Scenes Of A Sexual Nature Review

"Scenes Of A Sexual Nature" reviews

Movie

Scenes Of A Sexual Nature

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-10-27 15:00:40

Provider

Review

This collection of vignettes is a triumph of British film-making, as an accomplished cast creates a selection of lovingly illustrated characters all taking time out on London's Hampstead Heath.

It's a wonderful and very funny peak at the nuances of relationships between half a dozen or so couples during a summer's day. They include Ewan McGregor's sexually gregarious half of a gay couple debating adoption and commitment. Adrian Lester and Catherine Tate meeting to complete an unusually amicable divorce; Gina McKee and Hugh Bonneville taking their first tremulous steps together on a blind date, as too are Benjamin Whitrow and Eileen Adkins in a conveniently accidental way. Mark Strong, Andrew Lincoln and the Oscar-nominated actress Sophie Okonedo add to a superb selection of talent rounded out by an extremely funny and recurring turn from Tom Hardy as a young lad living on his wits whilst out on the pull.

It's Aschlin Ditta's script that's the real star of this film though. Abundant in witty and amusing observations and interactions, it provides the cast with the firmest of bedrocks to add the slightest of ticks and touches to, making every single performance deep and believable from the outset.

Hampstead Heath is a character all in itself too: its rich diversity highlighted and reflected through each story line along the way, making the place a must see for any Londoner or visitor to the capital.

Ed Blum's first fictional outing in the Director's chair is terrific. Astonishingly made for just £260,000 - inconceivable by Hollywood standards - he and the producers had to start saying it cost double that just to get taken seriously.

Self-distributed, it deserves to play to packed houses everywhere. It's a laugh-out-loud, intelligent and touching comedic tour de force that proves new ideas and innovative skills in British film-making are alive and thriving.

Movie

Scenes of a Sexual Nature

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2006-11-02 00:00:00

Provider

MyMovies

Review

A warm summer's day and one of London's nicest parks is the setting for this collection of vignettes about love, life and sex. The movie tells seven stories taking place on Hampstead Heath during one afternoon, including the reuniting of two elderly friends (Benjamin Whitrow and Eileen Atkins) who haven't seen each other for years, a husband with a wandering eye (Andrew Lincoln) and his understandably put-out wife (Holly Aird) and a gay couple (Ewan McGregor and Douglas Hodge) who are discussing the idea of becoming parents.

Now its fair to say that not all the stories work but given that director Ed Blum has managed to create the film (and assemble a very impressive cast) for just over Â£250,000, "Scenes Of A Sexual Nature" certainly has a lot going for it. By recruiting the likes of McGregor, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville and Catherine Tate, Blum's movie is certainly ambitious while a sun-drenched Hampstead Heath is always extremely easy on the eye. However Blum's ambition may also be the reason some parts of "Scenes of a Sexual Nature" don't work. By trying to cram seven stories into an hour and a half some pairings certainly get short shrift, especially that of Adrian Lester and Catherine Tate. Theirs is one of the most interesting stories - they're a divorcing couple who still love each other deeply - but it's given too little screentime and so feels underdeveloped.

Given that "Scenes Of A Sexual Nature" is Blum's first foray into feature film-making, it's certainly a decent start. However maybe a bit of trimming or even expanding in places would have been helpful.