Strange effort part funded by the now-defunct FilmFour and DreamWorks amongst others, supported by the Irish film board. Basically two actors trying to act their way out of trouble.
Let's start with the good news. Child actress, very good, convincing. Lena Headey as Dolores, stunning, smouldering, good performance, I'll come back to her in a moment. Dylan Moran as Tom, good enough. Michael Caine as fading actor O'Malley, quite good, believable. Michael Gambon as Barreller, mostly quite good though sometimes he did look a bit too much like, well, Michael Gambon. Plot a bit perfunctory, Tom (at O'Malley's suggestion) pretends to be someone who Barreller owes money to and collects it instead. Things then start going wrong.
So what's the problem?
Though there are laughs along the way, some of it I found too horribly embarassing to watch, and at one point even to listen to (I put my fingers in my ears for a minute or two). It does have a romantic sub-plot, but it isn't central enough to call this a romantic film. I should also say that some of the material involving Dolores, towards the end, is dodgey for 15 year olds, and this should really be considered X-rated. In the states it's a 17-cert (R rating) not a 15 as in the UK.
I liked the throwaway ending, but though I wanted to enjoy the film, really I did, too much of it was neither funny nor entertaining. Sorry but it didn't do it for me, in spite of favourable external reviews.
Let's start with the good news. Child actress, very good, convincing. Lena Headey as Dolores, stunning, smouldering, good performance, I'll come back to her in a moment. Dylan Moran as Tom, good enough. Michael Caine as fading actor O'Malley, quite good, believable. Michael Gambon as Barreller, mostly quite good though sometimes he did look a bit too much like, well, Michael Gambon. Plot a bit perfunctory, Tom (at O'Malley's suggestion) pretends to be someone who Barreller owes money to and collects it instead. Things then start going wrong.
So what's the problem?
Though there are laughs along the way, some of it I found too horribly embarassing to watch, and at one point even to listen to (I put my fingers in my ears for a minute or two). It does have a romantic sub-plot, but it isn't central enough to call this a romantic film. I should also say that some of the material involving Dolores, towards the end, is dodgey for 15 year olds, and this should really be considered X-rated. In the states it's a 17-cert (R rating) not a 15 as in the UK.
I liked the throwaway ending, but though I wanted to enjoy the film, really I did, too much of it was neither funny nor entertaining. Sorry but it didn't do it for me, in spite of favourable external reviews.