Product Description

An intimate portrait of family members and friends over four days in london. Love loss birth and death. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/24/2004 Starring: Shirley Henderson Molly Parker Run time: 108 minutes Rating: R Director: Michael Winterbottom

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64638 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2001-02-20
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

From The New Yorker
A searching, scruffy picture from the prolific Michael Winterbottom, who races through styles and milieus like a kid in a toy store. This latest venture is a coarse-grained record of London life, spliced between three sisters. There is Debbie (Shirley Henderson), the horny hairdresser; Nadia (Gina McKee), the lonely café waitress; and Molly (Molly Parker), who is carrying her first child plus the added burden of a panicky husband. We dart back and forth between their exploits and disappointments, with sidelong glances at their hopeless choice of men and their miserable parents. The mother is played by Kika Markham, who was a ravishing Truffaut heroine almost thirty years ago, and her presence only heightens the strain of sadness. There is an unaccountable thinness to the movie, and you wouldn't be crushed if you were told to watch it on television; on the other hand, you badly want to know what happens to these flawed and dreamy folk. -Anthony Lane
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Winterbottom's wonderful Wonderland
This may be the best film of 2000 (at least that's when it was released in Australia). Whilst film-makers like P.T. Anderson have made admirable attempts at personal drama in the last few years, and Mike Leigh continues to tell us that no-one suffers like the poor (as if we didn't know that), Michael Winterbottom has re-defined the genres. This is English kitchen sink drama without the tired clichés of class wars, which have seemed a bit anachronistic since the fall of the Tories. Shot in a stunning cinemascope (1:2.35) and available light, with the tiniest of crews, this is London as you've only seen it if you've seen it for yourself. The cast shines. I defy anyone to make it through this film without falling in love with Gina McKee. That's not to say that Shirley Henderson and Molly Parker are anything less than charming. Ian Hart is wonderfully moronic, as Stuart Townsend is wonderfully creepy. Keep an eye out for the beautifully natural performance of David Fahm as Franklyn. Jack Shepherd, Kika Markham and John Simm round out the main cast with equally powerful performances. A great script from first time screen-writer Lawrence Coriat. Michael Nyman turns out his most subtle and restrained music score yet. Michael Winterbottom is turning out to be the Stanley Kubrick of the 21st century. Who else has been able to jump form one genre to another with such ease and grace? This is a compelling film, well worth having your own copy of.

What It Is.
Watching this film, I was struck at the ambition of the film maker. A small family drama is told in the large scope of a sprawling city. This story of three sisters, their parents, their lovers, and their neighbors is a messy, yet elegantly nuanced slice of life. The acting is natural. No character is perfect and the exposition of the story is quiet and imprecise. The viewer is bound by the small details of the characters' lives. The city of London is not just a landscape, but an entity unto itself, complete with its own music.

For better of worse, the film lacks centrality and it is hard to empathize with every character. The murkiness of the family backstory is frustrating at times. Attempting to apply a moral construct to every sequence of the film is useless. To me, this movie had strong echoes of Mike Leigh's films.

Does the movie work? Sort of. Are the charcters revealed in a satisfying manner? Yes. Is the film's arc and execution admirable? Yes. Is the movie enjoyable? Not really.

The actors did a tremendous job. Gina McKee is fine as Nadya, the emotional touchstone of the film. Canadian Molly Parker does credit to her English accent. My particular favorite performance is that of Shirley Henderson (Bridget Jones, Harry Potter). She is wonderfully natural as the cheerful, tarty single-mom sister.

All in all, this film is better than fine but not great.

One of the best films of 2000....
A small jewel of a film, gritty in look, deep in its exploration of isolation, sibling relationships and human frailty, Winterbottom, who has been largely overlooked in the US, is one of the most deft of the younger British filmmakers. The fundamental themes of the film- relationships of all sorts, closeness and isolation, and life's tenuous balance between despair and faith (not in the religious sense), are aptly explored with humor and tender sarcasm.

The film was shot with a wonderfully dark grainy look, employing handheld cameras under natural lighting conditions, showing us a gritty London few films have. This is not a bright and shiny "Notting Hill"! Some of the cinematography in the film, especially the nights scenes, is just top notch. The film is as visually striking as Soderbergh's "Traffic".

The lead actresses are all terrific, but Gina McKee is truly memorable, portraying the tremendous loneliness, yet touching hopefulness, of her character in her finest performance to date.