This is a film I really wanted to like – potentially an amiable feelgood low-budget British comedy but it ultimately came across as something that would have been better suited as a time-filler on ITV during the summer months.
In a small town four men find out that their local pub is going to be sold to developers. They hatch a plan to save it: by writing a 50 Shades of Grey style erotic book using a female writer pseudonym. The scheme goes to plan to start with as a publisher offers enough of an advance to enable them to buy the pub themselves, but the snag is they want to meet the writer and send her on a publicity tour…
The idea is a neat one and the film is patchily amusing and doesn’t outstay its welcome but their are some serious problems with it. Three of the four men are way too similar – posh-ish middle aged blokes who all hate that sort of book – and the use of music is a major issue.
Neither the jaunty score that pervades much of the film or the use of the music played by a live band in the pub are anything other than annoying. Also Tom Palmer who plays the son of the pub owner, and the youngest man in on the plan, and Dakota Blue Richards who is the actress who takes on a job of playing the part of the author are incredibly wooden.
On the plus side, there are some better performances from older members of the cast, particularly Christian McKay and Caroline Katz, and Miles Jupp brings most of the humour to the movie.
Rating: 5 out of 10