13 reviews
Certainly not one of Ratigans best screenplays.Not really helped by the casting of the 60 year old Jack Warner as a test cricketer in his forties.There are some really odd things about this film.Warner inviting to dinner one of the match umpires,the day before he bats.Later going into a pub at 1030pm,albeit just to romance Brenda Bruce who is about 25 years younger than him.They seem more like grandfather and granddaughter than lovers.Then there is a batsman who is out sauntering about the dressing room in a tie and suit.All very archaic.Good to see many of the heroes of the 1953 ashes winning team,Dennis Compton,Len Hutton and Jim Laker.How we could have done with them in Australia.
- malcolmgsw
- Feb 15, 2014
- Permalink
Sam Palmer (Jack Warner) is playing his last test for England's cricket team and his form has been below average recently. Then, as now, the Aussies are pouring on the agony for England and Sam desperately wants to sign off on a high note.
This is a gentle comedy with a touch of drama. If you want to see how comedy works (and you understand cricket) watch the first 5 minutes. Senator Stanley Maxted arrives in England and makes his way to the Oval where he poses a few questions to deadpan Richard Wattis. The questions are standard cricketing enquiries (you mean they play for 5 days and it might still be a draw?) which could be cheesy but the delivery and Wattis' "matter of fact" responses make you laugh.
Sam's cricketing prowess does not extend to his son who is more interested in poetry and this forms the backbone of the movie – does the son care enough about dad to watch his final innings? At the same time, does dad care enough about his son to appreciate his interests.
Sam not only gives the umpire a lift to the ground but entertains him for dinner the night before (they wouldn't allow it these days you know). Sam also pops down to the local for a drink around closing time during the middle of the game - but he only drinks lemonade so that's alright then. Robert Morley (wearing a rather fetching jump suit) spices up the last third of the film as a vain, muddled poet.
This is a gentle comedy with a touch of drama. If you want to see how comedy works (and you understand cricket) watch the first 5 minutes. Senator Stanley Maxted arrives in England and makes his way to the Oval where he poses a few questions to deadpan Richard Wattis. The questions are standard cricketing enquiries (you mean they play for 5 days and it might still be a draw?) which could be cheesy but the delivery and Wattis' "matter of fact" responses make you laugh.
Sam's cricketing prowess does not extend to his son who is more interested in poetry and this forms the backbone of the movie – does the son care enough about dad to watch his final innings? At the same time, does dad care enough about his son to appreciate his interests.
Sam not only gives the umpire a lift to the ground but entertains him for dinner the night before (they wouldn't allow it these days you know). Sam also pops down to the local for a drink around closing time during the middle of the game - but he only drinks lemonade so that's alright then. Robert Morley (wearing a rather fetching jump suit) spices up the last third of the film as a vain, muddled poet.
- writers_reign
- Nov 13, 2015
- Permalink
Like Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter, playwright Terence Rattigan was a cricket devotee. But non-fans need not shun "The Final Test": it contains little cricketing action, and the game's mysteries are sent up by having a baffled visiting American senator interrogate a supercilious Richard Wattis about them. The Test of the title is much more one of loyalty and of the relationship between an older and younger man, like weightier Rattigan works such as "The Winslow Boy", "The Browning Version" and "Man and Boy".
Quickly filmed after being one of the earliest British TV plays by an established writer, "The Final Test" is a cheap and cheerful comedy. Documentary footage of real play at the Oval, South London, is hardly up to "Zelig" standards in melding into the studio shots. The film stocks do not match, and the crowd's rush into the ground is evidently back-projected. The setting is less grand than one associates with Rattigan. It is Cowardesque in the vein of "This Happy Breed", with a sauce bottle on the dinner table: the hero, Sam Palmer, is a professional batsman who has done well enough to give his son a fee-paying education. The only "posh" character besides Wattis is Robert Morley's pompous poet and playwright, whom the literary-minded son would rather visit than watch his dad play his last innings against the Australian tourists. Luckily Morley proves to be a cricket maniac and all ends well.
