Neil Young's Film Lounge

Neil Young’s Film Lounge – Born Romantic

BORN ROMANTIC

4/10

UK 2001
dir/scr David Kane
cin Robert Alazraki
stars Jane Horrocks, Craig Ferguson, Olivia Williams, David Morrissey
100mins

David Morrissey is one of the finest actors working in Britain – or, indeed, anywhere else – today. Hes certainly the most underrated, perhaps due to the fact that the majority of his work has been on television, principally his monumental performance in the BBC2 mini-series Holding On. Though he’s been popping up in films since Peter Greenaways Drowning By Numbers, he’s either been relegated to supporting roles (the husband in Hilary and Jackie) or else has starred in barely-released movies (currently – The Suicide Club). Fingers crossed, 2001 may bring him some of the attention he deserves – he’s fourth-billed behind Nicolas Cage, John Hurt and Penelope Cruz in John Maddens Captain Corellis Mandolin, and he’s also got a few British pictures lined up. Firstly, Born Romantic.

Its an ensemble piece with established, talented actors including Horrocks, Ferguson, Williams, Adrian Lester, Catherine McCormack, Ian Hart and John Thomson – but, as usual, its Morrissey who makes the biggest impact. Hes in big-daft-doggy mode as Fergus, a Liverpool musician who arrives in London to find the ex-girlfriend (Horrocks) he jilted some years before. His remorseless romantic quest eventually brings him to a Salsa club, which is the focal point for all the films other stories: the tentative romance between suave 50s throwback Ferguson and edgy picture-restorer Williams, another tentative romance between death-fixated McCormack (delivering what looks eerily like a homage to Imogene Hassalls performance as Jenny Grubb, Terry Scotts geeky girlfriend from Carry On Loving) and petty thief Jimi Mistry (the films one weak link, his performance stands out a mile.)

Many peripheral characters orbit around these main strands, Born Romantic falling squarely into the category of movies in which London itself – the big, bad, heartless city – is the main character, just as in writer-director Kanes last picture, This Years Love, which also featured Hart. The only example of this sub-genre that’s anything special is Michael Winterbottoms Wonderland from last year, which followed its array of characters – yes, Hart was in that one as well – with semi-hidden cameras, using real Londoners as unofficial, unaware extras. Born Romantic never achieves any of the energy, pathos or visual style of that movie, which also had the benefit of a stirring Michael Nyman score.

Here, Kane falls into the Mike Figgis trap of lathering cool jazz all over the place – when, that is, he isn’t blasting away with Salsa riffs. Born Romantic is quite lazily written – two of the most unoriginal ways to link disparate stories are (a) a dance club and (b) a taxi driver, and Kane shamelessly uses both. There seems to be only one cabbie – insufferable nosey knowall Lester – in the whole of what Radio 1s Marc and Lard call London Village, and it might as well be a village, such is the contrived handiness by which all the characters keep bumping into each other – Nashville it aint. There are many worse British movies around – and at least Born Romantic can boast the ever-watchable Ferguson, who excels in conceited roles, not to mention Morrissey, though its frustrating that his vast talents continue to be wasted in ordinary movies like this one.

31^st January 2001

by Neil Young

-