Locke (2013, costume design by Nigel Egerton) is a film unique in its restrictions – it takes place in real time, has only one character and only one setting. Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) is driving somewhere important, and over the course of the film’s 85 minute running time, his life gradually begins to crumble around him as he desperately tries to salvage it.
The controlled environment – the inside of his car – and the fact that the only character we actually see is Ivan himself means that interest in him is the only way of maintaining an audience’s attention with such limited visual stimulation. Ivan is the only character whose appearance is prescribed to us. All other characters are just voices on the car phone, giving the audience free reign to imagine each of these characters in any way. They will be completely different in the minds of one viewer to the next.
The controlled environment – the inside of his car – and the fact that the only character we actually see is Ivan himself means that interest in him is the only way of maintaining an audience’s attention with such limited visual stimulation. Ivan is the only character whose appearance is prescribed to us. All other characters are just voices on the car phone, giving the audience free reign to imagine each of these characters in any way. They will be completely different in the minds of one viewer to the next.
- 9/1/2015
- by Lord Christopher Laverty
- Clothes on Film
Opened
Friday, Sept. 5
LONDON -- Lawn bowls is a sedate sport that has all the excitement of curling but without the ice and all that furious brushing. The joke in "Blackball" is that whiz-bang American marketing could turn it into a frenzied television sport as if an English turnip could be spun into a McDonald's French fry. Sadly, that's the only joke.
Parochial gags, likable players and a jingoistic finale may win the film an audience at home, but overseas sales appear slim unless the lawn bowls crowd gathers round and ex-pat Brits have a collective fit of seaside nostalgia.
Tim Firth's screenplay centers on the Royal Torquay Bowls Club, where the kind of snobs that Basil covets for "Fawlty Towers" rule the roost. Chief among them is Ray Speight (James Cromwell), a driving examiner and local councilor noted for his expertise in municipal signage (e.g., "No thongs" at the local swimming pool). Ray is the long-reigning regional bowls champion and writer of the Bowls Association's strict book of rules.
Enter Cliff Starkey (Paul Kaye), a wild and crazy bowls player from the wrong side of the pier, who can place one of the two-and-a-half pound spheres of wood used in bowls on a used condom from 30-odd paces.
Cliff wins the local tournament, but behaving like a cross between a professional wrestler and something out of "Kingpin" earns him the wrath of Speight, who has him disqualified on a technicality. The resulting headlines attract a predator, American sports agent Rich Schwartz (Vince Vaughn), who conjures up madly hyped TV events, high-priced sponsorships and mass appeal.
Blend in Cliff's doting granddad (Bernard Cribbins), a hurt best friend (Johnny Vegas) and Speight's gorgeous daughter (Alice Evans) and the cliches pile up on one another. It all leads to a final clash between Cliff and Speight and the hated Australian lawn bowls championship pair with the outcome a foregone conclusion.
Kaye makes an uncommon leading man. With scruffy lank hair, very English teeth and mix-and-match clothes, he looks like the second guy on the right in a 1970s punk band. Kaye works hard but can't get past the obvious gags and totally predictable story line.
Cromwell lends his acting mastery to a role that might have been fun to play, but will easily get lost in his resume beneath such triumphs as "L.A. Confidential" and "Babe". Evans has little to do but does it winningly and Cribbins, Vegas and Vaughn add their services professionally.
Grenville Horner's production design enlivens things and makes the most of the slim joke of giving lawn bowls a splashy makeover, and it's well captured by DP Vernon Layton.
Former comedian Mel Smith made an auspicious start as a director in 1989 with the quirky and funny "The Tall Guy" and struck international gold with "Bean" (1997), but you wouldn't know it from "Blackball".
