So this one is set on a ship out in the middle of the North Sea, and its pirate radio setup in the 60s. They don’t wear pirate outfits though. It has the most brilliant soundtrack with loads of good tracks from all the famous bands of the era too, and cool DJs (Philip Seymour Hoffman with interesting facial hair), and some not so cool DJs. Its by Richard Curtis so the great British sense of humour comes in quite often.
Bill Nighy is the station manager and he is glorious in this role. He is as cool as ever but he also manages to dance without looking like dad dancing. A unique skill, I think. Little moment of him adjusting his tie after frightening one the bad guys is worth noting. So very cool….
Emma Thompson as the embarrassing mum who loves the free love including very recently with Midnight Mark, is great. Just goes to show that mums have been embarrassing their kids for ages now and over a variety of things. Emma is all things fabulous though, and so glamorous to go with it. She can do no wrong, except there should have been more of her, but this would have turned Carl (her son) back into a child (instead of 18) and he would have been a bad version of Kevin & Perry (hello Mrs Patterson, you saucy minx). Love it that she continues to mess up her son by not telling him who his dad is and leaves him to work it out.
The aforementioned, Midnight Mark, who doesn’t talk in order to build up sexual tension. Silence is golden. He’s right of course as he wouldn’t get a shag if he talked, as when he does talk, it’s a let down of a brum accent. Definitely sexier with his mouth shut. I have a lot of conversations with my friends about men who shouldn’t talk and just look pretty/sexy. We generally agree on this.
Dr Dave sucking the end of his glasses as he thinks it’s sexy. For the record, no its not. And then the travesty that is, socks in bed, followed by the biggest travesty of them all, brown socks in bed.
There are a lot of cute scenes in this film, but my favourite is when they are cheering Carl up, after the girl sleeps with Dr Dave’s brown socks, by offering him tea and biscuits. Yes a cup of tea can do all sorts of magic stuff, including making you less suicidal. They eat all of the biscuits in front of Carl, insult to injury perhaps? But he shrugs it off. Real life crossing over into film.
I have to mention Kenneth Branagh’s character’s obsession with haircuts. I’m forever shouting at the TV ’Get your hair cut!’. I feel his annoyance… a lot.
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