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How entertaining? ★☆☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 9 July 2012
This article is a review of COMES A BRIGHT DAY. |
“Horrible word, ‘expensive,’” Charlie.
It depresses me that another summer Brit flick, after FAST GIRLS, has turned out so dire. An accomplished cast is squandered in an abysmally written, supposedly romantic-thriller, which is neither passionate nor exciting. Craig Roberts (who was excellent in SUBMARINE) delivers a smarmy and sarcastic turn as Sam Smith, “a bitch to the rich”, i.e. a gopher in a luxurious Mayfair hotel in London. He dreams big though, saving to open a restaurant with his BFF, Elliot (Anthony Welsh) – a chef at a local upmarket café. While out on an errand to repair a pricy watch, Sam has a chinwag with Elliot, meeting Mary Bright (the winsome Imogen Poots – FRIGHT NIGHT). In an attempt to ask her out, and also carry out his chore, Sam heads to the antique jewellers where Mary works.
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Of course on the silver screen ardour never runs smooth, and the store only goes and gets robbed. “F*cking typical” as Sam aptly commentates. Not only that, the two thieves are incompetent. Their criminal pseudonyms are Cameron (Kevin McKidd) and Clegg (Josef Altin). Get it?! This is a clumsy allegory to the state of the nation. The haves and have-nots. For some reason, writer-director Simon Aboud gives Cameron a stutter. He’s also someone who kills easily. It’s a given that the robbery goes wrong. Sam, Mary and Mary’s guardian/boss, Charlie (Timothy Spall), are taken hostage. Awful conversational exchanges then take up the rest of the runtime.
The ineptitude of the dialogue and plotting beggars belief. There is an interminable monologue spun out by Mary, about the meaning of a bracelet – the anecdote is clearly meant to imbue the atmosphere with romantic charge, but instead is a nail in the coffin to the messy tone. Roberts is so irritating as Sam, even more so than that crappy mobile phone advert he narrates. Sam’s face gets a beating throughout, maybe that’s some compensation for the audience?
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