It cannot be argued that this is not original, put some of Britains best talent together, outline the plot, and then let them improvise the rest.
Unfortunately what results is self absorbed tosh. When you find out what these "friends" do to each other I cannot believe that they would be friends anyway.
The friends all meet at Jude's place after his funeral and are shown a tape which has been put together, by Jude, using hidden cameras. It shows a group of totally self-centred individuals who do drugs and steal from each other. None of them show any redeeming features which makes it impossible to empathise with them. What a waste of some of the best British talent around
Plot summary
The film opens with the cast gathering after the funeral of Jude to see a film he had been working on for two years. It turns out that the film is secret videos of all those gathered together in their most despicable moments including thievery, spousal abuse, adultery, etc. The revelations remove the masks from the so-called close friends.—John Sacksteder
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Movie Reviews
A movie within a movie about betrayal
Great film, but not for the faint hearted (or faint-eared)
I knew nothing at all about this film before I went to see it, so I was very surprised by it's content. Basically, a group of friends gather at the wake of one of their friends who has died. At this wake, they are shown a video that he has produced consisting of secret film taken of them all. This video gives away some of their deepest and darkest secrets, as well as giving an insight into what they really think of each other. For about the first fifteen minutes I found myself lost as to what was going on, but then it all starts to become clear and leads up to the sting at the end. Be aware though that the language is very strong and some of the actions in it are quite explicit. Despite this, though, I found it very enjoyable and I was absolutely hooked to it for most of the time. As an aside, if you've ever watched 'Operation Good Guys' on BBC you will recognise a lot of the cast.
One of the best British films for quite some time
It's a simple idea, get some actors together and improvise a film. Get them to use their real names, give them basic outlines of what to do and involve a camera crew in the story line and you've got yourself covered.
Does it work? Hell yes. This is something else. The acting is simply stunning all round, but Ray Winstone does stand out - when doesn't he?
A very simple story, Jude has been secretly videotaping his friends and at his funeral they get to see themselves on TV. Their reactions complete Jude's final film.
The interaction of the characters is very well played. It's believable, sad, funny, intense and fascinating.
I can't recommend this film any higher, except that there's a lot of swearing - it's supposed to have the highest amount of swearwords submitted to the BBFC - mainly courtesy of Mr Winstone in one very memorable scene (some of the couplings I've never heard before, yet they seem so natural streaming from Ray Winstone's mouth)