Shot in sumptuous black and white,this is one the most energetic films I've seen in a very long time.Bob Hoskins(in the kind of role Robin Williams can play in his sleep,and often does)is at times funny,at other times dead serious,but always real in this story that centers around the boxing club he has built to give the young men in his small town something to do instead of sitting around feeling sorry for themselves and throwing their lives away.All the performances are first-rate,but the family unit of Danny Nussbaum,Bruce Jones and Annette Badland are particularly strong.If this movie had been made in Hollywood it would have been over-produced,over-cast and overdone.The film never lowers itself into the cheap sentimentality that this genre of film often falls into.The way that Bob Hoskins brings these guys into his confidence one by one by convincing them they're the ones keeping the other guys in line is awe-inspiring.And there's a great soundtrack to boot.Mr Meadows,I know the money can be very tempting but resist the call of Hollywood as long as you can.The concessions you'll have to make to get your work produced just aren't worth it.Bravo,Shane,you're one helluva filmmaker.
22 Reviews
Very Good, But Not for Everyone
gbheron19 July 2001
"Twentyfourseven" is not an easy movie to watch, actually I found it quite difficult, but well worth it. The story chronicles one man's attempt to bring meaning and purpose to a group of working-class youths in a grimy English city. Bob Hoskins plays Alan Darcy a sweet, well-meaning man trying to do good against insurmountable odds. Shot in black-and-white the visual despair of the public housing projects and the almost bombed-out urban landscape highlights the dark mood of the film. Why should these unemployed young men care about Darcy's dream? They're on the dole and have their alcohol, drugs and football. Why bother? This is Darcy's challenge.
The excellent ensemble cast brings life to the rather loose, not-so-good script. But the actors pull it off admirably and provide us with a good, although disturbing film. Definitely not Saturday-night-lite, rent-a-video with the family stuff, but still very good. If you're in the mood.
The excellent ensemble cast brings life to the rather loose, not-so-good script. But the actors pull it off admirably and provide us with a good, although disturbing film. Definitely not Saturday-night-lite, rent-a-video with the family stuff, but still very good. If you're in the mood.
Hard, gritty black & white stuff!
DukeEman26 January 2002
A gritty black & white film from the 25 year old director, Shane Meadows. Darcy, (played by Bob Hoskins in one of his better roles since MONA LISA & THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY), decides to take a bunch of restless teenagers off the streets and into the boxing ring. Then we go through the process of the bonding and the struggle as the boys come good. It begins as a realistic social drama and ends that way. I was glad to see that it didn't sell out.
"If you lose your temper you lose everything"
The_Movie_Cat13 September 2000
TwentyFourSeven is a pleasing film from director Shane Meadows who also acted and co-wrote the screenplay. Rather sensibly for a first-time endeavour, he's opted for a low-key work rather than the flashy fragmented works of other young debutantes (Guy Ritchie please take note).
The story is alarmingly simple and is thus: Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins, excellent) helps out wayward youths in a harsh Northern town by running a boxing club. And that, basically, is it. The film perhaps plays on too narrow a canvass and it's "life is harsh" rhetoric can be mildly overstated. Witness the habitual drug user who turns up to a bout with the largest spliff in history. This guy does drugs, and in case you don't get the point, here's a telescopic joint that would bankrupt Columbia. Bruce Jones' wife-beater can also be a little one-dimensional, saved only by the actors' charm. Yet the fact that the screenplay is so modest in it's ambitions helps it immensely. A lesser talent would have thrown everything at the screen for his first full-length work, yet Meadows tells his tale and tells it well.
Dialogue that could veer towards slight pretention is saved by the wonderful Hoskins, while the real triumph is the black and white filming. This isn't the Schindler's List type of black and white; a dull grey that looks like a normal film with the colour control on your TV turned down. This is a dark, grimy black and white that takes away any contemporary restraints. Particularly notable are the scenes set against the woods and train car, and the pace they evoke. This is a film that doesn't drag but takes it's time with precision. It will entertain you and doesn't need to rush it. Impressive.
