An Unlikely Fairy Tale

Rating: 8/10 (28 February 2016)

This so completely should not work. Multiple story lines, a huge cast, plot lines that really don't make a lot of sense (Hugh Grant is a bachelor Prime Minister? His sister is sending her kids to a State School? What kind of high budget porn movie are those two actually making?) , a tangle of relationships between characters that's almost impossible to follow, coincidences that are almost impossible to believe (One of the main characters in one plot line just happens to live next door to one of the main characters in another com0letely unrelated plot line?)
It just ought to be a twee, self indulgent mess.
And yet......
The script is truly witty, The performances are outstanding. Emma Thompson and Bill Nighy are standouts, but there really isn't a weak performance in the piece. Colin Firth is dashingly romantic and Hugh Grant dances. Liam Neeson shows he has a very specific set of skills and they include comedy.
And somehow the whole is just a hugely enjoyable confection. Even a moving one. If Laura Linney doesn't pull at your heart then feel your pulse. And if by the time the Beach boys "God Only Knows" fills the soundtrack you aren't felling a bit warm and squishy inside then I despair of you.
It shouldn't work, but it most certainly does.