it's a challenge to even get into this film. For one the lighting is pitiful and the sound? great chunks of dialogue swallowed up whole and unintelligibly between accents and mumbles. Lots of gaping chasms of no script filled with country and western music with a soupçon of Negro ballads overlaid. A bar scene with cowboy hatted and booted line dancers was ludicrous. I had to shake my head a few times and assure myself this was taking place in Northern England. There is no plot. No romantic development between the two leads apart from ye olde meaningful looks. Pete Postlethwaite plays the boss of a ragtag crew of painters who are hired to paint some high-voltage electrical towers. Under the table. Rachel Griffiths comes along and bingo she's hired after walking around the inside walls of a pub. Yeah, you read that right.A weird scene is the two of them running around inside a water tower, fully naked. It reeks of X-Rating titillation. The money shot. And yes weird and out of context.None of the other characters have lives or backgrounds or romances. Just Pete and Rachel. The others exist only to provide backdrop and crude comments.A complete waste of awesome talent. 2 out of 10.

This is, for the most part, a dreadfully dull movie with an utterly pointless plot.Pete Postlethwaite plays the foreman of a freelance crew of painters who are hired to paint some high-voltage electrical towers. What he knows, and the rest of the crew doesn't know, is that the company which owns the towers is short of money, and may not be able to pay them in full. (This "secret" is revealed early on, so I do not consider it a spoiler.) Rachel Griffiths needs a job, so she joins the otherwise all male crew.Big yawn.There is an "intermission" nearly two minutes long which features Pete and Rachel running around fully naked. This scene has absolutely nothing to do with the story. I think the producers threw it in to wake the audience up after the preceding events have put everyone to sleep.It is the only part of the movie that is worth watching.

An odd movie. Rachel Griffiths is the one to watch. She plays a free spirit climber who gets involved with one of the male leads. She's vulnerable and not at all sure of the situation she is involved in. I wish her character was more revealed, emotionally. I wanted to know more of her character but maybe that is what she was playing towards. She was intriguing. She was great in `Hilary and Jackie'. Pete Postlethwaite was as usual very good. He's a very versatile and talented actor

This movie is not nearly as bad as some other reviewers would have you believe. While it is no Hollywood big budget blockbuster it is a nice, sensitive movie about three people and their brief involvement. The scenery is breathtaking and the towers make a great backdrop. As far as being embarrassed by Postlethwaite's nudity I can only say I hope I look that good at 53. This is not a movie about a perfect man and a perfect woman under palm trees in a perfect world, It is about life in a dreary town leading a dreary existence. The crying man? He was living his dreary life, into a bookie for more than he had, knowing he was not getting out. I might cry as well.The movie was a bit slow at times but give it a chance.