Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #153170 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-12
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.com
Shot on digital video, This Is Not a Love Song will make you think twice before hiking across the misty highlands of Scotland. This isn't a horror film, but as thrillers go it might just qualify, since it's about horrible people doing horrible things in a place that, under these particular circumstances, is also quite horrible. The trouble begins when an Irish "eejit" named Spike kills a farmer's daughter with a shotgun blast that might have been accidental. His buddy Heaton (Kenny Glenaan) is marginally smarter, but they're both pretty helpless in the boggy highland forests, as local vigilantes pursue their own course of justice. This gritty material marked a change of pace for writer Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty), and it's been glibly called a hybrid of Trainspotting and Deliverance. Those are apt comparisons, but apart from embracing the no-budget "Dogme" aesthetic, this British feature barely holds interest through its use of atmospheric landscapes, subtitles to decipher impenetrable accents, and energetic lead performances. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

This is not a love song, nor a good film
This film is very very disappointing. In the UK they sold it as the 'British version of Deliverance'. It was shot for half a million pounds, and it makes you wonder where all that money went?

The film was shot on a digital camcorder (PD150) but I have seen other films shot on digital camcorders that are not only much better, but which have cost around 10 thousand pounds to make. If this film had been shot for 10 thousand I'd give it three stars and say it was a good effort. But for the money invested, this film really makes you feel cheated out of your money.

The acting is pretty poor, and the direction is average. You have to bare in mind that the director shot the whole thing in 2 weeks, so she was obviously not going to produce her best direction. The script was a bit shoddy, but then that was also written in 2 weeks, so again you take it into consideration. I thought the photography and shot composition overall was pretty good, but at the end of the day this is a film, and as such, the story and acting is what matters, and they fall flat on their face.

Overall, very disappointing.

This is not a love song
This film is well done: the storyline is gripping, dark and tragic; the acting is admirable; and the director clearly knew what he was doing. Still it's not a film for everybody as it is so morbid. You might like it just as well as you might not. I have mixed feeling about it but i have to admire it, regardless.

A drama/thriller with a great sense of dark humor and irony.
If you�re into the downward spiral phenomenon then you will enjoy this movie intensely. The best part about the way this film is structured is that you forced into developing an intense connection with these two deplorable guys and end up rooting for them while doom hangs over their heads and hunts them through the bogy countryside. The acting by Cologan and Glenaan make this film a thoroughly worthwile and enjoyable experience. By all means check this one out.