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DVDfever.co.uk – Faintheart DVD reviewDom Robinson reviews
Contender Home Entertainment
- Cert:
- Running time: 88 minutes
- Year: 2009
- Released: February 2009
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
- Extras:Vito Rocco’s MySpace Film Pitch, Katie Melua records “Toy Collection” for the film, Casting Videos,On-set diaries, The Re-enactors.
- Vote and comment on this film:View Comments
Director:
- Vito Rocco
(Faintheart, Goodbye Cruel World, Venkel’s Syndrome)
Producers:
- Rachel Connors, Judy Counihan, Arvind Ethan David, James Fabricant, Allan Niblo, Rupert Preston and James Richardson
Screenplay:
- David Lemon and Vito Rocco
Music:
- Mike Batt
Cast :
- Richard: Eddie Marsan
Julian: Ewen Bremner
Cath: Jessica Hynes
Maggie: Bronagh Gallagher
Geoff: Tim Healy
Gary: Paul Nicholls
Barbara: Anne Reid
Martin: Joseph Hamilton
Emily: Chloe Hesar
Colin: Richard Ridings
Vince: Gary Sefton
Alan: Kevin Eldon
Julian’s Mum: Sandra Voe
Kim: Matthew Leighton
Danny: Tom Smith
Pete: Oscar McDevitt
Comic Book Fan 1: Rasmus Hardiker
Comic Book Fan 2: Steve Ryland
Lollipop Man/Death Metal Singer: Edward Tudor-Pole
Simon: Chris R Wright
Kevin: Calum Chalmers
Tim: Philip Lester
Grey-suited man: Nick Ball
Headmaster: Tim Potter
Security Guard: Ian Hughes
Faintheart UK Movie Premiere
As it begins, Richard’s (Eddie Marsan) late for an appointment he can’t miss when he’s meant to be in a 1066 battlere-enactment, but given that he starts off here not being one of life’s winners you can tell it’s all going to go wrong andthat it’ll just further the marital problems he has with Cath (Jessica Hynes). Hence, before long they separate andhe ends up living in his mate Julian’s (Ewen Bremner) house… well, Julian still lives with his Mum, so technicallyit’s not his house.
His job prospects aren’t exactly fantastic, either, working in a B&Q-type store called the Home Improvement Centre in Worcester,but he’s got good mates he can rely on including Colin (Richard Ridings), who works on the bins, while trying to constantlywin over his young son, Martin (Joseph Hamilton), although that clearly won’t be done by embarrassing the lad in frontof his new girlfriend Emily (Chloe Hesar). Love is in the air for Cath, too, as – rather suddenly – she’s dating Martin’sPE teacher, Gary (Paul Nicholls), and like most PE teachers, he’s a bit of a dick.
I don’t want to spoil too much about the film as it’s best to find it out as it goes along, but the basics are that Eddie’s hobbyplaces him as part of a team called the Bloody Broadswords, run by Geoff (Tim Healy) and that a battle is on the cardswith their opponents, the Normans, led by Alan (Kevin Eldon). We also see Julian’s rather unfortunate attempts to geta date, not helped by the fact that he works as a Comic Book Guy. Thankfully, Ewen Bremner looks nothing like the Comic Book Guyfrom the Simpsons and doesn’t seem to have aged sinceTrainspotting.
Faintheart is a movie with an incredible cast, faultless acting, a brilliant script and the full 2.35:1 widescreen frameis used to set every scene. The cinematography can make even a rubbish tip look picturesque!
Eddie Marsan, who I first saw in a very memorable episode of Game On, has made a great name for himself over the yearsin TV and films, and most recently he was so good in Mike Leigh’sHappy Go Lucky.There are many excellent moments of perfect comic timing from all concerned and it’s one of those films you can feelyourself enjoying more and more as you watch it. Of course, you can see the end coming a mile off but it’s how it getsthere that’s important.
I didn’t even realise about the fact that several cast members had been picked in conjunction with MySpace (see more about thisin the extras, below) until I’d watched the whole film so I didn’t realise it wasn’t just a case of mixing well-known actorswith brand new people, I just figured they were less well-known, particularly Chris Wright as Simon the nasty store boss, aswe’ve all had bosses like him and he had that role down perfectly as it made me seethe as much as it did for Richard 🙂
This gave a great quality product as a result and hopefully it’s a sign of things to come that film and TV companies will looktowards new talent rather than relying on old stalwarts.
There’s also a number of fantastic tracks from the ’80s, including:
- Tempole Tudor – Swords of a 1000 Men
- Madness – It Must Be Love
- Spandau Ballet – True
- Human League – Don’t You Want Me
- Saxon – Never Surrender
- Proclaimers – I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)
Faintheart has the right balance of comedy and pathos that you’d find in The Full Monty, giving you a rollercoaster rideof emotions and, as such, should go on to become as revered as that great British movie. It’s also the first to be put togetheras a collaboration with the social networking website Myspace, working with Vertigo Films and Film4, and it makes for a uniqueproject as various cast and crew members were picked from MySpace to participate in the movie. Given how well it turned out,let’s hope this is the first of many, especially since in these times of recession it shows that a quality product can beproduced to a budget while also, and just as importantly, giving new actors and bands a try out.
The film is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio with no problems whatsover, and was viewed upscaled to a 37″plasma screen via an Xbox 360. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound doesn’t get massive workout but works well for the battle scenes andalso dialogue and more ambient moments.
The extras are as follows:
- Vito Rocco’s MySpace Film Pitch (3:37): The director tells us why he set out to make this particular film.
- Katie Melua records “Toy Collection” for the film (3:37):Does exactly what it says on the tim, and the man in charge of the film’s music is Mike Batt, ex-Womblemeister and writer of allof Katie’s biggest hits.
- Casting Videos (9:40): This segment features two of the cast picked from MySpace, Calum Chambers, who plays Kevin – one of Richard’s colleagues,Chris R Wright, their bastard store boss, Simon, and Phil Lester who plays Sam, another colleague, even though thecast list has him down as Tim.
- On-set diaries (20:47): There’s some of what you’d expect with this and also Chris R Wright shows us round his Faintheart ‘crib’.
- The Re-enactors (6:12): A segment about those who actually do the hobby of the characters in the film.
Oddly, the trailer isn’t on this disc but it can be seen at theMySpace website here
Sadly, there are no subtitles for the DVD and, also the chapters are a bit lacking at only 12 for the near-90-minute runningtime. Personally, I’d bank on at least one every five minutes plus one each for the opening and closing credits. The menufeatures various clips from the film with the music of Phil Mousley’s Try a Little Harder which features within andhe’s also one of the MySpace bands hired for the project. Annoyingly, this is one of those DVDs which features pre-menutrailers – here, for The Escapist, Summer and Twilight, but why aren’t these in the extras menu?
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.