rob-carthy I generally agree with all the above negative reviews. But what got me was the casual dismissal of 'the Midlands' having hijacked it for the sake of a smart movie title. There was not a single midlands accent anywhere behind the leading voices of a Scot, a Scouser, a Cockney and a Taff or any kind of geographical peg. There is also a big problem with a so called light hearted movie employing Robert Carlyle as a moody violent character. We've seen him play those parts so convincingly in the past that it's impossible to see him in a lighter vein. I guess the fault lies in the lack of purpose or direction from the outset.These sort of efforts give British movies a generally undeserved bad name. And Rhys Ifans doe eyed simpleton shtick is really beginning to grate.

Jackson Booth-Millard I'm not sure if I would call this a great British film, but it is good for some of the story and casting. Basically Dek (Rhys Ifans), a decent but somewhat dull man, enjoys a happy existence with beloved girlfriend Shirley (Shirley Henderson). They live together with her 12-year-old, Marlene (an introduction for Finn Atkins) - her daughter by the sexy but delinquent Jimmy (Robert Carlyle), who flew the coop years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Dek loves Shirley, so much, that he proposes to her on Vanessa Feltz's show, yes she is in it. Jimmy sees the TV proposal and returns to town convinced that he can try to win back his wife and daughter, however he faces formidable opposition from almost every side. Also starring Ricky Tomlinson as Charlie, Kathy Burke as Carol, Vic Reeves as Plonko the Clown and Bob Mortimer as Kung-Fu Clown. With quite a lot of argument and family issues, this is a good all-star British film. Good!

holliemichellebp I really liked this movie. Due to the heavy accents, the dialog was sometimes hard to understand, so I did rewind some to catch it. I really liked the story, I loved that Dek was so devoted to his girlfriend Shirley and loved her daughter Marlene as his own. I thought that loving, responsible Dek (Rhys Ifans) was the sexy one, not Jimmy who was a loser and a jerk(although robert carlyle is nice looking). I thought that Rhys had great chemistry with both Shirley Henderson and Finn Atkins. For me it would have been a no brainer to pick Dek.I also enjoyed the extended family relationship between the two families. The characters were colorful too.

DomT Right, now where do I start?... If you had the choice of watching this film or something else, then choose the something else. This is definitely a film I will not be watching again. I watched this film with a class of students, and all of us felt the same way about the film - it was poor.Expectations were not met. The 'known' actors who starred in the film did not pull it off in this one, they were poor. Actors known to us in life to be comedians and funny e.g. Ricky Tomlinson do not use these qualities to their advantage. This maybe however due to the fact that the poor scripting did not help them use their qualities successfully. These comedians have a specific audience and as this film wasn't a good one, their audiences will have been disappointed with what they had seen. If this film was supposed to be funny then it failed miserably. I rarely laughed at some of the clips. However I could tell that certain scenes were aimed to make the audience laugh - which they didn't.As you can guess I did not like this film at all. I will not be watching it again. In fact this film has put me off all Shane Meadows films completely. I advise you to watch another film if given the chance.