Director:Â Oliver Parker
Cast:Â Rob Brydon, Charlotte Riley, Rupert Graves, Jim Carter, Daniel Mays, Nathaniel Parker, Thomas Turgoose, Jane Horrocks, Peter Coe, Adfeel Akhtar, Steve Carroll
Rating: 12 A
Running time: 97 mins
Release date:Â 06/07/2018
Two decades after Robert Carlyle and co decided to leave their hats on, but take everything off in the process in the modern British-classic THE FULL MONTY, the packaged-British modern comedy always seems to be a variant of film-makers in the UK.
The idea is solid – get a bunch of well-known faces together that aren’t exactly above-the-marquee types, take an impossible situation in the mix and let the magic happen.
OK, so SWIMMING WITH MEN is a bit above that and there is a lot of charm in this variant on the 1997 award-winner, which could be subtitled THE FULL MONTY WITH TRUNKS.
In the film, which is based on a true story, Rob Brydon plays a put-upon accountant, Eric Scott, in a large corporate firm in London, who is going through all manner of issues in both his personal and professional lives, compounded by the fact that his wife Heather (Jane Horrocks) has just been elected as a local councillor and is the flavour of the month. Her boss causes much consternation to Brydon’s character when he comes home and finds them having a wine together.
Putting two and two together and making five, he moves into a hotel and drinks himself into oblivion in a local pub, but his frequenting of the local swimming baths as well sets him in contact with a group of mature swimmers who have put together a synchronised swimming team. Before long, one of the pool staff (Charlotte Riley) is taking more than a passing interest in the group and a Swedish member of a male team encourages them to enter a competition in Milan.
You can more or less predict how this one is going to go – and it isn’t swimmingly, given the heart-warming performances of Brydon and his fellow cast members, including THIS IS ENGLAND’s Thomas Turgoose in similar mode.
On balance, SWIMMING WITH MEN is a solid package of a film and one that should heighten the feel-good factor being provided by England’s football players overseas at present. It is the sort of film you can pop down to the local VUE to watch between England’s matches.
A film clearly synchronised with it’s target audience.
