Doesn't really work

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2003)

I had a very hard time with this film. See, when a film has it's heart truly in the right place, I often find myself loathed to criticise. The film does have some very funny moments throughout the first half but then it starts to deaden out.
For me, the problem is that there are too many characters so it becomes hard to feel for those characters when they conclude their stories. This film needed to be cut down at the script stage because the film is not long enough to do the job properly and is too long to appeal to the correct audience. While I've enjoyed their previous work (and it would have robbed us of an enjoyable wedding scene), Keira Knightley and Andrew Lincoln are unnecessary and Laura Linney's character didn't add to the film at all. It's hard to decide what they were setting out to do here. In amongst this sprawling mess, there is a good film waiting to get out. Scrap that - there are two good films waiting to get out of this film. Laura Linney's tale of a woman who puts duty to her family and work before finding happiness intrigued me and could easily have been a feature on its own. The Thompson/Rickman tale of a married man who is tempted by another and the wife who knows and tries not to say for fear of breaking up her family. However, in reading those ideas again, none of these are original and that brings me onto my next point.
What we have is a diluted film, held together by an unoriginal, "It all ties together" plot that is not to dissimilar to that of "Playing By Heart" and Bill Nighy played a similar, burnt-out rocker in "Still Crazy". On the whole, this film is horribly unoriginal, mildly saved by half-decent comedy writing and laughs. There's an enjoyable film in there, if only they could filter out what doesn't work.