Reviews

So the whole thing kinda left me underwhelmed. I'm a massive 'At Home With The Braithwaites' fan and was very interested to see what the writer, director and star could produce over on the BBC.

It was sentimental and sensationalist. Her sister being her daughter? That was old way before Eastenders did it. Carol smashing up a car and hanging a dog but letting her dad hit her? A 12 year old being pregnant and no-one asking questions? My biggest problem was that Sally Wainwright was supposed to be writing this great passionate love story. A bit of rainy snogging on the moors does not make it passionate. If they were so massively in love with each other then why did they let anything stop them? They played psychological games and deliberately hurt each other. If Carol later picked up sticks with her sister/daughter and went off why couldn't she have done that earlier with Andrew? It was also directed by Robin Sheppard, who did first series work on 'the Braithwaites'.

Okay, enough about the writing. The acting was good. Celia Imrie was pretty classic, as was Nicholas Farrell, though he bore high both physical and character resemblance to David Braithwaite. They were fun. Joe McFadden, whatever. He annoyed my girlfriend almost to the point where she couldn't stand to watch it anymore. And why did he suddenly acquire glasses when he became a teacher? Are they part of the uniform or something? His wife, Becky, was played by Camilla Power. The aforesaid girlfriend occupied herself by persuading me that it was a grown up Jill Pole from the Narnia dramatisations. It was. She was cool. And then of course there was Sarah Smart.

I couldn't believe it when Carol turned up in the posh car with the smooth hair-do. It was certainly a double take moment. Wainwright is certainly very interested in this character. She took Virginia (Ms Smart's wonderful character in 'the Braithwaites'), changed the world around the character and wrote a story. She didn't even change how the character looked. Sarah Smart was good, but she showed us nothing that new. We know she can pull funny faces and swear and shout and be angry and lovely. And I'm ever so pleased she got the chance to play a romantic lead in a big production. I just hope her next role will be more interesting and different.

I felt like I had to leap to the defence of ‘Beautiful Creatures' after what everyone had been saying about it. I made it my film of the month in my college magazine film pages. I loved it! I think that not only is it a great British film but a great film full stop. I know it only survived two weeks and was slated by the critics. I think perhaps lots of people were put off by the director's claims of it's dark humour and general shockingness whereas in reality (or unless I am unknowingly deeply psychologically disturbed) it wasn't all that bad. It does deserve it's certificate rating though, I wouldn't go that far.

I found it a welcome antidote to the recent deluge of lad's gangster/thriller flicks. It was fresh and much freer than any of those films. With good reason it has been compared to ‘Thelma and Louise' but as far as I can see it has more in common with the Wachowski brothers' ‘Bound'. Susan Lynch and Rachel Weisz were excellent. Their characters of Dorothy and Petula never came close to being your stereotypical man's-eye women. This reversal on the general way of gangster/thriller films was great stuff. The film was unapologetically British, the very British sense of humour was one of it's best points. Americans do not spare our feelings with their cruel characterisations of British people - why do our films have to America-friendly?

I think it's a shame no-one really gave a chance cos far as I'm concerned you've missed out on one of the warmest, funniest and most realistic films.

Okay so here in England there wasn't any hype about this film and I stumbled across it thanks to a large picture in a newspaper, the one of Elin and Agnes together and read the article and then I was hooked. I had to wait two months for it to come on at my local arts house and when it did I saw it all three times it was on. First I went with my friend, then on my own, then with my mum. My mate and my mum loved it. I became completely entranced. The first night, when I emerged blinking from the cinema all I could think about was seeing it again.

With a bit more effort on behalf of the movie industry and the movie-going public this film could have been really big. As big as it deserved to be. But people shy away from subtitles and the movie industry never really gave it a chance. No trailers, no nothing. Lots of really good reviews though. But no box-office busting success. So when the video (released in UK 28th August 2000) plops onto my doormat just after I get my GCSE results I'm gonna have all my friends round and we are going to watch SHOW ME LOVE. Teenagers watching the best film about being a teenager ever. Never mind gay or straight or boy or girl. There are truths in this film that go way beyond any limitations like that. I hope that my friends will like it even half as much as I do, cos that'd be plenty.

This film spoke to me and affected me in a way no other film has. It made me look at my life differently and changed it for the better. It's a shame it wasn't given the chance to do that for more people.