Pete Postlethwaite steals the show from the off as a dedicated band conductor, such as the show is, in the story of how Grimley Colliery brass band wins the national championships with the 'Lone Ranger Theme', as it's known to the working class. Of course, there are many bumps in the road, but Ewan MacGregor and Tara Fitzgerald's romance comes good in the end.
Sentimental, earnest, Brassed Off just about manages not to be condescending to the mining communities, and puts in a few deep digs against the Tory party. As a story, it holds together over the length of the movie, but as a depiction of people with no money and no hope, it's melodramatic. The characters are very simply drawn. Perhaps if it showed genuine desperation it would be too depressing; it's a feelgood story after all, and a difficult situation to draw a positive from.
So you get the triumph of people dedicated (that word again) to music, but you never get the feeling that the band means anything to them beyond being a drain on their finances. They don't practise at home, their music brings them no joy, all they seem to be doing is keeping up appearances for the sake of it and because it's a colliery tradition. Pete Postlethwaite is the only character that expresses genuine passion for what he does, and the rest of them diss him for it.
Brass band performances of popular classics, however immaculate, are rarely deeply moving. The best you can do is admire the skill of a large group of amateur musicians, so the music is unlikely to give you goosebumps.
Then you get people having the bailiffs remove their house contents, and 1000 job losses, and wives and kids moving out, but you don't really sympathise because it's actually only about the brass band - and at least his phone's still connected.
Whatever is important to the characters, Brassed Off assumes with no establishing scenes that you are on board from the start, in the same way it assumes you are on board with the anti-Tory sentiments it embraces. In other words, your sympathy for the characters is taken for granted but never really established by them doing anything beyond playing brass instruments expertly. Perhaps the script is not sentimental enough. It's certainly not sophisticated.
Jim Carter puts in a good turn as a curmudgeonly euphonium (NOT trumpet) player - all the band are, in fact everybody is, curmudgeonly - and Tara Fitzgerald is as convincing (though unbelievable) as the limited script allows her to be. Ewan MacGregor has a very cute face, but on this showing he's a shallow, two-dimensional actor.
All in all, Brassed off is a pretty well-rendered, sentimental story about people in recent history who shared an enthusiasm for something completely outdated; it never gets traction on a genuine, touching, authentic human level, in spite of its right-on sentiments.
Worth watching to be able to say, "Pete Postlethwaite was bloody good, wasn't he?". And maybe, "That Thatcher, what a devil incarnate".
Sentimental, earnest, Brassed Off just about manages not to be condescending to the mining communities, and puts in a few deep digs against the Tory party. As a story, it holds together over the length of the movie, but as a depiction of people with no money and no hope, it's melodramatic. The characters are very simply drawn. Perhaps if it showed genuine desperation it would be too depressing; it's a feelgood story after all, and a difficult situation to draw a positive from.
So you get the triumph of people dedicated (that word again) to music, but you never get the feeling that the band means anything to them beyond being a drain on their finances. They don't practise at home, their music brings them no joy, all they seem to be doing is keeping up appearances for the sake of it and because it's a colliery tradition. Pete Postlethwaite is the only character that expresses genuine passion for what he does, and the rest of them diss him for it.
Brass band performances of popular classics, however immaculate, are rarely deeply moving. The best you can do is admire the skill of a large group of amateur musicians, so the music is unlikely to give you goosebumps.
Then you get people having the bailiffs remove their house contents, and 1000 job losses, and wives and kids moving out, but you don't really sympathise because it's actually only about the brass band - and at least his phone's still connected.
Whatever is important to the characters, Brassed Off assumes with no establishing scenes that you are on board from the start, in the same way it assumes you are on board with the anti-Tory sentiments it embraces. In other words, your sympathy for the characters is taken for granted but never really established by them doing anything beyond playing brass instruments expertly. Perhaps the script is not sentimental enough. It's certainly not sophisticated.
Jim Carter puts in a good turn as a curmudgeonly euphonium (NOT trumpet) player - all the band are, in fact everybody is, curmudgeonly - and Tara Fitzgerald is as convincing (though unbelievable) as the limited script allows her to be. Ewan MacGregor has a very cute face, but on this showing he's a shallow, two-dimensional actor.
All in all, Brassed off is a pretty well-rendered, sentimental story about people in recent history who shared an enthusiasm for something completely outdated; it never gets traction on a genuine, touching, authentic human level, in spite of its right-on sentiments.
Worth watching to be able to say, "Pete Postlethwaite was bloody good, wasn't he?". And maybe, "That Thatcher, what a devil incarnate".