The story is alarmingly simple and is thus: Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins, excellent) helps out wayward youths in a harsh Northern town by running a boxing club. And that, basically, is it. The film perhaps plays on too narrow a canvass and it's "life is harsh" rhetoric can be mildly overstated. Witness the habitual drug user who turns up to a bout with the largest spliff in history. This guy does drugs, and in case you don't get the point, here's a telescopic joint that would bankrupt Columbia. Bruce Jones' wife-beater can also be a little one-dimensional, saved only by the actors' charm. Yet the fact that the screenplay is so modest in it's ambitions helps it immensely. A lesser talent would have thrown everything at the screen for his first full-length work, yet Meadows tells his tale and tells it well.
Dialogue that could veer towards slight pretention is saved by the wonderful Hoskins, while the real triumph is the black and white filming. This isn't the Schindler's List type of black and white; a dull grey that looks like a normal film with the colour control on your TV turned down. This is a dark, grimy black and white that takes away any contemporary restraints. Particularly notable are the scenes set against the woods and train car, and the pace they evoke. This is a film that doesn't drag but takes it's time with precision. It will entertain you and doesn't need to rush it. Impressive.
Arguably the best film of the year.
Dodger-918 January 1999
For my money this is the best film of the year. Best in that it didn't cost a fortune but packs as much of an emotional wallop as any blockbuster with 200 times the budget. Bob Hoskins plays Darcy, the burnt out soccer coach whose past history is told in flashback through his diary. It tells of how he trained up a team of no-hopers into becoming boxers with something to live for. Shot in luminous black and white, the feature debut of Shane Meadows is a remarkably sensitive, blisteringly funny portrait of hopelessness in Nottingham. The city has always had its problems but is also one of the most vibrant places on earth and Meadows captures the balance perfectly.
The sulphurous black and white photography adds much class to the production and the team of largely unknown actors handle things admirably.
The movie also features one of the most realistic fight scenes ever committed to celluloid when Hoskins and Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) lay into one another. Both actors walked away with broken bones and this is jut one element of why 24/7 is a cut above the average movie. It's life captured on film with few romantic films. But the message is as powerful as one of Hoskins' punches in the ribs. Meadows will inevitably get more money for his next picture and will no doubt be sucked into the Hollywood mainstream which will probably be the death of him. If that happens, let's hope he doesn't lose sight of the genius which he embedded into every frame of 24/7.
The sulphurous black and white photography adds much class to the production and the team of largely unknown actors handle things admirably.
The movie also features one of the most realistic fight scenes ever committed to celluloid when Hoskins and Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby) lay into one another. Both actors walked away with broken bones and this is jut one element of why 24/7 is a cut above the average movie. It's life captured on film with few romantic films. But the message is as powerful as one of Hoskins' punches in the ribs. Meadows will inevitably get more money for his next picture and will no doubt be sucked into the Hollywood mainstream which will probably be the death of him. If that happens, let's hope he doesn't lose sight of the genius which he embedded into every frame of 24/7.
Dark, gritty, realistic drama
Rumples-221 June 2000
This film was one I had heard of, thought I'd like to see, but simply missed. When it came on pay-tv I made a point of taping it and I'm glad I did. In an extremely simple but effective way this film transports the viewer to a seedy english working class neighbourhood with its local 'colour' and crushing gloom, hopelessness and misery. A fair short film, in some respects I felt the tale unfinished - little by way of background, the heart of the film was the training and first competition which doesn't run too long, then - almost before you know it - its all over. Still, definitely worth a watch for some fine acting, interesting (though not overly original) plot, and fine but simple film-making. (ps although I can understand the use of b/w I'm not really convinced it was all that necessary or effective). My vote 7/10
Delightful character study
Prof-Hieronymos-Grost12 September 2008
In 80's England where the unemployment rate is just as high as its crime levels, Alan Darcy (Bob Hoskins) decides to help the local lads by setting up a boxing club that will focus their anger and energies in the right direction. With the financial assistance of local crook Ronnie Marsh, Darcy soon finds he is getting results until a devastating incident destroys what he has built up. As with all Meadows films, this is another fine character driven film, that plays with your heart strings, while not pulling its punches in the violence department, its full of golden moments and is extremely entertaining. Its full of backstory and character exposition and is required viewing from the best director in Britain today.
Precious, angry, alive.
the red duchess12 February 2001
This wonderful film ironises the feel-good 'Rocky' tradition to critique an ideology - Thatcherism - that poisoned a nation still searching for the antidote. Like all Meadows films, this is great fun, with authentic-seeming performances matched by remarkable style which mixes stylised naturalism and sketch-like sequences. But looming over the larks is a depressing framing story - we know the plot ends up here. The unbearable tension is wondering how. The answer is heartbreaking, showing how the thatcher years brought Britain to the brink of fascism, where an underclass are either bullied or ignored to a point where the only means of expression is self-destructive violence. The 'poetic' voiceover is a mistake, especially for a director of Meadow's visual intelligence, but he'll get there. A great feature debut.
