To say this is perfect is far-fetched...yes...but you must watch this one to decide for yourself.

I first saw this on our local Miami public TV station as a filler for late night openings between episodes of this and that. I only caught a part of it the first time. Then, to my surprise, they showed it again. This time I got to see the whole thing. I was perplexed but thoroughly entertained.

I caught a few of its funny lines. The next time, a friend and I started repeating the lines as they came. The fourth time, they became part of our daily vernacular. The English accents got to us. We started to imitate those wonderful sounds as only the English can conjure. So delicious did our encounters with this short become that it became high camp for us and we would laugh even before the laughs and the quirks of the characters returned to our ears each time.

Alison Steadman and David Thewlis were positively perfect and acted so unassumingly to the camp lines which they had to deliver. I bet there were lots of takes in this one.

All in all...a nice short and fun, if not offbeat ride into the wonderful mind of Mike Leigh!

Not a lot "happens" in The Short & Curlies, but Mike Leigh doesn't need a whole lot of dramatic things to "happen", he just needs characters that will get some attention for 18 minutes. He gets that, and this is what makes it enjoyable and even tender and deep for a little bit. It's simply about a young woman, Joy, who works at a pharmacy and is romanced by a Clive, a young geeky guy who speaks in one-liners (some decent, some not worthy of that so-bad-it's-funny bad pun status). He says a line in the film that sums him up though about being serious underneath all of his jokes. His interest and sincerity in her is real, which is perhaps what makes Joy tolerate him so much, even as she is around Betty, a hairdresser who can't stop gawking at hot men on the tele (even if they are not to Joy) and can talk a mile while doing crazy things with hair.

It's nothing very remarkable, but it's a good short because it doesn't overstay its welcome, it has some strong talent working in front of the camera- David Thewlis in an early role shows how much he can do with so little and Sylvestra Le Touzel, an actress I've never seen or heard of before this and surprised me with her subtlety and little glances that make her character richer- and the ending is a solid, bittersweet touch. Don't rush out to track it down unless you're a big Mike Leigh fan-boy or girl, but if you happen to already have or seek out the Naked Criterion DVD anyway then it's not something to pass by either.

"The Short & Curlies" is a British 17-minute live action short film from 1988, so it will soon have its 30th anniversary. It is an early work by legendary filmmaker Mike Leigh and this was actually the first he got nominated for a BAFTA, even if he lost to the Swedish entry. Even more impressive as this was a television production. The cast includes David Thewlis (from Harry Potter) and Alison Steadman who are still pretty famous today too. The former plays a likable nerd who loves to joke around with his girlfriend all the time, while Steadman play's the young woman's mother a hairdresser who just can't shut up either. Herdaughter is the only somewhat normal one. But these characters are fun to watch and they are the ones who make this an entertaining little film. i recommend seeing it. Delivers nicely in terms of romance, family and comedy.