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Once in a while you become so immersed in a film that you forget you're watching one, and you simply exist in the same reality as the characters on screen for a small slice of their life which momentarily becomes your own. You see yourself in these characters, but for a moment you even become them, reliving an all-too heart-breaking or euphoric scenario from your past through the characters experience of an entirely different moment, that is in its essence completely the same. These moments come in all of their melancholic glory in a conversation Elio shares with his father in the closing moments of the film. A conversation that soon becomes an honest lesson of life from an experienced academic who wasn't lucky enough to find what Elio so clearly experienced for even just a matter of moments. It's a beautifully touching scene that pleads to the inner romantic in all of us to muster up the courage and take every opportunity life throws at us. Because as we have learned on this journey we all share, even if just for a moment, to love and be loved by someone in return so completely is rarer than one could imagine. To ignore something so wonderful is to ignore what makes life worth living. What a waste indeed.

When the aim of a film's plot is to portray a relatively unknown storyline through reasonably unknown actors working under a production company that barely managed a wide-release, you're building yourself a huge mountain to climb, even if the picture does manage an investment in their audience members. Fortunately, Pride is a movie that goes above and beyond its required pay grade in every way imaginable, leaving it a rising star that's getting more and more popular by the second (as opposed to the other way around – always a good sign).

The story centres on a group of gay activists who meet regularly to go on marches and collect money in support of gay rights. From there, we're pretty quickly launched into the idea of the miner's strike and how the problems they're facing now are similar to the problem the gays have been facing all their lives, and how they should team up to rebel against the Thatcher regime. That's pretty much it in terms of plot, but this is a history feature retelling a story that's so high up on the feel-good scale, you'll forget its flaws in a heartbeat. Such flaws do exist unfortunately, with the main one being the characters. Not that they're not interesting enough, but that there's too many of them, and the film tries to focus on this wide abundance as opposed to giving us deep insight into a select few. As a result we see limited character development and often don't have enough insight into their backstories to care as deeply as we want to be allowed to. There is also no clear central character driving the story forwards, with the one given the most screen time proving the weakest of the bunch.

With all of that said, as promised, you don't really notice (or care about) such drawbacks because you're having such a great time. The tone of the film kicks in right from the opening raucous song and you can't help but be dragged into the battle and root for victory anyway. If there isn't a strong lead protagonist to drive the film, then the wonderful soundtrack does a fine job, with the flawless acting from familiar and unknown faces alike forcing you to invest in the subversion. Irresistible.

"Tonight as I sleep, my mind will erase everything I know today"; The simple yet satisfying plot-line of this movie as spelled out by our lead protagonist in the opening scene is enough to draw anyone into this wonderful thrill ride of a film. Such a story-line sees the aforementioned central character (played by Nicole Kidman) slowly put back together the extremely complex puzzle that is her memory of the last 14 years, lost after an 'accident' involving a mystery perpetrator.

The plot, although clearly ludicrous when heard, somehow works remarkably well when experienced on screen. This is primarily down to the breakneck pace of the movie, never allowing audience members to get bored or have enough time to ponder the numerous plot holes noticed after the final credits. Not that this matters of course, as BIGTS is a picture to be enjoyed in the moment and at surface level.

Another of the film's major assets is the brilliant performances from the central three characters. Kidman is back on form, exasperating any memory of a certain picture that occurred sometime in the previous 14 years; Firth is excellent also as Ben, with Strong matching him in equal measures on levels of sinister and downright frightening unpredictability. Not only is such fantastic acting a joy to watch, it is another factor in helping the plot-line to be accepted without question by audiences who might think twice if only they weren't having so much fun.

As entertaining as the picture is, this isn't groundbreaking original stuff here, nor is it something that is terribly deep in content. However if you want to spend 90 odd minutes utilizing only the first third of your seat, then you're in for a treat.