Jack Warner's remarkable, belated rise from fairly blue music hall comic and Maurice Chevalier impersonator to one of Britain's leading character actors is consolidated here. He can be humorous, gruff, judicious... and all in the same scene if required. There is no trace of the over-expressiveness of so many comedians trying to act. Though pushing 60, Warner looks no older than the real doyen of the English side, Cyril Washbrook, who along with a handful of colleagues nervously plays himself (no role is harder for a non-pro). The widowed Warner has a fancy for a barmaid at his local pub, the gaunt Brenda Bruce, and he has his own retirement dilemmas to resolve: should he marry a woman who may have a past, and should he take a job coaching boys at Eton when his son is about to go to Oxford and mingle with Etonians on level terms?
"The Final Test" therefore has a few gentle remarks to drop about changing social values and snobberies in post-war Britain. Sam's captain, Len Hutton, urges him not to fuss so much about the pecking order: an amusing way of using a real-life character, since the great Yorkshireman was England's first professional cricket captain and would soon be knighted. Morley's TV play "Following a Turtle to My Father's Tomb", which Sam's son watches in rapture and which drives Sam out to the pub, is a spoof of the middlebrow poetic drama (TS Eliot, Christopher Fry) then in vogue, which Rattigan did not admire. One line, "the great dome of discovery that men call the sky", takes off the exhibit of that name in the recent Festival of Britain.
The deserved rehabilitation of Rattigan, with the likes of David Mamet doing him homage, gives fresh interest to a script which takes the boulevard playsmith outside his usual range. No doubt the film technicians' union approved the democratic spirit, since this was one of its occasional efforts, via ACT Films, at keeping its members in work. Director "Puffin" Asquith, though the son of an earl and ex-prime minister, was a keen union activist. Sam Palmer was Jack Warner's last big film part for a decade. He was soon to resurrect his slain copper from "The Blue Lamp" and become TV's most famous PC in "Dixon of Dock Green."
Quickly filmed after being one of the earliest British TV plays by an established writer, "The Final Test" is a cheap and cheerful comedy. Documentary footage of real play at the Oval, South London, is hardly up to "Zelig" standards in melding into the studio shots. The film stocks do not match, and the crowd's rush into the ground is evidently back-projected. The setting is less grand than one associates with Rattigan. It is Cowardesque in the vein of "This Happy Breed", with a sauce bottle on the dinner table: the hero, Sam Palmer, is a professional batsman who has done well enough to give his son a fee-paying education. The only "posh" character besides Wattis is Robert Morley's pompous poet and playwright, whom the literary-minded son would rather visit than watch his dad play his last innings against the Australian tourists. Luckily Morley proves to be a cricket maniac and all ends well.
Jack Warner's remarkable, belated rise from fairly blue music hall comic and Maurice Chevalier impersonator to one of Britain's leading character actors is consolidated here. He can be humorous, gruff, judicious... and all in the same scene if required. There is no trace of the over-expressiveness of so many comedians trying to act. Though pushing 60, Warner looks no older than the real doyen of the English side, Cyril Washbrook, who along with a handful of colleagues nervously plays himself (no role is harder for a non-pro). The widowed Warner has a fancy for a barmaid at his local pub, the gaunt Brenda Bruce, and he has his own retirement dilemmas to resolve: should he marry a woman who may have a past, and should he take a job coaching boys at Eton when his son is about to go to Oxford and mingle with Etonians on level terms?
"The Final Test" therefore has a few gentle remarks to drop about changing social values and snobberies in post-war Britain. Sam's captain, Len Hutton, urges him not to fuss so much about the pecking order: an amusing way of using a real-life character, since the great Yorkshireman was England's first professional cricket captain and would soon be knighted. Morley's TV play "Following a Turtle to My Father's Tomb", which Sam's son watches in rapture and which drives Sam out to the pub, is a spoof of the middlebrow poetic drama (TS Eliot, Christopher Fry) then in vogue, which Rattigan did not admire. One line, "the great dome of discovery that men call the sky", takes off the exhibit of that name in the recent Festival of Britain.
