Sunshine on Leith

Although I'm a Scot, I'm not a particular fan of the Proclaimers on whose songs this film musical is based. That said it's impossible to be Scottish and unaware of their music - there was even recent talk of their biggest hit "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" being the new national anthem. I'd describe their music as simple, tuneful and colloquial, unashamed of either the Scottish vernacular or Scottish accent in putting across a song.

This filmed version of the surprise hit stage musical makes good use of the Edinburgh and Leith locations and also employs a largely local cast to help give the story the required local flavour. The biggest names in the cast are Peter Mullen and Jane Horrocks as the silver anniversary-celebrating parents with the latter, who we remember from "Little Voice" not unsurprisingly carrying off a tune better. The rest of the young cast however also display good singing ability and inject enthusiasm and energy into their parts.

The story is relatively straightforward, with a Scottish "On The Town" tilt to it as two young Scottish soldiers return from a tour of Afghanistan to pick up the pieces of their lives in their home town, with romance unsurprisingly in the air as you'd expect in an upbeat singalong musical like this, with an extra twist as one of their parents' apparently rock solid marriage hits a crisis just as they run up to a major anniversary.

All three central relationships in the film work themselves out as best they can, helped along every ten minutes or so by another Reid Brothers song (watch out for their own brief cameo early in the film) and they even manage to work their best song, in my opinion "Letter From America" a song about the Highland Clearances into the narrative.

All in all, I found the movie a pleasant surprise, even the songs I didn't know made a good impression plus I enjoyed the familiar (to me) locations of Auld Reekie.

I perhaps wouldn't walk 500 miles to see it but it filled an enjoyable enough 100 minutes of my Friday night I will say.