Dir. Julian Kemp, UK, 2009, Dur. 86 mins
Cast: Brendan Patricks, Naomie Harris, Cecile Cassel, Kelly Adams, Jane March, Edith Bukovics
Review by Carlie Newman
Poor Duncan – you can't help feeling sorry for him - he has had a series of relationships and all have failed for a variety of reasons. He has tried being accommodating about ex-boyfriends, being honest about his partner's choice of fashion wear, declaring his feelings, not declaring his feelings and nothing seems to work. Now he is on the verge of committing suicide and this is where we join him. As he writes his suicide note to his five former girlfriends, his back story is told in a series of quirky tales backed by graphics, animation and unusual ideas such as a theme park showing how his life has not only ups and downs like most people but he suffers from bizarre and dangerous experiences.
He meets the first of these five girlfriends on a flight from Paris to London. He believes it is all a wonderful co-incidence and relishes their strong connection until he realises that the difficult to pin-down Wendy (Adams) might be looking at the relationship differently. The next one is cool, beautiful Olive (March), with whom he has a short but sweet relationship until chocolate gets the better of him. Although he considers her to be exotic, when Duncan criticises Rhona's (Cassel) new red boots, his third romantic liaison is doomed. As for number four, lonely Natalie (Bukovics), Duncan moves away from any long-term commitment, which she seems to need desperately, and loses her to her toy elephant. He believes that Gemma (Harris) is the love of his life and that he has found his perfect mate as she is intelligent and seems unattainable. And so it proves as when she moves across to his best friend and working colleague, he loses the will to live. Is this the end for him?
The whole film has a jocular tone and it is good to find a well-made British comedy even if the style could sometimes be improved: the direction and screenplay, both by Julian Kemp, who has adapted Alain de Botton's book, could be more amusing and meaningful, and there are rather too many girlfriends who are underdeveloped as characters and the hero is a bit nerdy.
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