Lyrical
rooee12 April 2010
After the short 'Where's The Money, Ronnie?' and the not-so-short 'Small Time', Lord Shane Meadows of Eldon's first feature film is this snappy black-and-white urban drama. Darcy (Bob Hoskins) is sick of seeing the local youths at each other's throats, so forms a boxing club to bring them together. It is a laudable plan; something to offer control and direction to a disaffected generation.
Meadows' greatest talent is in presenting a truthful working class landscape sympathetically, but without being patronising. Our heroes are disadvantaged, often stricken by a fearsome domestic environment (none more so than Danny Nussbaum's Tim); and yet they are also kind, witty, hungry, and joyful. The scenes in which Darcy brings the boys to Wales, with Ashley Rowe's sumptuous cinematography and Hoskin's lyrical voice-over, are so vibrant it's as if they're filmed in colour. It's quite something to find drama in scenes of great happiness, when the conflict is left at home - but Meadows always seems to find it, and that's what makes his films vital and real.
Meadows' greatest talent is in presenting a truthful working class landscape sympathetically, but without being patronising. Our heroes are disadvantaged, often stricken by a fearsome domestic environment (none more so than Danny Nussbaum's Tim); and yet they are also kind, witty, hungry, and joyful. The scenes in which Darcy brings the boys to Wales, with Ashley Rowe's sumptuous cinematography and Hoskin's lyrical voice-over, are so vibrant it's as if they're filmed in colour. It's quite something to find drama in scenes of great happiness, when the conflict is left at home - but Meadows always seems to find it, and that's what makes his films vital and real.
loved it
jsm1909728 April 2012
Warning: Spoilers
loved this film but the end came too all of a sudden.surely darcy's guys would have helped him more after the beating he gave tim's dad and disappeared. love the guys and how they all gelled after being enemies. it being shot in black and white added to the sense of a drab dreary existence experienced by these lads. bob hoskins is terrific. the realism of the club's first match, in that they lost their fights and even showed obvious distress was a refreshing change from the Hollywood idea that they would overcome all and succeed first time out. it shows, as in Fagash's case that you can't go from comatose druggy to champion boxer in 24 hours. i would watch it again and again. great actors acting greatly. shane meadows is a genius. every single one of his films are infinitely watchable.
Hoskins shines in mostly uninvolving film.
Chris J.21 November 1998
If you enjoy Bob Hoskins, you'll probably find sitting through Twenty Four Seven a worthwhile experience as I did.
The film isn't particularly memorable, however. It has little in it you have not seen before. There are a couple of brief moments which I found quite wonderful. But not enough to strongly recommend the film. My favorite is when Hoskins who has a crush on a young woman, sees her hand print on a counter and presses his own hand print on top of it. That I liked a lot. Unfortunately his obvious infatuation of the young lady never leads anywhere (which may be the point of course), but it's so subtle and so unrealized it barely registers. But there is that moment.
It takes a long time to get involved in the film. It concerns some poor working class youths in a nowhere town in England. Everyone there seems pretty miserable. Hoskins decides to revitalize the boxing club that kept him out of trouble when he was growing up and recruits several of the town's youths half of whom are quite reluctant. When the rich father of an out of shape kid puts a little money behind the project, some additional interest in the club leads to some publicity and a match with another town's boxing club. This does not go off very well at all. That's it. There are a few well directed scenes showing the relationships of a lad to his bully father. But because we don't care very much about any of the characters in the film the impact is dulled.
I can't praise the direction too highly because there are sequences that play like working class mtv videos. They would have worked at about one minute, but are allowed to continue for as long as the song lasts. The one to Van Morrisson works okay. but at nearly four minutes is too long. The others only hold together for brief amount of time before they get old. The music has more life than the images and narrative of the film and reminds us how lifeless the film really is.
Still, Hoskins is at times brilliant. His talent and presence is almost enough to sustain the entire film.