BLACKBALL
Icon Entertainment International presents in association with the Isle of Man Film Commission
A Midfield Films Production for Inside Track Films
Credits:
Director: Mel Smith
Screenwriter: Tim Firth
Producer: James Gay-Rees
Executive producers: Mel Smith, Steve Christian, Bruce Davey, Duncan Reid
Director of photography: Vernon Layton
Production designer: Grenville Horner
Costume designers: Nigel Egerton, Anja Mai
Editor: Christopher Blunden
Music: Stephen Warbeck
Cast:
Cliff: Paul Kaye
Ray: James Cromwell
Kerry: Alice Evans
Mutley: Bernard Cribbins
Trevor: Johnny Vegas
Rich: Vince Vaughn
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Friday, Sept. 5
LONDON -- Lawn bowls is a sedate sport that has all the excitement of curling but without the ice and all that furious brushing. The joke in "Blackball" is that whiz-bang American marketing could turn it into a frenzied television sport as if an English turnip could be spun into a McDonald's French fry. Sadly, that's the only joke.
Parochial gags, likable players and a jingoistic finale may win the film an audience at home, but overseas sales appear slim unless the lawn bowls crowd gathers round and ex-pat Brits have a collective fit of seaside nostalgia.
Tim Firth's screenplay centers on the Royal Torquay Bowls Club, where the kind of snobs that Basil covets for "Fawlty Towers" rule the roost. Chief among them is Ray Speight (James Cromwell), a driving examiner and local councilor noted for his expertise in municipal signage (e.g., "No thongs" at the local swimming pool). Ray is the long-reigning regional bowls champion and writer of the Bowls Association's strict book of rules.
Enter Cliff Starkey (Paul Kaye), a wild and crazy bowls player from the wrong side of the pier, who can place one of the two-and-a-half pound spheres of wood used in bowls on a used condom from 30-odd paces.
Cliff wins the local tournament, but behaving like a cross between a professional wrestler and something out of "Kingpin" earns him the wrath of Speight, who has him disqualified on a technicality. The resulting headlines attract a predator, American sports agent Rich Schwartz (Vince Vaughn), who conjures up madly hyped TV events, high-priced sponsorships and mass appeal.
Blend in Cliff's doting granddad (Bernard Cribbins), a hurt best friend (Johnny Vegas) and Speight's gorgeous daughter (Alice Evans) and the cliches pile up on one another. It all leads to a final clash between Cliff and Speight and the hated Australian lawn bowls championship pair with the outcome a foregone conclusion.
Kaye makes an uncommon leading man. With scruffy lank hair, very English teeth and mix-and-match clothes, he looks like the second guy on the right in a 1970s punk band. Kaye works hard but can't get past the obvious gags and totally predictable story line.
Cromwell lends his acting mastery to a role that might have been fun to play, but will easily get lost in his resume beneath such triumphs as "L.A. Confidential" and "Babe". Evans has little to do but does it winningly and Cribbins, Vegas and Vaughn add their services professionally.
Grenville Horner's production design enlivens things and makes the most of the slim joke of giving lawn bowls a splashy makeover, and it's well captured by DP Vernon Layton.
Former comedian Mel Smith made an auspicious start as a director in 1989 with the quirky and funny "The Tall Guy" and struck international gold with "Bean" (1997), but you wouldn't know it from "Blackball".
BLACKBALL
Icon Entertainment International presents in association with the Isle of Man Film Commission
A Midfield Films Production for Inside Track Films
Credits:
Director: Mel Smith
Screenwriter: Tim Firth
Producer: James Gay-Rees
Executive producers: Mel Smith, Steve Christian, Bruce Davey, Duncan Reid
Director of photography: Vernon Layton
Production designer: Grenville Horner
Costume designers: Nigel Egerton, Anja Mai
Editor: Christopher Blunden
Music: Stephen Warbeck
Cast:
Cliff: Paul Kaye
Ray: James Cromwell
Kerry: Alice Evans
Mutley: Bernard Cribbins
Trevor: Johnny Vegas
Rich: Vince Vaughn
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/7/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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