Born Romantic

From the director of This Year's Love comes another Brit rom com, combining the talents of many of our up and coming English film stars with familiar faces from the small screen.

The film follows a group of people, and how their lives are affected through chance meetings and overlappings of social circles as they come to dance in the same salsa club and go to the same taxi rank to get home. Fergus (David Morrissey) follows his former love (Horrocks) all the way to London to attempt a reconciliation after jilting her years ago, whereas Eddie (Mistry) stumbles into the salsa club one night, and into the life of introvert Jocelyn (McCormack), reluctant to have him intrude, with a similar scenario for Frankie and Eleanor (Ferguson and Williams).

With the disgusted reports of last years figures of box office takings from Brit flicks - among the many disgraced include Janice Beard 45 wpm (starring Rhys Ifans and Pasty Kensit) and House (starring Kelly MacDonald and This Life's Jason Hughes) - only Billy Elliot and Snatch actually made a profit. The British film industry was getting increasingly stronger with international success from hits like 4 Weddings and A Funeral and The Full Monty a few years ago, so why is it we only seem to produce the occasional gem?

Probably because in the case of Born Romantic, yes, you get the occasional laugh; yes, it isn't bad in itself; especially with the calibre of actors in it, but compared to other British films, it certainly isn't doing much special or, at the very least, original. Which is a shame, considering the potential the film shows, particularly within the characterisation. Still worth seeing, but bear in mind that the influence from This Year's Love clearly shines through.

Not all films have to be earth shattering with lots of meanings, Some can just be enjoyable. Born romantic falls into the second category.

The plot is Three Male losers go to a Salsa club in different circumstances. One has the appearance of a rich Latin lover. In truth he is broke and living with his ex wife. The thief is a bad thief, only lucky enough not to get caught. He meets up with an extrentric woman who tends graves. Finally Frankie A musician who is desperate to meet up with his ex fiancée Mo played by the magnificent Jane Horrocks, who he dumped eight years ago.

Nearly all use a mini cab driver, who gives help for all those in the back of his car, as the film progresses it becomes apparent, he is in as much need of help as all the other characters.

If you like the rhythm of the salsa, which becomes infectious, and want something to watch that is not to strenuous on the mind and can stand the occasional cringing moments, then I can recommend this film.

"Born Romantic" uses the revolving door approach to studying the relationships of a half dozen quirky characters and their romantic relationships which are in various states of disarray. Full of wry British humor, lots of salsa dancing, and with a cab driver playing a sort of "Dan Cupid" type, "Born Romantic" is considerably more clever than its recent American counterpart "Sidewalks of New York", although they are at different ends of the romantic comedy genre. A fun and funny watch for those who enjoy British films.

I must confess that I had never heard of this until it appeared in this week's TV schedules.

Yet it is a wonderfully cast, plotted, written and acted film. But above all it is both funny and true-to-life. One of the best I've seen in a long time and makes me wish I'd seen it at the cinema.

Without ever having heard of Born Romantic, I bought I movie ticket today to see the movie. As it turned out, this was a very nice surprise, a romantic movie about six single people in London. The story centers around a salsa club where they go to dance every weekend. The six actors/actresses are all new to me, but I think that Catherine McCormack's performance as the mousy Jocelyn is the most impressive.

As you should expect of a romantic movie, this one shows that true love will prevail.