The film isn't particularly memorable, however. It has little in it you have not seen before. There are a couple of brief moments which I found quite wonderful. But not enough to strongly recommend the film. My favorite is when Hoskins who has a crush on a young woman, sees her hand print on a counter and presses his own hand print on top of it. That I liked a lot. Unfortunately his obvious infatuation of the young lady never leads anywhere (which may be the point of course), but it's so subtle and so unrealized it barely registers. But there is that moment.
It takes a long time to get involved in the film. It concerns some poor working class youths in a nowhere town in England. Everyone there seems pretty miserable. Hoskins decides to revitalize the boxing club that kept him out of trouble when he was growing up and recruits several of the town's youths half of whom are quite reluctant. When the rich father of an out of shape kid puts a little money behind the project, some additional interest in the club leads to some publicity and a match with another town's boxing club. This does not go off very well at all. That's it. There are a few well directed scenes showing the relationships of a lad to his bully father. But because we don't care very much about any of the characters in the film the impact is dulled.
I can't praise the direction too highly because there are sequences that play like working class mtv videos. They would have worked at about one minute, but are allowed to continue for as long as the song lasts. The one to Van Morrisson works okay. but at nearly four minutes is too long. The others only hold together for brief amount of time before they get old. The music has more life than the images and narrative of the film and reminds us how lifeless the film really is.
Still, Hoskins is at times brilliant. His talent and presence is almost enough to sustain the entire film.
One of the best of the Thatcher era films!
paul-903 December 1998
Something's Missing
marxsarx21 March 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Very Mild Spoilers Ahead
Twentyfour seven has some good moments as a film. It also has some good actors. Ultimately, however, it disappoints with a low key ending which borders on trite. This film falls under the category of a curiosity but not much more. The film does not come together as a coherent whole. I've seen it twice, and it feels as though something was left out of the ending. Perhaps something about optimism and the human spirit. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to feel. I rate it a D+, or 69 out of 100. The movie is in black and white, which I think actually helps it because starkness fits the movie.
Twentyfour seven has some good moments as a film. It also has some good actors. Ultimately, however, it disappoints with a low key ending which borders on trite. This film falls under the category of a curiosity but not much more. The film does not come together as a coherent whole. I've seen it twice, and it feels as though something was left out of the ending. Perhaps something about optimism and the human spirit. Maybe that's the way it was supposed to feel. I rate it a D+, or 69 out of 100. The movie is in black and white, which I think actually helps it because starkness fits the movie.
Appauling Film I am annoyed that I Wasted Some Of My Life Watching It.
jonjrhodes15 October 2003
I had heard a few reviews that this film was good and new and exiting so i went to see it and i was bored out of my skull. What is this excuse for a movie. I can't remember one point at which i was slightly interested and as for a rating out of 10 i give it a well earn't 2.
favourable
kezia2 June 1999
I've been waiting a while for this to reach our screens, and though anticipation undoubtedly adds flavour, I was favourably impressed. Meadows has been billed as Britain's new white hope and 'Twentyfourseven' promises good things for the future. It may not have the (attempted) dramatic scope of a film like 'the Boxer', which in plot terms it resembles, but Meadows covers the ground efficiently and without histrionics in a free-flowing cinematic style that simultaneously displays a tensile strength. Meadows' eye is good (the crane shot outside the club at a crucial point towards the end shows that he can do formal, too) but his ear is even better. The exchanges and insults between the two gangs and among themselves, even when not fully comprehended by my kiwi ear, make similar lines from 'Good Will Hunting' and other popular films sound contrived. The freshness of 'Twentyfourseven' may be supported by control and critical judgement, but it is, all the same, real.
Pulls its punches but the soundtrack is a knockout
nobby_nob11 June 2005
British character acting at its gritty and often ugly best. Ultimately a tale of redemption set against the palsied urban underbelly of post Thatcher Britain. Stark monochrome landscapes and 'facescapes' parallel a discarded social class, drained of its own colour.
All set off by a notable soundtrack including stuff from The Charlatans, Sun House, Van Morrison and Paul Weller.
The main criticism I would level at this film is the lack of story-flow. Too many set pieces strung together to get 'the point' across. It lost its heart somewhere in post production I would guess.
On balance it's hardly a bundle of laughs BUT still worthy of a sound 8. (eight)
All set off by a notable soundtrack including stuff from The Charlatans, Sun House, Van Morrison and Paul Weller.
