The writer of "Billy Elliot" should have quit whilst he was ahead.
"Gabriel and Me" is as flat as "Billy Elliot" sparkled.
Jimmy Spud (the lead 11-year-old) lives in yet another north east dysfunctional family and, for reasons which remain obscure, decides he wants to train as an angel (the usual qualification - being dead - does not seem to apply in this plot). He applies to The Archangel Gabriel - in the human form of Billy Connelly - who obliges by appearing at unpredictable points to tell him how he is progressing. (Not well). Meanwhile Dad contracts lung cancer and Jimmy is disgusted when Gabriel refuses to cure him. This movie is implausible in the extreme - even if "Gabriel" is a figment of Jimmy's imagination. Apart from David Bradley's Grandad, the characters are two-dimensional, inconsistent and, worst of all, uninteresting. Any emotional content is crassly handled to the point of embarrassment - up to and including the death of Jimmy's father. On the plus side it is beautifully photographed; but can we PLEASE have a contemporary film, set in Newcastle, which DOESN'T make it look like a place which is slowly crumbling into non-existence?
"Gabriel and Me" is as flat as "Billy Elliot" sparkled.
Jimmy Spud (the lead 11-year-old) lives in yet another north east dysfunctional family and, for reasons which remain obscure, decides he wants to train as an angel (the usual qualification - being dead - does not seem to apply in this plot). He applies to The Archangel Gabriel - in the human form of Billy Connelly - who obliges by appearing at unpredictable points to tell him how he is progressing. (Not well). Meanwhile Dad contracts lung cancer and Jimmy is disgusted when Gabriel refuses to cure him. This movie is implausible in the extreme - even if "Gabriel" is a figment of Jimmy's imagination. Apart from David Bradley's Grandad, the characters are two-dimensional, inconsistent and, worst of all, uninteresting. Any emotional content is crassly handled to the point of embarrassment - up to and including the death of Jimmy's father. On the plus side it is beautifully photographed; but can we PLEASE have a contemporary film, set in Newcastle, which DOESN'T make it look like a place which is slowly crumbling into non-existence?