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Derek Malcolm's rating
Dancing in time to lost dreams
By
Derek Malcolm
24 Aug 2006
A good cast wallows unconvincingly in this whimsy about lost dreams and tarnished expectations.
Robert Carlyle plays Frank, a lonely widower who finds himself helping dying man Steve (John Goodman) in a crashed car. The man was on his way to the school of the title, where he was meant to meet up with his childhood sweetheart of 40 years ago.
Frank decides to find the woman and tell her about the accident, but there's no one of her name there. Instead, he meets and falls for Meredith (Marisa Tomei), one of those misfits who takes psychotherapy sessions when they're not on the dancefloor.
Danny DeVito, Mary Steenburgen and Sean Astin are also among the cast of this strange little fairytale which goes backwards and forwards in time but doesn't very often give anyone a real chance to stretch their acting muscles. Carlyle tries hard but you too often feel he's on a hiding to nothing.
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Reader views (2)
Ugh, I hated this film. Meredith is sooo intense and sooo dreary and she ruined the film for me. Normally I think Marisa Tomei is cute, even if she isn't the best actress in the world, but she didn't suit this character one bit. Robert Carlyle reminded me a bit of his character from Trainspotting sometimes in this film - when he pulls his 'intense' face you want to laugh and start offering him some heroin to calm him down (Begby, not Carlyle himself!). It's a bit hammy, to be honest.
- Richie, Newham, London, 30/08/2006 15:52
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Robert Carlyle made this film for me, his performances were stunning and genuinely moving at times. Some of the other characters, especially Meridith were a little overacted at times which ruined parts of the film for me which was disappointing.
The time-shifts were a little disorientating to begin with but once I got past the initial confusion they made a mediocre story much more gripping.
My Boyfriend however lost all interest in the film very quickly and had absoloutely nothing positive to say about it, this is one to see with the girls.
- Samantha, Shoreditch, 30/08/2006 09:17
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