Reviewed by Justin Bateman
Stars Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner, Jessica Hynes, Paul Nicholls | Written by David Lemon
UK certification PG | UK RRP £15.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 82 minutes | Directed by Vito Rocco
Richard (Marsan) is a battle re-enactor. At weekends he dresses up like a Viking, wields a sword and shield and goes into battle with the Normans. But being part of the Bloody Broadswords isn’t just a hobby for Richard, it’s life itself. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his wife Cath (Hynes) is growing a little impatient with him, the final straw coming when he arrives late to her father’s funeral, dressed in full battle regalia.
Cath kicks Richard out of the house and as it soon transpires she’s sleeping with their son’s PE teacher, Gary (Nicholls), and so Richard sets about winning her back. In the meantime, he is staying with best friend and ‘Trekkie’ Julian (Bremner) who is on a mission to get himself a girlfriend. Between the two of them very little goes to plan, although there’s never any real doubt about the outcome of the story.
And herein lies one of the film’s big problems. Despite their innate hopelessness with women and relationships, you just know it will all work out fine in the end and with that disappears any dramatic tension. Another issue is that although not exactly unlikeable, there’s very little to make you warm to Marsan’s central character. And without any explanation of why he’s so engrossed in the world of battle re-enactments, it’s hard to sympathise with his plight, never mind empathise. Almost all of the characters feel either under-developed or caricatures so it’s hard to get involved in the story. And the less said about the big fight scene finale the better.
Faintheart is not without its charms. Bremner has a few of the film’s best lines and delivers them expertly, newcomer Chris R Wright smarms his way through his role as Richard’s boss with relish and Eddie Marsan is fine. But Jessica Hynes, so funny and amiable in Spaced, is underused and merely gets to look a bit grumpy now and then. I really wanted to like this, not least because it was the result of a collaboration between MySpace and Film4. The idea that an online community could contribute to a successful film is a heart-warming one. But in the end, it feels a bit like a school play, something the extras package only serves to reinforce.
EXTRAS * Vito Rocco’s MySpace film pitch, Katie Melua records “Toy Collection” for the film, Casting videos, On set diaries, The Re-enactors.