A pair of squaddies come home to Edinburgh after a traumatic tour of duty in the middle east to a selection of real-life issues - girlfriend problems, parental difficulties and the like.
You may recall how the bright idea of using pre-existing songs by Abba to punctuate a daft but sunny story resulted in a hit stage show and a movie which cleaned up, big time, at the British box office. Well, clearly inspired by that success, someone has had the bright idea of structuring another story - this time set in Scotland, and to the soundtrack of songs by Scottish brothers The Proclaimers.
I don't think it is going to duplicate Mamma Mia!'s success - the granite of Edinburgh doesn't have the joyful lightness of the Greek islands, the issues in the storyline are darker than Sophie's daft quest for her Dad, and the Proclaimers' songs are nowhere near as well known as Abba's. Plus the Scots accents aren't going to travel as well as Meryl Streep and her cronies.
But it's not a bad film. The songs are well-chosen, melodic and lyrically apposite, the cast all work hard, there is some emotion at stake, and some joyfulness as payoff notwithstanding that it's all a bit soapy and doesn't actually go anywhere very much. I quite enjoyed it.
You may recall how the bright idea of using pre-existing songs by Abba to punctuate a daft but sunny story resulted in a hit stage show and a movie which cleaned up, big time, at the British box office. Well, clearly inspired by that success, someone has had the bright idea of structuring another story - this time set in Scotland, and to the soundtrack of songs by Scottish brothers The Proclaimers.
I don't think it is going to duplicate Mamma Mia!'s success - the granite of Edinburgh doesn't have the joyful lightness of the Greek islands, the issues in the storyline are darker than Sophie's daft quest for her Dad, and the Proclaimers' songs are nowhere near as well known as Abba's. Plus the Scots accents aren't going to travel as well as Meryl Streep and her cronies.
But it's not a bad film. The songs are well-chosen, melodic and lyrically apposite, the cast all work hard, there is some emotion at stake, and some joyfulness as payoff notwithstanding that it's all a bit soapy and doesn't actually go anywhere very much. I quite enjoyed it.