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FILM REVIEW: THREE AND OUT

By Abigail Dennis ⋅ April 15, 2008 ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Jonathan Gershfield’s film begins with tube driver, Paul Callow (Mackenzie Crook), accidentally running over someone with his train. A few days later, he has the misfortune to have another ‘one-under’. Preying on his fragile state of mind, two of his colleagues tell him about a little known ‘rule’ at London Underground: Three ‘under’ within a month, and you’re out, earning you 10 years’ salary in the process.

Desperate to escape the stresses of city life to write a novel, Paul sets about trying to find someone prepared to jump in front of his train. Of course, this is no easy task, but the search he embarks on is both amusing, and emotional.

After many failed and excruciatingly embarrassing approaches, he comes across Tommy Cassidy (Colm Meaney) attempting to end his seemingly pointless life, by jumping off a bridge. To Paul’s amazement, Tommy agrees to his outrageous proposal, enticed by enough money for a last weekend to tie up some loose ends. Once it’s agreed, Tommy is determined to go through with it, claiming: “A Deal’s a Deal”.

With a new suit and a hired car, Tommy travels to the Lake District via Liverpool so that he can try and reconcile things with his wife, Rosemary (Imelda Staunton) whom he walked out on 8 years ago, and his feisty daughter Frankie (Gemma Arterton).

As the film progresses, although like chalk and cheese, Paul and Tommy each find something that has eluded them both for years: true friendship, and one which will push them both to their limits.

The film boasts a cast of British talent both well-established and relatively new. However, the fact that Mackenzie Crook said in an interview: “If people after this movie comes out don’t accept me as a lead actor, I’ll be happy to go back to playing quirky character roles”, says it all really; he’s just not cut out for such responsibility. Rising star Gemma Arterton, on the other hand, who made her feature film debut in St Trinian’s, is wonderfully captivating in her role as the overtly confident Frankie Cassidy.

Compared by director Jonathan Gershfield to the critically acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine, Three and Out sadly fails to live up to its promise of a darkly worked comedy. The script is thin in places, and the slow pace of some scenes becomes annoying, rather than entrancing. There are moments of cheek-aching laughter, however, most notably when Paul visits Maurice, (Sir Antony Sher) a French chef with culinary designs of a very unusual nature!

Worth a watch, but audiences will certainly be divided.

Three and Out is showing at cinemas from 25th April 2008.