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Chicago – There are few things more queasy than a feel good comedy that fails to make you feel good. Every film strives to master the art of manipulation, with wildly varying degrees of success. When a film makes consistent failed attempts to manipulate the emotions of its audience, it may result in viewers feeling increasingly nauseous until they’re about ready to hurl.

The 2007 British comedy “Sparkle” certainly seems to have a lot going for it, including a strong cast under the direction of acclaimed filmmaking team Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter, perhaps best known for their 2001 effort, “Lawless Heart.” But “Sparkle” is missing many key ingredients that would’ve provided its secret to success, the most glaring of which is a likable lead character.

DVD Rating: 2.0/5.0

Enter our protagonist, Sam Sparkes, whose name sounds like that of a failed magician. He’s played by Shaun Evans, a perfectly capable...

Despite an ill-conceived title that suggests a tween’s glitzy pastime, Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter’s Sparkle is a mature, well-acted affair about a tangled group of adults.

The decidedly British production emanates from Sam (Shaun Evans), an ambitious, twentysomething schemer with his sights set on London. An opportunity to make the leap arises when Vince (Bob Hoskins), an adorably shy bachelor, is instantly smitten with Sam’s mother, Jill (Lesley Manville), a starry-eyed lounge singer who insists on tagging along.

Sam’s lowly odd jobs around the capital city connects him with Sheila (Stockard Channing), a public relations magnate, and soon he is doubling as her personal assistant and privileged boy-toy. Complicating matters is Sam’s tantalizing attraction to a sexually forward political activist named Kate (Amanda Ryan).

Surrounding Sam’s meteoric success and romantic involvements is a shroud of secrets, each rounded character harboring one of their own.

Outfest

Things and people aren't always as they seem in "Lawless Heart", a poignant, intriguingly constructed film about love and loss set in Great Britain's scenic Essex countryside.

Using a funeral as a jump-off point, writer-directors Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger ("Boyfriends") follow the emotional journeys of a trio of male protagonists through three very different perspectives.

First, there's Dan (Bill Nighy), a devoted husband and father whose fidelity is put to the test when he meets an engaging French woman (Clementine Celarie) while attending the funeral of his wife's (Ellie Haddington) gay brother.

Then, there's Nick (Tom Hollander), the grieving boyfriend of Dan's restaurateur brother-in-law who finds himself increasingly attracted to the colorful Charlie (a terrific Sukie Smith), a supermarket checkout girl whom he first met when she passed out on his bed during a party at his house.

Finally, there's Tim (Douglas Henshall), Dan's cousin who has returned home after traveling the world for eight years. Temporarily bunking at Nick Place,'s the ne'er-do-well Tim becomes smitten with Leah (Josephine Butler), a dress shop proprietor who still has feelings for Tim's adopted brother, David, with whom she had an affair.

While it might all sound a trifle soapy on paper, Hunter and Hunsinger, not to mention their uniformly skilled cast, keep the various relationships grounded and tangle-free while fleshing them out with some gentle humor and incisive observations.

The result is a lyrical, affecting survey of modern romance with a decidedly English accent.