The main criticism I would level at this film is the lack of story-flow. Too many set pieces strung together to get 'the point' across. It lost its heart somewhere in post production I would guess.
On balance it's hardly a bundle of laughs BUT still worthy of a sound 8. (eight)
Solid gritty film with plenty of humour.
Mandos24 February 1999
Perfect
mellfee5 July 2021
Twenty Four Seven is to Shane Meadows what Resivoir Dogs was to Quentin Taratino. Through Darcy, we see one mans efforts to show the youth of his town how to seize each day, even if he has to give everything he has. A beautiful film and a soundtrack to play the strings of your heart.
good acting, bad movie
petshop2 March 1999
A sometimes engrossing drama about a ragtag group of kids from the British projects who reform and join Bob Hoskins' boxing club. There is no chemistry between Hoskins and the boys, and one is left wondering what they see in him. Loaded with cliches, the film offers little originality. It does have quite a few heartfelt performances worth seeing.
Gritty and convincing drama delivered with heart, realism, style and talent
bob the moo1 October 2007
In a deprived area of Nottingham, young men hang around on the streets in small groups, unable or unwilling to find anything beyond their very immediate horizon to aspire to. The result is petty crime, educational underachievement, drug use and endless poverty. Alan Darcy is a local himself but old enough to remember the old days, where it wasn't all like this and back when a local boxing club helped to engage the youth and engender pride in themselves and their surroundings. With sponsorship from a local "businessman", Darcy sets up the club and uses his natural charisma to win over a handful of members bit by bit. However with negativity engrained throughout the community, the fight to aspire is not an easy one.
Watching Shane Meadow's most recent film (This is England) reminded me what a talent we currently have working within British cinema and it made me revisit a few of his early films that have been screened recently as part of the BBC's summer of British film. On paper this could be a typical sports movie with a group of young men finding fulfilment and meaning through sport. However this is not Hollywood, it is Nottingham and as such Meadow's opens the film with the end a simple scenes that sets the entire film as flashback and tells us from the very start that what we are about to watch has pretty much failed. With this knowledge in the back of our minds as we then watch the rest of the film, sentiment is kept at bay.
Of course the delivery generally helps this because it is gritty and convincing. The lack of hope and opportunity that forms the driver for the narrative is always present whether it is the characters or the bleak black and white cinematography and it is a real strength of the piece that it manages to do this while still retaining a sliver of hope throughout. It is hard for me to describe because I'm not that good a writer, but the mix of this comes off really well without coming over easy or simplistic. The conclusion is the closest that it comes to offering a "happy ending" but for me I took that more as people are people (hence we see mostly people individually or in small groups being OK) and that the situation is usually what makes the wider groups lack hope and aspiration.
Maybe this idea appeals to my liberal politics and thus I engaged with the film more, however someone from the right could also view the film as feel affirmed by the idea that you cannot help such people because they don't want to be helped. I liked the film because it can be seen in both ways and that it isn't as black and white as the pictures just like reality there is an element of truth from all views. Although it all comes to a dramatic head, Meadows and Fraser do well to feed in the negativity throughout in the form of certain characters and situations, while also bringing others out of themselves as Darcy manages to connect them to something. Accordingly the end of the film is also a mix of failure and success. I found it touching throughout and, although it did sometimes sail close to melodrama it never really went there and came across as realistic and convincing throughout.
The cast are a big part of making this aspect of the script work. Hoskins leads the cast well with a strong performance. He does have the charisma his character needs but he also lets the strain show while also handling his own character's aspirations and frustrations well. Jones perhaps has a quite simplistic character (ie he serves a specific purpose within the narrative) but he deals with it well. The young cast are quite impressive with everyone coming off natural and convincing something that Meadows regularly seems to be able to get from his actors. Nussbaum, Brady, Badland, Collins, Hand, Campbell and others all look like they aren't really acting for the most part, which I consider a good thing within this context. It is also worth mentioning that the soundtrack also comes over like the "12th man" of the team that is this film; plenty of great tracks and almost all of them really well used and fitted in with the film.
Overall then, an impressive feature debut from Meadows and is all the better given we are not looking back at it as "his one good moment before burning out"; conversely the strengths he showed here he has kept and built on even if the total product has not always been as good as it was here. Gritty and realistic, this film delivers hope and depression, misery and comedy, violence and humanity and remains true to its characters and environment. It is an excellent film and criminally under-seen.
