussie actress, aside from a wavering English accent, doesn’t project her part enough to counterbalance the forceful McCrory. The reintroduction of Spendlove’s brother, Frank, into the story for some late-on romance with Bernadette, and Spendlove’s disappearance from the plot in the latter stages, combine to weaken any sense of dramatic thrust. Script also struggles to reintroduce the pic’s opening fairy-tale element with a progressively more romantic story about the family reaching some kind of spiritual nirvana on the Scottish island of Barra. The focus on the gang is soon broadened to include the parallel character of the female cop, who tries to maintain a relationship by phone with a househusband back in London as she pursues her quarry. At this stage, pic seems set to be a low-key, fumbling road movie.įor a while, this holds true, but the script by stage and TV writer Stuart Hepburn is unable to sustain any tone for longer than a few scenes. As the adults ponder their future and the kids engage in a background chorus of sarcastic remarks, their getaway car is calmly stolen by some other thieves outside. Pic shows its true stripes only about half-hour in, with a strain of tough, sardonic humor creeping in as the unlikely gang pauses at a roadside diner following Bernadette’s impulsive robbery. Though Spendlove insists to his strong-willed wife that “you may be Bonnie, but I am not Clyde,” their futures are effectively bound together hereon as the “gang” become media stars and Bernadette gets the idea of a bigtime bank raid to set them up for good. Spendlove’s mind is quickly made up for him when Bernadette unexpectedly does a smash-and-grab raid on a jewelry store in London one night, which not only forces them to head north but also sets an obsessive cop, Detective Julia Armstrong (Toni Collette), on their tail. That goes out the window for a while in favor of a grittier realism, as Scottish lass Bernadette (Helen McCrory) gets out of town fast and heads south with her four kids to London, where she stays with brother-in-law Frank James (Jason Flemyng) and his partner, Simone (Elaine Lordan).īernadette is searching for her wastrel husband, Spendlove (John Hannah), who abandoned them a while back when she finds him, Frank offers him some cash to face up to his duties and take Bernadette and the brood back to Edinburgh. Opening, in which the story is narrated through the off-center eyes of a young boy, sets up a slightly irreal p.o.v.
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