Fisherman’s Friends Cert: 12A, 1hr 52mins
When it comes to sea shanties, I’m very much of the school that a little goes a long way. I’m fine with a stirring chorus or two of What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor? but by the time we’ve got around to Blow The Man Down or Boney Was A Warrior for the second time, I’ve had enough.
I suspect I’m not entirely alone in that.
Well, the good news is that Fisherman’s Friends – a film that has sea shanties at its core – gets the amount of hearty, slightly nasal male singing just about right. We’re surprised and delighted when this unlikely-looking group of Cornish fishermen bursts into a harbourside chorus – wow, these guys can actually sing – but as we head deeper into the second hour, we’re quietly relieved that there are one or two non-singing storylines to hold our potentially flagging interest.
Fisherman’s Friends gets the amount of hearty, slightly nasal male singing just about right but there are one or two non-singing storylines to hold our potentially flagging interest
The result is an easy-going, gently moving, flagrantly commercial treat that will surely go down as one of the most crowd-pleasing British films of the year. And yet it definitely does not start out that way, struggling to shake off the impression that this has been casually, almost carelessly put together.
For starters, the casting seems just a little too adventurous for its own good. This, after all, is based on the true story of a group of Cornish fishermen who, back in 2010, became singing sensations.
And yet of the three leading characters, two are played by character actors well known for normally employing their own very different accents: David Hayman, a Scot, and Dave Johns, a Geordie.
Throw in Londoner Noel Clarke playing an American record company boss and that’s an awful lot of ‘acting’ going on.
Combine that with a rather clumsy script and a young director making only his second feature film, and you have a movie that definitely takes a while to hit its stride.
The result is an easy-going, gently moving, flagrantly commercial treat that will surely go down as one of the most crowd-pleasing British films of the year
Never mind, we can always admire the scenery, which just happens to be Port Isaac, the picturesque fishing village made famous by TV’s Doc Martin.
Slowly, however, the film gains its sea legs, helped by very nice performances from the three actors most naturally suited to their roles: Somerset-born James Purefoy, who plays the singing group’s grumpy but still ruggedly handsome leader, Jim; Bristolian Tuppence Middleton, who plays his very pretty and conveniently divorced daughter, Alwyn; and Londoner Daniel Mays, the record company talent-spotter initially tricked into signing up the Fisherman’s Friends but who rapidly becomes convinced the ageing boy band has real potential.
Ah, but can Danny land them a record deal?
Purefoy, in particular, is terrific, authentically growling out lines about ‘bloody emmets’ (a derogatory Cornish term for incomers) and how ‘when you cross the Tamar bridge, you know you’re not in England any more’.
He must be quietly relieved, however, that in a screenplay that really does contain the line ‘Aye, it’s time to open that bottle of old Jamaica rum’, delivering duties fell to Hayman, who, happily by then, has also won us over.
As for the likeable Mays, who has built a successful career playing supporting character roles, it’s touching and rather lovely to see him relishing the chance to play the romantic lead for once.
Even the screenplay comes good. Having bungled the stag-weekend prank that gets the story rolling and underwritten the circumstances leading up to the group’s disastrous first performance, the writers serve up an enjoyable final third that moves, entertains and, alongside themes of friendship, loyalty and life-changing love, contains a perfectly judged sufficiency of sea shanties – just enough and no more.
Weigh, hey and blow this critic down, but they get there in the end. Aye, Jim lad, they do.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
Ben Is Back (15)
Rating: 
Two months ago, Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet teamed up to explore the subject of drug addiction from the father-son point of view in Beautiful Boy. Now it’s the turn of Julia Roberts to do the same from the mother-son perspective, alongside rising star Lucas Hedges.
Hedges first caught the eye in Manchester By The Sea, and he’s continued to impress moodily in the likes of Lady Bird and Boy Erased. This is written and directed by his film-making father, Peter Hedges, still best known as the writer of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and co-adapter of About A Boy.
Expect nice acting from Julia Roberts and Lucas Hedges exploring the subject of drug addiction from the mother-son perspective and a Christmas Eve that seems to go on for ever
Hedges Sr springs little in the way of surprises here, as the Ben of the title (Hedges Jr) checks himself out of rehab and unexpectedly returns to his family on Christmas Eve.
Expect nice acting from Roberts and Hedges, an awful lot of swearing from the former and a Christmas Eve that seems to go on for ever.
What Men Want (15)
Rating:
Remember What Women Want, the wonderful comedy in which Mel Gibson plays an advertising agent who wakes up after an accident and discovers he can hear what women are thinking?
Well, this is very like that, only with Hidden Figures star Taraji P Henson playing a sports agent who wakes up after a tumble hearing, yes, what men think. Which is handy as her love life is a disaster and her career is held back by her male sexist co-workers.
Derivative, and maybe with too many basketball references for us, but well acted and good fun.
Under The Silver Lake (15)
Rating: 
It Follows was one of the best horror films of 2015, placing expectation on the shoulders of its creator, writer-director David Robert Mitchell. Maybe too much pressure because his follow-up is a surreal, unfashionably sexy, Los Angeles-based mystery.
Andrew Garfield is game as the Silver Lake-based idler and voyeur who spies on a beautiful girl (Riley Keough) he spots in his apartment block pool, only to become obsessed with her when she disappears the next morning.
Hidden codes and a naked, owl-mask-wearing murderess are all part of the well-made, seriously odd and protracted goings-on.
Benjamin (15)
Rating:
Simon Amstell’s second feature is one of those movies that will never play better than at a film festival or in front of an audience of critics – both of which feature large in this gay rom-com.
Colin Morgan is terrific as Benjamin, a struggling film-maker who finds stop-start solace with a French music student. But it’s repetitive and eventually runs out of steam.