Watching Shane Meadow's most recent film (This is England) reminded me what a talent we currently have working within British cinema and it made me revisit a few of his early films that have been screened recently as part of the BBC's summer of British film. On paper this could be a typical sports movie with a group of young men finding fulfilment and meaning through sport. However this is not Hollywood, it is Nottingham and as such Meadow's opens the film with the end a simple scenes that sets the entire film as flashback and tells us from the very start that what we are about to watch has pretty much failed. With this knowledge in the back of our minds as we then watch the rest of the film, sentiment is kept at bay.
Of course the delivery generally helps this because it is gritty and convincing. The lack of hope and opportunity that forms the driver for the narrative is always present whether it is the characters or the bleak black and white cinematography and it is a real strength of the piece that it manages to do this while still retaining a sliver of hope throughout. It is hard for me to describe because I'm not that good a writer, but the mix of this comes off really well without coming over easy or simplistic. The conclusion is the closest that it comes to offering a "happy ending" but for me I took that more as people are people (hence we see mostly people individually or in small groups being OK) and that the situation is usually what makes the wider groups lack hope and aspiration.
Maybe this idea appeals to my liberal politics and thus I engaged with the film more, however someone from the right could also view the film as feel affirmed by the idea that you cannot help such people because they don't want to be helped. I liked the film because it can be seen in both ways and that it isn't as black and white as the pictures just like reality there is an element of truth from all views. Although it all comes to a dramatic head, Meadows and Fraser do well to feed in the negativity throughout in the form of certain characters and situations, while also bringing others out of themselves as Darcy manages to connect them to something. Accordingly the end of the film is also a mix of failure and success. I found it touching throughout and, although it did sometimes sail close to melodrama it never really went there and came across as realistic and convincing throughout.
The cast are a big part of making this aspect of the script work. Hoskins leads the cast well with a strong performance. He does have the charisma his character needs but he also lets the strain show while also handling his own character's aspirations and frustrations well. Jones perhaps has a quite simplistic character (ie he serves a specific purpose within the narrative) but he deals with it well. The young cast are quite impressive with everyone coming off natural and convincing something that Meadows regularly seems to be able to get from his actors. Nussbaum, Brady, Badland, Collins, Hand, Campbell and others all look like they aren't really acting for the most part, which I consider a good thing within this context. It is also worth mentioning that the soundtrack also comes over like the "12th man" of the team that is this film; plenty of great tracks and almost all of them really well used and fitted in with the film.
Overall then, an impressive feature debut from Meadows and is all the better given we are not looking back at it as "his one good moment before burning out"; conversely the strengths he showed here he has kept and built on even if the total product has not always been as good as it was here. Gritty and realistic, this film delivers hope and depression, misery and comedy, violence and humanity and remains true to its characters and environment. It is an excellent film and criminally under-seen.
disturbing equals true-to-life
lee_eisenberg26 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
In one of many great British movies, a man (Bob Hoskins) helps working-class youths try to make something of themselves in an economically depressed town in England. It is the first time that they can ever be anything greater. But then tragedy strikes and the whole thing falls apart. The gritty "24 7: Twenty Four Seven" is no ordinary make-something-of-yourself story. The grainy black and white cinematography makes you feel like there's sandpaper rubbing against your face, and they certainly don't sugar-coat anything here. It's a movie that I recommend to everyone. Just don't expect anything "nice". A very good debut from Shane Meadows.
English Social Drama Turned Genre
Karl Self21 October 2001
"Twenty Four Seven" scores on cinematography and, in some cases, acting, but the story is inconsistent, predictable and unconvincing. Shane Meadows, the director, shows potential in his first feature movie, but overall he can't bring it together. The story is of a middle - aged man who starts a boxing club to get some youths off the street, and to give their dole - and - drugs centered lives a new purpose, but you can pretty much figure it out from there: new British cinema has never been so stale. We never understand what brings the characters together, what the kids see in their trainer (Alan Darcy, played by Bob Hoskins), why the young shopkeeper girl should be infatuated with Darcy (their relationship seems to be nothing more than an old man chasing a young bird), and we never even feel particularly sympathetic to the youngsters themselves -- they seem to be rather content collecting their dole and enjoying the easy life. I came away with the impression that the director did a social drama because he thought it would be the easiest thing to pull off, the result being a movie that has less grit and veracity than East Enders.
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