The deserved rehabilitation of Rattigan, with the likes of David Mamet doing him homage, gives fresh interest to a script which takes the boulevard playsmith outside his usual range. No doubt the film technicians' union approved the democratic spirit, since this was one of its occasional efforts, via ACT Films, at keeping its members in work. Director "Puffin" Asquith, though the son of an earl and ex-prime minister, was a keen union activist. Sam Palmer was Jack Warner's last big film part for a decade. He was soon to resurrect his slain copper from "The Blue Lamp" and become TV's most famous PC in "Dixon of Dock Green."
It's Jack Warner's last appearance as a cricket player in the Test Match with the Australians. Unhappily, his son, Ray Jackson, doesn't want to be present; he wants to be a poet, you see, and he has been invited to meet with his idol, poet Robert Morley, who's leaving the next day for America, so Jackson has to go.
It's directed by Anthony Asquith from a script by Terence Rattigan; originally it was broadcast by the BBC with an entirely different cast. Although Warner and Morley are wonderful, with Morley playing another of his very English eccentrics, it's a little too neatly drawn a script to be among Rattigan's best; in fact, at times it seems derivative of movies like PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. It even has an American character in an effort to let the transatlantic audience have some cultural understanding of this game.
I don't know how successful it was in the theaters, but there's little doubt that when Morley or Warner are on screen, they're lots of fun.
It's directed by Anthony Asquith from a script by Terence Rattigan; originally it was broadcast by the BBC with an entirely different cast. Although Warner and Morley are wonderful, with Morley playing another of his very English eccentrics, it's a little too neatly drawn a script to be among Rattigan's best; in fact, at times it seems derivative of movies like PRIDE OF THE YANKEES. It even has an American character in an effort to let the transatlantic audience have some cultural understanding of this game.
I don't know how successful it was in the theaters, but there's little doubt that when Morley or Warner are on screen, they're lots of fun.
Cricket may be England's national sport- certainly our national summer sport- but we have made very few feature films centred upon the game. Other cricket-playing nations don't seem to do a lot better; about the only one I can remember seeing was the Indian "Azhar", a fictionalised biography of India's Test captain Mohammed Azharuddin. (There are also surprisingly few feature films made about our national winter sport, football).
Harold Pinter, himself a keen amateur cricketer, wrote cricketing scenes into some of his film-scripts, such as "Accident" and "The Go-Between", but in neither case is the sport the main focus of the film. "The Final Test" from 1953 is about the only British film I can think of that focuses mainly on cricket. The script was written by Terence Rattigan, another amateur cricketer, and directed by Anthony Asquith, who had collaborated with Rattigan on a number of other films, including "French without Tears", "The Winslow Boy" and "The Browning Version".
Despite Rattigan's cricketing background, this is as much a human drama as a sporting one, and for most of the time the drama is not centred upon events on the pitch. England are playing Australia in the fifth and final test of an Ashes series at the Oval. The match seems certain to end in a draw; Australia have made a huge first-innings score, which England look likely to match, and a whole day's play has been lost to rain. Even if one side or the other can conjure up an unlikely victory, that will not affect the result of the series, which it is implied Australia have already won.
Several England cricketers- Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Alec Bedser, Godfrey Evans, Jim Laker and Cyril Washbrook- appear as themselves. (Hutton's part is quite a large one). The main character, however, is a fictitious one, Sam Palmer, once a great batsman but now coming to the end of his career. (Rattigan seems to have based him on the legendary Australian batsman Don Bradman and the events of his final Test in 1948). Sam knows that this will be his last appearance for England and wants his teenage son Reggie to be at The Oval to watch him. Reggie, however, has little interest in cricket; he sees himself as a budding intellectual and his great passion is for poetry. He does not want to be at The Oval because he has a chance to meet his great hero, the poet and dramatist Alexander Whitehead. When the two meet, however, Reggie is surprised to discover that Whitehead is himself a cricket fanatic. Another plot line concerns the love-triangle which develops between Sam, his young England team-mate Frank Weller and Cora, the barmaid at Sam's local pub.
