Posted: 05/14/2002

Lucky Break

(2002)

by Hope Villanueva

From the director of The Full Monty comes a musical comedy that’s most…offbeat.

The director of The Full Monty has decided that pie tasted so good the first time that he’d go at it again. Instead of out of work men’s men stripping to 70’s tunes, Peter Cattaneo gives his audience a group of imprisoned men’s men singing showtunes. Full Monty was a lot to live up to in wit and humor. Lucky Break wasn’t quite that caliber of movie, but a sure-fire charmer in it’s own right.

Jimmy (James Nesbitt) and Rudy (Lennie James) have been friends and cohorts for half their lives and have never gotten a job right. After a badly botched bank robbery, they find themselves in prison with a gentle cellmate (Timothy Spall), a sadistic guard and a South Pacific-singing warden (Christopher Plummer). Jimmy and Rudy decide that the only way out of the prison is through the old, run-down chapel, but no one has access to it anymore. Through a little stumble of good luck, Jimmy learns that the warden used to do a prison revue show in the chapel (pause for groans) and that his secret dream is to have a musical he has written about a English captain named Nelson performed. Of course, Jimmy suggests that they put on the warden’s show and voila, they now have access to the chapel and their way out. Their escape is just beyond their reach, if only they can remember how the lyrics to the pirate songs go.

Many of the strengths of Cattaneo’s previous film are apparent in this movie. He has gathered himself a delightful cast of scoundrels and given them plenty of opportunities to be really ridiculous. Particularly amusing to theatrical folk will be the scenes where Rudy is scripted to kiss Jimmy and has to be coached on how acting is about lying but it is also about the truth, as well as the rehearsal where that one ensemble singer comes into the song two measures before everyone else…every time. Like Monty, the highest point of Lucky Break is Cattaneo’s ability to make these potentially silly people extremely likeable and sympathetic. Sure, they’re hardened criminals, but you sure do want them to make it out of the jail. And you’ve got to love a man who sings a love duet in an Irish accent.

The cast really is the heart of the film. James Nesbitt, who played another Irish scoundrel in Waking Ned Devine, is very endearing. His character isn’t a bad person, just someone who should have picked a different line of work. Nesbitt has a very George Clooney quality and is equally likeable. In a too small role as the prison shrink and Jimmy’s love interest is Williams (Sixth Sense and 4 Dogs Playing Poker). Her character is a fun foil to Jimmy, though a little too selfish about Jimmy’s desire to bust out of jail. Spall (Rock Star and Vanilla Sky) is a delight to watch, as the sweet cellmate, Cliff, who is mercilessly tortured by the head guard. Especially painful are his scenes where he is visited in prison by his young child and then dragged away by guards for presuming to wipe away his son’s tears. Lennie James (Snatch) is funny and very talented. He should have been given more opportunities to sing than he was given so he could show off his beautiful voice. Rounding out the cast, Plummer, as always, is honest to the musical theatre loving Warden Mortimer.

Yes, Lucky Break is formulaic and very clearly modeled after its predecessor, but if you can look past the duplicative traits and enjoy the film on it’s own, Lucky Break is a good hearty laugh at the end of a long day.

Hope Villanueva is a 4th grade teacher in Los Angeles who has just started her own theatre company. She looks forward to their first production in September.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com