Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Brenda Blethyn, Khan Chittenden,
Richard Wilson, Emma Booth, Katie Wall
Written by Keith Thompson
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 105 minutes
Directed by Cherie Nowlan
If Adam Sandler has failed to live up to his promise, the same undoubtedly applies to Brenda Blethyn. She was nominated for Oscars for Secrets and Lies and Little Voice. And since that happened, she's basically played the same two characters — squeakily pleasant and ineffective or big, brash and brassy — in everything she's appeared in.
It's the latter brassy turn that pops up in Clubland, a yawn-inducing alleged comic drama that fails to deliver for either genre. Essentially, it's Little Voice, the anagram. This time it's the mum with the 'talent' — Blethyn's Jean, middle aged stand-up comic — and the offspring — the put-upon son Tim (Chittenden) — who's seeking a better life while his mum throws up obstacles. Jean previously sacrificed her career for the sake of love, turning her back on a moderately successful UK comedy career to be with the man she loves and raise two sons. Now divorced and doing canteen work to make ends meet between man-bashing comedy gigs, she resents what her life has become and attempts to take it out on Tim, slowly emerging from her bitter shadow and feeling his way into a relationship with Jill (Booth).
Sadly, director Nowlan's film focuses more on Blethyn's phoned-in harridan rather than the really rather lovely relationship between the youngsters. This is beautifully observed and wryly amusing but, for some obscure reason, must play second fiddle to the shrieking, day-glo caricatures that populate the rest of the film.