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Episode 11 |
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& DVD highlights |
w/e 20.03.10 |
@ DVDfever Youtube |
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Mar 17 2010 
DVDfever co uk
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Dom Robinson reviewsFaintheartA Zero Will RiseDistributed by
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Faintheart UK Movie Premiere |
As it begins, Richard's (Eddie Marsan) late for an appointment he can't miss when he's meant to be in a 1066 battle re-enactment, but given that he starts off here not being one of life's winners you can tell it's all going to go wrong and that it'll just further the marital problems he has with Cath (Jessica Hynes). Hence, before long they separate and he ends up living in his mate Julian's (Ewen Bremner) house... well, Julian still lives with his Mum, so technically it's not his house.
His job prospects aren't exactly fantastic, either, working in a B&Q-type store called the Home Improvement Centre in Worcester, but he's got good mates he can rely on including Colin (Richard Ridings), who works on the bins, while trying to constantly win over his young son, Martin (Joseph Hamilton), although that clearly won't be done by embarrassing the lad in front of his new girlfriend Emily (Chloe Hesar). Love is in the air for Cath, too, as - rather suddenly - she's dating Martin's PE teacher, Gary (Paul Nicholls), and like most PE teachers, he's a bit of a dick.
I don't want to spoil too much about the film as it's best to find it out as it goes along, but the basics are that Eddie's hobby places him as part of a team called the Bloody Broadswords, run by Geoff (Tim Healy) and that a battle is on the cards with their opponents, the Normans, led by Alan (Kevin Eldon). We also see Julian's rather unfortunate attempts to get a date, not helped by the fact that he works as a Comic Book Guy. Thankfully, Ewen Bremner looks nothing like the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons and doesn't seem to have aged since Trainspotting.
Faintheart is a movie with an incredible cast, faultless acting, a brilliant script and the full 2.35:1 widescreen frame is used to set every scene. The cinematography can make even a rubbish tip look picturesque!
Eddie Marsan, who I first saw in a very memorable episode of Game On, has made a great name for himself over the years in TV and films, and most recently he was so good in Mike Leigh's Happy Go Lucky. There are many excellent moments of perfect comic timing from all concerned and it's one of those films you can feel yourself enjoying more and more as you watch it. Of course, you can see the end coming a mile off but it's how it gets there that's important.
I didn't even realise about the fact that several cast members had been picked in conjunction with MySpace (see more about this in the extras, below) until I'd watched the whole film so I didn't realise it wasn't just a case of mixing well-known actors with brand new people, I just figured they were less well-known, particularly Chris Wright as Simon the nasty store boss, as we've all had bosses like him and he had that role down perfectly as it made me seethe as much as it did for Richard :)
This gave a great quality product as a result and hopefully it's a sign of things to come that film and TV companies will look towards new talent rather than relying on old stalwarts.
There's also a number of fantastic tracks from the '80s, including:
Faintheart has the right balance of comedy and pathos that you'd find in The Full Monty, giving you a rollercoaster ride of emotions and, as such, should go on to become as revered as that great British movie. It's also the first to be put together as a collaboration with the social networking website Myspace, working with Vertigo Films and Film4, and it makes for a unique project as various cast and crew members were picked from MySpace to participate in the movie. Given how well it turned out, let's hope this is the first of many, especially since in these times of recession it shows that a quality product can be produced to a budget while also, and just as importantly, giving new actors and bands a try out.
The film is presented in a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen ratio with no problems whatsover, and was viewed upscaled to a 37" plasma screen via an Xbox 360. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound doesn't get massive workout but works well for the battle scenes and also dialogue and more ambient moments.
The extras are as follows:
Oddly, the trailer isn't on this disc but it can be seen at the MySpace website here
Sadly, there are no subtitles for the DVD and, also the chapters are a bit lacking at only 12 for the near-90-minute running time. Personally, I'd bank on at least one every five minutes plus one each for the opening and closing credits. The menu features various clips from the film with the music of Phil Mousley's Try a Little Harder which features within and he's also one of the MySpace bands hired for the project. Annoyingly, this is one of those DVDs which features pre-menu trailers - here, for The Escapist, Summer and Twilight, but why aren't these in the extras menu?
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
