The first film directed by Kenneth Branagh in which he did not appear, this is an extremely funny, heartwarming and occasionally moving comedy-drama. It concerns a depressed, unemployed actor named Joe Harper (played by the underrated Michael Maloney) who returns to his childhood home of Hope at Christmastime to help his sister save a local church by staging a production of "Hamlet". The am-dram play's cast is populated by eccentrics, almost all of whom are depressed for some reason. The film was made in black and white, though for artistic reasons, on a low budget over the course of 21 days and was funded by Branagh personally using his money from "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein".Branagh wrote the script himself and it remains his only film as a director with an entirely original storyline as all of the others have been based on preexisting works to some extent. It is a very keenly observed story. The am-drama play's idiosyncratic cast are exactly the kind of people whom you would expect to populate a production where they may not even get paid! It has an extremely strong cast including Maloney, Branagh's "mascot" Richard Briers, Julia Sawalha, John Sessions (a laugh riot as the drag queen playing Gertrude but equally good in his more serious scenes), Nicholas Farrell, Joan Collins (perhaps a little too glamorous to be Joe's agent), Celia Imrie, Gerard Horan and Jennifer Saunders. Incidentally, the following year, Maloney, Briers and Farrell starred in Branagh's version of "Hamlet" as Laertes, Polonius and Horatio respectively while Maloney also played Rosencrantz in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 version.Overall, this is not one of Branagh's absolute best films but it is great fun and rather uplifting. It's the kind of comedy-drama that I hoped his previous film "Peter's Friends" would be but that film turned out to be a very depressing affair.

Am I the only person in the Universe who hated this grim clichefest of a movie? Full of gangrenous, decaying ham, tiresomely twee, this horror ends up celebrating the ghastliest form of luvviedom that it should be sending up. The real mystery is how come so many people liked it. Is it the case that there are a lots of Americans out there who are taken in by this poor-man's Ealing-comedy as something terribly, authentically, 'English'? Could it be that having Kenneth Branagh in it is enough? No idea why this should be - the man is a booming, ghastly luvvie who can't act and can't direct. It was billed I seem to remember as a 'gentle comedy', two of the most terrifying words in the English language. Terrible terrible terrible. No more needs to be said.

Coming off the financial failure of two big films and the end of his marriage to Emma Thompson, Branagh wrote this witty, touching, and funny ode to the madness that goes on into putting on a show and acting, and the pure joy when ,against all odds, it turns out better than you could ever hope.Produced by Castle Rock and released on VHS by Columbia(after a small but critically successful theatrical run in the U.S. as MIDWINTER'S TALE), this is a film that deserves rediscovery and a decent DVD release. Seek it out. If you have any love of the theatre, this is a must own.The cast is full of familiar British faces,(Branagh himself does not appear,content with doing an admirable job of writing and directing) who all make their wonderful eccentric characters real and lovable.The nicest discovery is just how marvelous Joan Collins is at comedy.

This wonderful little movie pushed all the right buttons for me. It's about actors and the miracle of drama. It's about people rising to insuperable challenges. It's about people who don't fit in, the "misfits and nutters", managing to coalesce into a unit. It's the history of a dramatic production from casting through rehearsals to performance, with all the reversals and unexpected problems that always arise. And it has Shakespeare.Sound familiar? It should. This movie shares all the above characteristics with Shakespeare in Love.What Shakespeare in Love has, besides all that, is a pretty predictable love story and some gorgeous sets and costumes.What this film has, besides all that, is a lot of laughs and a theme that flows through every frame. Part of it is stated in the real title of the film, In the Bleak Midwinter (Why must some stupid American constantly insist on changing book and movie titles, usually sacrificing subtlety in favour of inanity?), and its reference to Holst's sad little Xmas tune which turns up in the score when the emotions are running high. The bleakness of the depressed characters is underscored by the black-and-white film, the lack of camera tricks or even motion, and the low-budget feel of the film which corroborates the low-budget production of Hamlet.The other part of the theme is rather emphatically indicated as they all pull into the village ("I think it's a sign!" "Yes, a road sign, love.") of Hope. The script is full of puns about those who have "abandoned Hope", reminding us of Dante's Hell. The awakening of a new hope in the darkest hour of the year when everything is at its bleakest is the message of Christmas, and this is a Christmas story in the deepest sense.It's probably just a coincidence that the first episode of the world's most famous sci-fi trilogy was called "A New Hope".The acting is practically flawless. Julia Sawalha is perhaps a bit weak in spots and is filmed in an extremely unflattering way at times, but she more than compensates with a marvelous snippet of Ophelia which is in itself worth the price of purchase.Many of these actors worked with Branagh on Much Ado and Hamlet; they are obviously having fun and the result is brilliant. Branagh's direction is characterized by unobtrusiveness and understatement which might surprise some.For most folks out there this will be a funny, feel-good picture which is well worth seeing. If, like me, you believe in Shakespeare, acting, underdogs, Christmas or light at the end of the tunnel this might be the best movie you've ever seen.