I have never given a ten out of ten rating for a film but that ended as of last night. Rough Around the Edges was shown at the Sixth Salford Film Festival. A zero budget feature film with tons of laughs and surprisingly a lot of layers too. A northern comedy directored, written and produced by Jim Dickinson. The film is a detailed look at the sometimes messy business of modern society. Involving single mums, pathetic men, back stabbing girls, bent coppers, virgins, a stripper, cabby's, a mystery dead body and a man with a guitar. They all become entangled in an obscure but true to life portrayal of a crazy six days up north.
Clive Cope plays Sergeant Pepper whose old school style leads him to a suspension but even when he is off duty he is still trying to crack the proverbial whip. His next door neighbour, a stripper with a small secret is everything that Pepper detests. The Stripper who plans to cheat his way to victory in a poker tournament at the weekend plans to fleece the clueless taxi drivers who are keeping a dead body with them in the boot of one of their taxis. Then there is the single mother who has an insatiable lust for younger men who has also booked the stripper for Saturday night and then there are the bitchy sixth formers, swapping men and insults whilst the virgins are missing out on all the fun. In the midst of a portable toilet salesman who is attempting to woo his babysitter with the details of his career. I could go on but it would take me forever.
Jim Dickinson's creation is truly hilarious, but it doesn't end there. Dickinson has gone beyond the usually British comedy film by creating a film with interesting visuals and the creation of some amazing characters. It would appear in recent times that a large amount of British films encourage their actors to over act their performances to get the laughs. Dickinson doesn't and it shows. Everyone who watches this film believes the characters and that is the biggest asset of Rough Around the Edges. The characters are layered, not in a complex fashion but in a way that demands the audience to watch on. The characters are amazingly interesting yet these people could quite easily be your neighbours.
Marvyn Dickinson and Clive Cope shine as the two bent coppers. Cope and Dickinson display perfect comic timing and a northern realism that engages the audience into the film and demands them to believe every single word that they speak. Tom McNulty provides another stand out performance as the virgin whose sexual frustration lands him in complete humiliation. McNulty's hilarious performance leaves the audience wanting more from his character and his equally geeky friend. They are both set to make a return in the third instalment of this trilogy and I for one cannot wait.
However crude, rude and downright disgusting at times the film appears it is impossible to fault the film for its vulgarity, because it has to be said that in certain areas this is exactly what British society has become. You know it, I know it and Jim Dickinson clearly knows it better than anyone else.
