THE ONE AND ONLY

Starring:
Richard Roxburgh, Justine Waddell, Jonathan Cake, Patsy Kensit, Donna Air and Michael Hodgson

Director:
Simon Cellan Jones

Running Time:
91 mins

Neil (Roxburgh) isn't happy in his relationship. His girlfriend is desperate for a baby and as Neil is unfortunately infertile, the two have applied to adopt. Well Jenny has applied and Neil has just gone along with it for a quiet life. Stevie (Waddell) is married to Newcastle United's Italian star player Andrea (Cake), who is desperate to have a baby to prove his manhood and impress his mother but Stevie still wants to live her life. Both of them are unhappy until their paths unexpectedly cross and it's love at first sight.

British romantic comedies are very hit and miss and this one unfortunately falls into the miss category.

The film has a lot of good points on paper, writer Peter Flannery wrote the hit UK drama series "Our Friends in the North", Aussie actor Richard Roxburgh is a good actor with good supporting roles in Mission Impossible 2 and Moulin Rouge and Justine Waddell is an upcoming actress with some potential but all of this potential is lost as soon as your start watching.

There is something missing that would elevate the movie into the good category. The story is OK and not too taxing but it doesn't have the big screen presence to bump it up from looking like a TV movie. It does have a very funny subplot involving Patsy Kensit, Michael Hodgson and the soup section at Asda but aside from that it's pretty short on laughs. The acting is fine, with Roxburgh and Waddell having a good crack at the Geordie accent but their characters are very two dimensional and they are asked to nothing too taxing that would explore any of their talents.

As I said at the beginning of this review you never know what you are going to get with a British rom-com and it is always worth giving them a go but with The One and Only what you are getting is decidingly average. At least there is no sign of Chesney Hawkes!

NOT AVAILABLE


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2003