The weakest thing about the film is, in my opinion (and, it would seem, in the opinion of a number of other reviewers as well) is the miscasting of Jack Warner as Sam. Sam is probably supposed to be in his early forties, but Warner would have been 58 in 1953, far too old for a professional cricketer. He doesn't even look younger. I like the suggestion of another reviewer who thought that John Mills (45 at the time, and slimmer than Warner) would have been a good match for the role. The relationship between Sam and Cora would also have seemed more convincing if he had not looked old enough to be her father.
Warner had form for this sort of thing. Three years earlier he had also looked too old for a part when, at 55, he played a police constable in "The Blue Lamp", but his advancing years did not prevent his character, George Dixon, from being resurrected in the TV show "Dixon of Dock Green". Warner went on playing the character until he was 80!
There is an amusing contribution from Robert Morley as Whitehead, who despite his literary fame comes across as a pompous, self-important jackass (like a lot of characters Morley played), partially redeemed by his genuine love of cricket. I wondered if Rattigan was using the character to settle scores with some rival playwrights; we see one of Whitehead's plays being broadcast on television, an obvious parody of the verse drama of T S Eliot and Christopher Fry which was popular around this time.
In 1953 Rattigan was at the height of his fame; he was later to be eclipsed by the rise of the theatrical "Angry Young men" such as John Osborne, but he had a gift for writing dialogue and for his ability to create believable human relationships, such as the one between Sam and Reggie in this film. Both end up appreciating and sympathising with the other's position more than they would have thought possible at one time. With a better leading man my mark might well have been higher. 7/10.
Harold Pinter, himself a keen amateur cricketer, wrote cricketing scenes into some of his film-scripts, such as "Accident" and "The Go-Between", but in neither case is the sport the main focus of the film. "The Final Test" from 1953 is about the only British film I can think of that focuses mainly on cricket. The script was written by Terence Rattigan, another amateur cricketer, and directed by Anthony Asquith, who had collaborated with Rattigan on a number of other films, including "French without Tears", "The Winslow Boy" and "The Browning Version".
Despite Rattigan's cricketing background, this is as much a human drama as a sporting one, and for most of the time the drama is not centred upon events on the pitch. England are playing Australia in the fifth and final test of an Ashes series at the Oval. The match seems certain to end in a draw; Australia have made a huge first-innings score, which England look likely to match, and a whole day's play has been lost to rain. Even if one side or the other can conjure up an unlikely victory, that will not affect the result of the series, which it is implied Australia have already won.
Several England cricketers- Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Alec Bedser, Godfrey Evans, Jim Laker and Cyril Washbrook- appear as themselves. (Hutton's part is quite a large one). The main character, however, is a fictitious one, Sam Palmer, once a great batsman but now coming to the end of his career. (Rattigan seems to have based him on the legendary Australian batsman Don Bradman and the events of his final Test in 1948). Sam knows that this will be his last appearance for England and wants his teenage son Reggie to be at The Oval to watch him. Reggie, however, has little interest in cricket; he sees himself as a budding intellectual and his great passion is for poetry. He does not want to be at The Oval because he has a chance to meet his great hero, the poet and dramatist Alexander Whitehead. When the two meet, however, Reggie is surprised to discover that Whitehead is himself a cricket fanatic. Another plot line concerns the love-triangle which develops between Sam, his young England team-mate Frank Weller and Cora, the barmaid at Sam's local pub.
The weakest thing about the film is, in my opinion (and, it would seem, in the opinion of a number of other reviewers as well) is the miscasting of Jack Warner as Sam. Sam is probably supposed to be in his early forties, but Warner would have been 58 in 1953, far too old for a professional cricketer. He doesn't even look younger. I like the suggestion of another reviewer who thought that John Mills (45 at the time, and slimmer than Warner) would have been a good match for the role. The relationship between Sam and Cora would also have seemed more convincing if he had not looked old enough to be her father.
