Piccadilly Jim (2004)

Piccadilly Jim: Directed by John McKay. With Sam Rockwell, Frances O’Connor, Tom Wilkinson, Brenda Blethyn. Set in the 1930s, an American with a scandalous reputation on both sides of the Atlantic must do an about-face in order to win back the woman of his dreams.

“Actors tend to place their trust in directors, even old stalwarts such as Mr Palmer, Ms Blethyn and Mr Wilkinson. Once the point has been missed by the producers/director, although in this case I donu0026#39;t think the point was ever sighted, the production must run its collision course with disaster, and not even such fine actors as were employed to give it life, could save Piccadilly Jim .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePG Wodehouse was a successful writer who knew the value of the suspension of disbelief, and was able to deliver the theatrical creation of a world which, although highly unlikely, with a cleverly constructed set of plausibilities, would, and did, pass as the truth.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTheatre has many natural enemies. Because it is not the truth, but the appearance of truth, theatre has many tricks and falsehoods in its infrastructure, and these are all susceptible to betrayal in drama, but in comedy they are especially vulnerable. The absolute death sentence on comedy, is to u0026quot;mugu0026quot; (pull faces) to attempt to be funny, or to overstate a quirk or characteristic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn Piccadilly Jim, the director breaks all the rules of good comedy by allowing, not only u0026quot;mugging,u0026quot; and (keep it in) play funny work, but a whole swatch of clashes to occur. Modern dress, modern language, caricature rather than character, a mysterious failure at irregular intervals to use film language, and the erratic use of tempo, which often stifles its own dialogue.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMany a great opera singer has come unstuck via the technicalities of a so called simple folk song. Perhaps this film came likewise unstuck, by its creators missing the hidden vortex within the supposed simplicity of the original story.”