Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Hadn't heard a peep about this. Last thing I heard, Peter Cattaneo was supposed to be adapting the brilliant T.C. Boyle novel BUDDING PROSPECTS to the bigscreen, a dream job that made me want to hobble him when I heard he got it. Instead, it looks like LUCKY BREAK is his new film, and our intrepid new spy CALLER FROM L.A. was there tonight to get a first peek and spill the beans.
Here is a non-spoiler review of the film Lucky Break, directed by Peter Cattaneo, who was last seen behind the The Full Monty.
Setup. This story is your typical prison break film, set to a comedy, with a dash of romance and drama thrown in. A bank robbery goes bad (don't they all?) and two buddies get sent to jail. Jimmy, the lead robber, decides to break out. Aided and abetted by sidekick Rudy and a ragged assortment of fellow inmates, Jimmy begins planning. Finding out the warden is a musical fan, Jimmy concocts a plan to do a staging of the warden's own musical with a secret prison break as the finale. Jimmy has second thoughts, however, when he falls for the pretty 'anger mangagement' conselor at the prison.
Execution. This is a very good little comedy film. It's a typical enough setup , and there's nothing new under the sun, perhaps. I was rather surprised to see the execution was so well done. This film will easily draw comparisons to The Full Monty, so here we go. I liked Full Monty, but I enjoyed Lucky Break better, probably because I'm an American. I do not empathize with miners...I know none. But I can empathize with prison convicts, we've got plenty of those here, heh.
The writing from Ronan Bennett took a moderate setup, and made it into a very good story. Some scenes, such as the 'anger management' scene in the prison, were close to brilliant. Very likable indeed. One sore spot: The main character has an unneeded voiceover in the beginning of the film for 30 seconds, and then there's no more voiceovers. Get rid of it.
The pacing was a bit slow, but I think that it works, since this IS a prison film. The characters, as with many British comedy imports, look as if they took really strange lovable people and put them in front of a camera, and it works. See Full Monty characters, Spike from Notting Hill, and now Lucky Break.
The music was a mix of seventies smooth funk with reggae, and was pleasant enough to listen to. Nothing special here.
Performances. The movie stars James Nesbitt (Waking Ned Devine) as the bank robber, Olivia Williams (Sixth Sense) as the counselor, Christopher Plummer (please!) as the warden, and Timothy Spall (Secrets and Lies). I was dying for a Plummer-Sound of Music musical joke, but it was never delivered. Everyone puts in a good enough performance, with a great one by James Nesbitt. The first encounters between Nesbitt and romantic cohort Williams work rather well.
Overall. I recommend this film as a very good small comedy movie. It's not a great film, only because the setup is too typical and predictable. This won't be the media darling that The Full Monty was, unless lightning strikes twice for Peter Cattaneo. As far as I know, Paramount does not currently have a U.S. release date for this film, but it's being released in Europe at the end of August 2001.
Cheers,
--Caller From L.A.
(who is either a studio narc, or a super-intelligent raptor)