Warner had form for this sort of thing. Three years earlier he had also looked too old for a part when, at 55, he played a police constable in "The Blue Lamp", but his advancing years did not prevent his character, George Dixon, from being resurrected in the TV show "Dixon of Dock Green". Warner went on playing the character until he was 80!
There is an amusing contribution from Robert Morley as Whitehead, who despite his literary fame comes across as a pompous, self-important jackass (like a lot of characters Morley played), partially redeemed by his genuine love of cricket. I wondered if Rattigan was using the character to settle scores with some rival playwrights; we see one of Whitehead's plays being broadcast on television, an obvious parody of the verse drama of T S Eliot and Christopher Fry which was popular around this time.
In 1953 Rattigan was at the height of his fame; he was later to be eclipsed by the rise of the theatrical "Angry Young men" such as John Osborne, but he had a gift for writing dialogue and for his ability to create believable human relationships, such as the one between Sam and Reggie in this film. Both end up appreciating and sympathising with the other's position more than they would have thought possible at one time. With a better leading man my mark might well have been higher. 7/10.
- JamesHitchcock
- May 19, 2024
- Permalink
The Final Test is probably unique in that it revolves around the final match in the career of an old cricketer. Jack Warner (of Dixon of Dock Green/The Blue Lamp fame) plays the cricketer who has had the misfortune to have fathered a poet.
His son wriggles out of watching his fathers final match in order to visit his own hero a poet played by the wonderful Robert Morley.
It is a charming light comedy which deals with the father/son relationship. Morley steals the show, as expected and the ending is suitable happy.
The real tragedy is that this is practically the only film to feature cricket when dozens have been made about baseball. Cricket contains all the metaphor and allegories that exist about life and the universe. In fact it is itself a branch of philosophy which can teach humankind the true path to enlightenment. It is not just an interesting way to hit a ball with a stick!
This film should have been the thin end of a very large and wonderful wedge. John Boormans "Hope and Glory" contains an excellent cricket scene. If anyone can suggest any other films with a cricketing theme I would be pleased to hear from you.
His son wriggles out of watching his fathers final match in order to visit his own hero a poet played by the wonderful Robert Morley.
It is a charming light comedy which deals with the father/son relationship. Morley steals the show, as expected and the ending is suitable happy.
The real tragedy is that this is practically the only film to feature cricket when dozens have been made about baseball. Cricket contains all the metaphor and allegories that exist about life and the universe. In fact it is itself a branch of philosophy which can teach humankind the true path to enlightenment. It is not just an interesting way to hit a ball with a stick!
This film should have been the thin end of a very large and wonderful wedge. John Boormans "Hope and Glory" contains an excellent cricket scene. If anyone can suggest any other films with a cricketing theme I would be pleased to hear from you.
Interesting oddity centring on Jack Warner as a professional cricketer who is past his prime and is playing in his final test match.
So the core of the story is Warner, his relationship with his very different son (not very convincing) who wants to be a poet, his angst about retirement and getting a last big score and his relationship with barmaid Brenda Bruce - a bit odd this and somewhat uncomfortable to watch. All this is so so, what makes the film worth catching though is Rattigan's script and how the comedic elements are performed. This includes an American trying to understand the English and Cricket, which fellow test match enthusiast Richard Wattis tries to explain. Front and centre though are the scenes with Robert Morley playing a playwright hero of Warner's son. His performance perfectly suited to Rattigan's witty writing is hilarious - the main reason for watching this frankly.
