A Running Jump

Seen as part of a programme of four shorts for the London 2012 Festival, Mike Leigh's short film follows a hectic day in the life of used car salesman Eddie Marsan and his family.

It's entertaining, drawing its humour from larger than life characters, moves at a break-neck pace and cleverly incorporates the sport theme by showing how it's involved in the everyday lives of ordinary people - this is done so subtly that you don't even realise it at the time.

In the end though, the humour is all there is, the characters are more caricatures who it's difficult to get care too much about, and there's no emotional pay-off to all the frenetic running around.