Dir.
Craig Ferguson, 2003, UK/US, 105 mins
Cast:
Charlotte Church, Jemma Redgrave, Craig Ferguson, Joss Ackland
Most winsome British comedies, with their comic book has-been popstar lead character, coupled with cutesy non-threatening female counterpart, tend to be consigned to the back pages of the reviews section, jostling for space with the eight or so other also-rans being released that week. However, when said comedy is the debut screen performance of the UK's favourite former child prodigy, a potential headstrong diva who is currently never out the papers thanks to spats with her mother over her 'bit-of-rough' boyfriend, and her attempts to shake off her pre-pubescent angelic image, then the eye of the media is sharply focused.
In I'll Be There (and yes, she does sing that theme song) Charlotte Church plays Olivia, the moped-riding, newspaper-delivering daughter of Rebecca (Jemma Redgrave). Olivia and Rebecca share a very comfortable existence in a quiet Welsh town, where Rebecca runs a successful hairdressing business and hasn't done too bad a job on raising her only child single-handedly. Occasionally, Rebecca gets embarrassed when her old dad, 65-year-old rock-a-billy rocker Evil Edmonds (Joss Ackland) gets off the road with his band every now and then and comes to stay. Rebecca disapproves of musicians. Why? Well, 17 years ago, a less conservative Rebecca had a three-night-stand with emerging superstar, Paul Kerr (Craig Ferguson, who also directs and co-wrote the script). She never saw him again, despite sending him letters telling him that he was about to become a father. Olivia is subsequently brought up to believe that her father is dead.
However, when the ageing, alcoholic, and questionably suicidal Kerr - dressed in leather jacket and leopard print underpants - smashes through a second-storey window of his mansion on his motorbike and is sectioned in a mental hospital, Evil returns to tell his daughter that it's about time his grand-daughter knew the truth about her father.
The rest of the film follows the family's attempts at reconciliation, and charts Olivia's - who naturally has the 'voice of an angel' - journey in discovering what she wants to do with her life rather than conforming to what others expect from her.
The story is certainly not original and, despite their little eccentricities, these characters form the staple diet of 'nice' British comedy. The script is painfully weak, and moments whereby the local barmaid puts on a wig and pretends she is Kerr's wife in order to help him 'escape' from the mental hospital just reek of that quintessential Britishness that was comfortingly endearing in the fifties and sixties, but now just serves such luke-warm fare as Splitting Heirs, The Pope Must Die, or Still Crazy. And yet.
Charlotte Church, in pretty much an autobiographical role (Ferguson wrote the character with Church in mind), manages to avoid portraying her character as an annoying simpering brat, despite being nauseatingly talented, a hard worker, a devoted daughter, and a sensible, nice girl-next-door type. The fact that we like Olivia indicates that Church does actually deliver as an actress.
Ferguson, too, manages to emerge from his cardboard cutout rockstar stereotype to reveal moving depths to his character, aided by his impeccable timing, comedic and otherwise.
Surprisingly, the biggest disappointments are Ackland and Redgrave's performances. Ackland is irritatingly over-the-top as the geriatric rocker, a caricature rather than character, but even this is preferable to Redgrave's wooden, uncharismatic performance. She may well be attempting to portray the epitome of an uptight career woman but there isn't a single hint at the wild floozy she must have been 17 years previous, no flash in the eye, no secret smile, yet neither is there a steely glint or firm resolve to the mouth to announce the ruthless streak that characterises a successful business woman. Instead, she comes across as a sulky, clueless teenager who has less common sense than her offspring. We know that this simply cannot be the case and therefore her performance doesn't ring true. Fortunately, we don't care too much about this important character other than her role in Olivia and Kerr's story.
There are, however, some excellent cameos, most notably Buffy's Anthony Head as Kerr's sleazeball cockney manager (an ideal candidate for the forthcoming Carry on London), and Ralph Brown as Kerr's long-time friend, Digger McQuade.
In I'll Be There, Ferguson has co-written and directed a pleasing comedy that is well-paced, contains genuinely funny moments, presents likeable lead characters, and offers poignant ruminations on the nature of love and loss.If, as unfortunately seems to be the case, you're not expecting too much from this movie then you will probably be pleasantly surprised.
Jean Lynch
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