From what I knew or presumed about the potential plot line and the cast involved, I was certainly going to give this very British film a go. Basically it is 1985, during the Thatcherism era, Brian Jackson (James McAvoy) from Essex has enrolled in the Bristol University with a love of knowledge, since childhood where he would watch college quiz show "University Challenge". He hears about a Challenege team trying to get on the TV show, and there he meets and is smitten by lovely blonde with a big sexual past Alice Harbinson (Alice Eve). He manages to hurt the feelings of Rebecca Epstein (Rebecca Hall), but he has to try and concentrate for the Challenge finale coming up, and he with fellow teammates Patrick Watts (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Lucy Chang (Elaine Tan). So it comes to the quiz show recording, and even with cuts and bruises on their faces (a disagreement), they are determined to beat the other team playing. They start slow, but do catch up with more correct answers, it is only when Brian answers the final question before it was asked - because he looked at the question book before the game started - that he ruins the whole thing. Also starring Catherine Tate as Julie Jackson, Mamma Mia's Dominic Cooper as Spencer, James Corden as Tone, Mark Gatiss as Bamber Gascoigne, Charles Dance as Michael Harbinson, Lindsay Duncan as Rose Harbinson and Simon Woods as Josh. If you are British, you will of course appreciate the good performances, but more than anything you will enjoy the distinctive nostalgia and warmth the humour this British film provides, a good old-fashioned period romantic comedy drama. Very good!
Review of Starter for 10
