Dir. Col Spector, UK, 2006, 78 mins
Cast: Stephen Mangan, Susan Lynch, Lara Belmont, Chris Coghill, Sean Dingwall, Bridget Fry, John Henshaw
Review by Richard Mellor
With its trendy modern soundtrack and cool North London locales, Someone Else is very much at the contemporary end of the romantic comedy catalogue. Equally untraditional is the startling absence of romance on show; instead there are false starts, fickle free spirits and internet dating trials. You never saw that in a Mae West film.
At the heart of this debut feature-lengther by Col Spector is photographer David (Mangan). Outwardly cocksure but inwardly unsure, this amateur lothario’s inability to be content with any romantic treasure may strike uncomfortably tender chords within certain male audience members. Perenially mistaken in matters of the heart, David wouldn’t know a good thing if she came and gave him a blow job.
As Someone Else begins, David appears well set. He’s shacked up with long-term lover Lisa (Lynch) – compassionate and gorgeous – and shares a dinner party with nice friends Michael (Dingwall) and Jane (Fry). Yet when jokingly quizzed on his and Lisa’s marriage plans, David’s unease becomes clear. He shifts in his seat, gulps wine and dodges the bullet unconvincingly.
It’s soon revealed why – devious David is having an affair. Where Lisa is domesticated and dependable, the younger is Nina is foxy, unpredictable and blessed with bigger breasts. Led by his libido, David’s hooked; soon he packs his trunk and dumps a distraught, perplexed Lisa, determining to move in with Nina. His comeuppance is quick to arrive as she promptly ends the affair.
Alone and adrift, David realises his gross error. He spends the remainder of this light-hearted tale trying to pick up the pieces, and failing miserably. Lisa, of course, won’t have him back. Nina couldn’t care less. Other girls dismiss him with derision. He has on a doomed affair with Jane’s sister. The moral of the story couldn’t be any clearer.
Meanwhile Spector proceeds into a rangy snapshot of tangled London love-lives, via house parties and Hampstead Heath. Michael and Jane drift apart, unable to communicate. Lisa utilises a dating agency. Stephen’s colleague Paul (John Henshaw) comically searches for love online. Shy Matt (Chris Coghill) gingerly meets a nice girl but doesn’t know what to say.
With solemn stares and pained looks on Parliament Hill, all seems decidedly glum in this tapestry of impermanence. Are Londoners truly this fickle; is love always so complicated? With more romantic pitfalls than even a Hugh Grant caper, Someone Else sure thinks so – and boy, does it relish the fact.
Rather than wallow in sentiment, Spector’s picture is instead well-paced and wryly scripted, with Mangan’s likeable fool the commonest beneficiary. He specialises in going too far when fighting his corner, and yet is utterly unable go nearly far enough when it come to voicing his true feelings to Lisa. Countless times you urge him to just lay it on the line; every time he capriciously fails. The clunkier, serious moments are thankfully kept to a minimum.
Mangan is terrific – ignorant and ignoble, and yet also as pleasingly mischievous as in his Barclaycard adverts; never more so than when sending Michael’s children to chat up two girls for him in a café. Mangan’s co-stars fare less well; criminally underused in underdeveloped roles. Belmont is impressively tender as the seemingly soulless Nina, while Lynch’s Lisa is a study in elegance – but both are largely wasted. Bridget Fry hardly has a scene, such is the focus on David.
But while women are ill-represented, they also emerge somewhat triumphantly. Ultimately Someone Else deals in male shame – and it’s odds on that one of the experiences it relates (dumping, cheating, losing) will chime with every boyfriend watching, and instil some (temporary) guilt. The final credits-cover of Take That’s girlie-gratifying 'Back For Good' rams home this point. Whatever we did, we didn’t mean it.
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