So the core of the story is Warner, his relationship with his very different son (not very convincing) who wants to be a poet, his angst about retirement and getting a last big score and his relationship with barmaid Brenda Bruce - a bit odd this and somewhat uncomfortable to watch. All this is so so, what makes the film worth catching though is Rattigan's script and how the comedic elements are performed. This includes an American trying to understand the English and Cricket, which fellow test match enthusiast Richard Wattis tries to explain. Front and centre though are the scenes with Robert Morley playing a playwright hero of Warner's son. His performance perfectly suited to Rattigan's witty writing is hilarious - the main reason for watching this frankly.
This is a magnificent film and all the better for this being such a surprise. There's a quiet dread when you watch any film that claims to be about sport, especially when so many of its stars are credited to appear. Wooden and contrived come to mind. This throws all such stereotypes out of the window and is a wonderful and thoughtful classic.
There is humour and a great deal of emotion, there is also a splendid performance from Jack Warner who really surprised me with his sensitive portrayal of a proud cricketer and father. Robert Morley hams it up as usual and there is the delight of a Richard Wattis cameo to add icing to this wonderful cake.
All in all, this is a joy to watch; intelligent and witty thanks to Terrance Rattigan's sharp script. I love cricket, but those that know nothing of it will still get a great deal of pleasure from this cracking film.
There is humour and a great deal of emotion, there is also a splendid performance from Jack Warner who really surprised me with his sensitive portrayal of a proud cricketer and father. Robert Morley hams it up as usual and there is the delight of a Richard Wattis cameo to add icing to this wonderful cake.
All in all, this is a joy to watch; intelligent and witty thanks to Terrance Rattigan's sharp script. I love cricket, but those that know nothing of it will still get a great deal of pleasure from this cracking film.
The problems partly rest with the casting. Jack Warner who plays the ageing English cricketer is far too old for the part. He looks and moves as if he's the umpire! Then we witness Warner's romantic scene with a barmaid, who's frankly young enough to be his granddaughter! Then we have his son, Reg, who plays the part of a young man in his early teens, when in reality, he looks like a man in his early 20's! The dialogue between father and son made me wince and squirm, since it's more like the relationship between a public school master and a wayward student. Also, the incredible deference that the son displays to his father smacks of fear not respect. I'm almost expecting Warner to get the cane out to punish him for his son showing a lack of duty. The film intends to show the tension between parental loyalty and youthful ideas. However, it falls down badly as Warner comes across as a boring patriarchal figure, without any sense of humour! The film shows no emotional depth to the characters and as a result the characters are all one dimensional. I suspect the film was regarded as dated even before it was released in the early 1950's. The plot and the dialogue leaves little room for the audience to engage in a rather tiresome and stodgy film.
- geoffm60295
- Apr 19, 2019
- Permalink
- rogerblake-281-718819
- Nov 13, 2012
- Permalink
Up until the last few years, I've only ever seen Jack Warner in 'Dixon of Dock Green' and a few of his higher-profile films such as 'The Blue Lamp' etc. However, since the advent of the excellent TPTV channel, several of his films have been given a good airing. 'Jigsaw' and 'Emergency Call' spring to mind as showcases for his fine acting abilities. The Final Innings is a wonderful film full of good, solid British character actors working wonders with a fairly thin story. The short scene of Sam's final innings and his exit from the pitch to rousing cheers from the crowd and even the opposing side is heart-warming indeed. I don't know much about Cricket, but then the film is barely about cricket at all, more about making allowances, moving on and finding the next chapter in life, which in Sam's case is with the pretty Cora. See this film if you get a chance, especially if you like old-fashioned, homely drama about real people.
An American Senator arrives in England to hear people talking of England collapsing and all the newspaper headlines talking of failure and 'being finished'. Concerned for this small island nation he looks for some optimism but finds from a taxi driver that it is all about the test match between England and Australia and not the country itself. Interested he goes along to watch the final days of the test match and joins the throngs there to see the great Sam Palmer plays the final overs of an illustrious career. However Sam is a bit distracted by his desire for his poet son Reggie to be in the crowd to watch him end his career, especially since Reggie is no real fan of cricket and has other things he wants to do namely meeting the famous playwright and poet Alexander Whitehead.
