Among Giants

Kind of slow at times. Plus, I had some difficulty following the dialogue due to the character's accents, but then it probably wasn't made with viewers from the American South in mind. The acting performances seemed good, and the photography was nice. I appreciated this movie for not having a super-hero, or being a rom-com, which is most of Hollywood's output these days.

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 film is truly awful. Its intention is to be in the vein of Raining Stones or Secrets and Lies or Brassed Off. It only skips the surface, never digging into the lives of the characters. The guy who cries in the campfire scene must have a problem, but what is it? Can you imagine Rachel Griffiths falling in love with Pete Postlethwaite? Excerpt: "Somewhere under those clothes there's a woman... Get 'em off." That _ridiculous_ scene in the silo or whatever it is, the two of them nude in the falling water? Postlethwaite looks like the village idiot.

Heaven knows why he got mixed up in this film. Don't you make the same mistake.

As a drama set in working class Yorkshire, Among Giants certainly has its antecedants: The Fully Monty, with which it shares a screenwriter, Sheffield and an interest in full male nudity (which in this film, we actually get to see!); Brassed Off, which also featured Pete Poselthwaite, a collection of emotional but never histrionic performances, and a slightly charicatured depiction of free market economics; and sitting above them all, the memory of Ken Loach's Kes. The film lacks Loach's realism, and the plot is full of holes. Against that, both Poselthwaite and Rachel Griffiths are superb, and it's shot with a great feel for landscape, both inside and outside the city. It's not perfect, and it lacks the Monty's cheap selling points, but in spite of that, it's done with real feeling and is arguably the better film.

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.