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Dom Robinson reviews
Rental DVD
VCI
- Cert:
- Cat.no: FDVD 082
- Running time: 103 minutes
- Year: 2001
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £n/a
- Extras: Trailers for “Monsoon Wedding”, “Charlotte Grey”, Audio Description
Director:
- Peter Cattaneo
(Full Monty, Lucky Break)
Producer:
- Peter Cattaneo, Uri Fruchtmann and Barnaby Thompson
Screenplay:
- Ronan Bennett
Music:
- Anne Dudley
Cast:
- Jimmy: James Nesbitt
Annabel: Olivia Williams
Cliff: Timothy Spall
Roger: Bill Nighy
Rudy: Lennie James
Perry: Ron Cook
John Toombes: Frank Harper
Guvenor Graham Mortimer: Christopher Plummer
Darren: Raymond Waring
Amy: Celia Imrie
A Lucky Break is what Jimmy (James Nesbitt) is desparately in need of after being captured during an armed robbery of a bank with friend and accomplice Rudy (Lennie James).
We then join them five years into their 12-year sentence in a high-security prison governed by musical-loving Graham Mortimer (Christopher Plummer) where tensions are still fraught between the two men but one thing they both have in common is the desire to escape and they might just have a chance when Jimmy suggests to Mortimer about putting together a musical of “Nelson”, to be held in the old chapel, like the last time the prison held one, after he learns from Rudy that it’s the only place from which they can escape.
As rehearsals begin, so does Jimmy’s love for prison officer Annabel (Olivia Williams), who’s producing the play. It’s a love that can never be, but will she fall for him too? What do you think.
There are plenty of one-liners early on and good characterisation defining the individuals, the overweight and undervalued Cliff (Timothy Spall), nervy Roger (Bill Nighy), arsonist Darren (Raymond Waring), the token psycho inmate John Toombes (Frank Harper) and sadistic prison warden Perry (Ron Cook).
The only two who don’t get much to define them with are the James Nesbitt – who behaves just like Adam from Cold Feet and Lennie James, both of whom could phone their performances in as they both do their job but that’s about it. Incidentally, Lennie James appeared with Nesbitt in the first series of Cold Feet as Rachel’s ex-boyfriend and left Adam reeling at the end not knowing which of their seed had made her pregnant.
So, after a promising first half-hour, you sit through the rest watching the obvious happen and wait for the end. It’s not the worst way of spending two hours, but far from an experience you’d want to repeat.
Presented in the original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 and anamorphic, the print is mostly perfect, but there’s the occasional bit of damage in the form of speckles. Seems a bit odd for a film made only last year.
The sound is in Dolby Digital 5.1 but it’s not a film that makes great use of the extra channels, even during the musical numbers.
For a rental DVD, there’s not much in the way of extras that relate to the film in question. First up, you get two trailers for other films, Monsoon Wedding and Charlotte Grey, neither of which look particularly exciting and neither of which can be accessed from the main menu. These only play, normally, when you first put the disc in the player, unless you’re using a DVD-ROM player or can access individual titles on the DVD. Also, we have a feature-length Audio Description track, like having every non-dialogue part spoken out loud.
The menu that you do get is static and silent and offers just the choice of English subtitles and ‘play movie’, but while there are 20 chapters to the film there’s no scene selection 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.