a little manufactured but still good

Rating: Null/10 (18 May 2001)

I can't help but give a little chuckle when I see our American cousins struggling to identify the accents in this film. One reviewer said 'thick Cockney', another even moaned about the lack of British talent uttering English like the great Laurence Olivier! In short, if our American pals had there way, we'd all be speaking like Dick Van Dyke did in Mary Poppins (which is of course still an utterly brilliant film). Anyway, the as yet unidentified Nothern accents aside (which I found very enjoyable) let's get down to tearing this film apart!
Actually, I'm not going to tear it apart. It charmed me, despite it's often manufactured manuscript. Stories should progress naturally, sometimes this film was manufactured. When a writer writes, he does so from the guts. Often when film writers write, they are thinking mostly about the viewers guts; which is fine if you can do it well, but most often it feels like someone is wanting you to feel a certain emotion, and that's not very nice, or clever. Still, there are times when the feelings are genuine, like Billies family waiting for him to open the letter from London, or his father running to the Miner's hall to tell the good news. These were genuine highs, and they made the film, for me at least, worthwhile.