Listed on IMDb as a 'comedy', I must admit that the words of one character rang true with me when she said of a TV play 'I thought you said this was a comedy well it probably gets more comedy later on'. However I quickly realized that the listing on this site was wrong and that this is not in any shape a comedy, even if it has vaguely amusing moments in it; rather it is a drama about a father and son relationship against the backdrop of cricket. The potential was there for a well-written piece with a good script delivering good characters with hurts, longings and differences between them, but it really doesn't get anywhere near doing that. If I told you that Sam is slightly stern and repressed about his son's disinterest in the sport that he loves then I have probably done a better job at informing you of their character than the script actually does during the whole 90 minutes. Aside from the obvious scenes of vague tension and argument the film never really does anything to actually get to the core of their relationship.
On top of this we also have some other issues put in as well such as those around the barmaid Cora and the other stuff around Whitehead; neither of these really hit the mark either and just give the film a rather aimless feel. With a lack of teeth to any part of the film, a few laughs could have done the world of good but it doesn't really have any of them either, with only some amusing aspects that don't really do anything of any merit. This is not to say it is bad, just distinctly average. As a sports film it is a non-event with very little actual cricket 'action' to speak of but I imagine many viewers will enjoy the very English conclusion to Sam's career, typically downbeat and warming.
The cast is OK but they don't have a great deal to work with. Warner is stiff and looks like he has emotions just below his surface but the script gives him no help with this at all and his efforts are wasted with it. Jackson is an annoying little twerp and he does nothing to really make me interested in him or his character in the least. Bruce doesn't have a clue what she is supposed to be doing and it shows. Allen is OK, as are Maxted and a few others in support roles. Given a colourful character, Morley brings some much needed life to the film and steals all his scenes.
Overall this is an average film that is more notable for its missed opportunities rather than what it actually does well. Despite the nicely downbeat conclusion the film is pretty average and unmemorable, failing to deliver characters, a script or any real sense of emotional involvement.
Listed on IMDb as a 'comedy', I must admit that the words of one character rang true with me when she said of a TV play 'I thought you said this was a comedy well it probably gets more comedy later on'. However I quickly realized that the listing on this site was wrong and that this is not in any shape a comedy, even if it has vaguely amusing moments in it; rather it is a drama about a father and son relationship against the backdrop of cricket. The potential was there for a well-written piece with a good script delivering good characters with hurts, longings and differences between them, but it really doesn't get anywhere near doing that. If I told you that Sam is slightly stern and repressed about his son's disinterest in the sport that he loves then I have probably done a better job at informing you of their character than the script actually does during the whole 90 minutes. Aside from the obvious scenes of vague tension and argument the film never really does anything to actually get to the core of their relationship.
On top of this we also have some other issues put in as well such as those around the barmaid Cora and the other stuff around Whitehead; neither of these really hit the mark either and just give the film a rather aimless feel. With a lack of teeth to any part of the film, a few laughs could have done the world of good but it doesn't really have any of them either, with only some amusing aspects that don't really do anything of any merit. This is not to say it is bad, just distinctly average. As a sports film it is a non-event with very little actual cricket 'action' to speak of but I imagine many viewers will enjoy the very English conclusion to Sam's career, typically downbeat and warming.
The cast is OK but they don't have a great deal to work with. Warner is stiff and looks like he has emotions just below his surface but the script gives him no help with this at all and his efforts are wasted with it. Jackson is an annoying little twerp and he does nothing to really make me interested in him or his character in the least. Bruce doesn't have a clue what she is supposed to be doing and it shows. Allen is OK, as are Maxted and a few others in support roles. Given a colourful character, Morley brings some much needed life to the film and steals all his scenes.
Overall this is an average film that is more notable for its missed opportunities rather than what it actually does well. Despite the nicely downbeat conclusion the film is pretty average and unmemorable, failing to deliver characters, a script or any real sense of emotional involvement.
- bob the moo
- Oct 9, 2004
- Permalink