SAVE THE CINEMA is based on a real-life event but the film is not very well made.
A small town in Wales has a downtown theater that was originally a live theater then converted to a cinema in 1935. It's a mostly empty building but for some local stage performances. A dastardly mayor is working behind closed doors with a developer to demolish the theater block and created a mall-type thing (it's 1993). The mayor sneaks it thru an open town meeting, figuring no one will care and blabs about a revitalized downtown, jobs (the usual spiel). But the director of the live theater group fights back to save the cinema.
Samantha Morton plays the gallant lady, Jonathan Pryce plays the old fogy movie fan. Main problem is that the mayor is depicted as a cartoon character. The scenes of the amateur plays are way too long and the actual story is overly simplified, including the phone call from Stephen Spielberg with the OK to show JURASSIC PARK to make money.
Best part of the film is their obtaining a 35 mm print of HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY from a local movie fan (he's had it for 50 years) and the local Welsh audience being in awe of the story. But apparently no one in the town has ever seen a VHS movie or seen an old movie on TV. They gape at it like it was a dinosaur bone. The character Morton plays never even heard of the film or of GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS. Small-town life according to the movies. Everyone is a dope.
And of course the 50-year old 35mm nitrate film has no decomposition even though it's been stored in a closet (highly unlikely) and the Liz character has been working in the theater for decades but never knew there was a projection room? And the projectors, unused for decades, are all ready to go and need no cleaning or repairs? Things seem remarkably well preserved in Wales.
Unfortunately the story and the basic facts have been simplified to the point point of stupidity.
