An annoying cast chosen to portray annoying characters isn't exactly a recipe for success. A double negative doesn't make a positive; it's more like a double disaster. At least half of the characters are utter ey-holes (although not necessarily intended as such), and most of the cast are average over-actors; some are third-rate comics. This includes Emma Thompson's sister, a useless nepotist just like her famous, inept, airhead sister.
In fact, the bad casting doesn't end there. Even demographically/logically the actors are badly chosen. Emma's homely sister and the fatso playing her husband are far too old to be playing parents of three small children. Did the writer/director Abigail really consider Sophie Thompson young enough to have three kids all younger than seven? She was 57 at the time of the filming!
Dustin Burns is cast as a "hunk" who's "irresistible to women". Abigail is a woman (at least her name would suggest it, though you never know these days), so I gather she must have very low criteria. Or perhaps Burns is her good friend and she wanted to do something for his self-esteem by casting him as a "playboy".
So yeah, the casting is not good. These actors aren't very funny either, though admittedly Abigail's somewhat muddled script has a lot to do with it too.
The plot is all over the place. There is an actual story here, but it's also a quasi anthology - to a smaller extent. The first three "stories" (more like 5-minute vignettes) serve just as an excuse for the final story which acts as the big plot-twist.
Trouble is, I'd already figured out that Burns and Fraser had had an affair. (The exaggerated hostility toward his new girlfriend was a giveaway.) And I knew that the cakes were poisoned, this was obvious too. What I couldn't possibly know in advance is the idiotic sex-change twist. Kelly Wenham is far too good-looking to pass off as a former man. It's so ridiculous that it is neither credible nor remotely funny - as intended. Maybe if they'd cast Rosie O'Donnell I could believe in the sex-change, but then the problem would be: why would Burns want to date such a... thing?
An absurd sex-change is a joke that can be used in a mindless farce, or in an absurdist ZAZ comedy: these types of movies can get away with almost anything. However, TFTL isn't so far gone in absurdity that we can accept almost any kind of nonsense as a suitable plot-device. Not even close. For one thing, the characters are grieving over their friend, and Crook has heart problems. So it's not a farce - at all. It's a horror film with some humour in it. As a result, there are limits to the nonsense Abigail can throw at us.
As if the sex-change weren't bad enough, the movie then completely disintegrates at the very end when Kelly gets up several times despite having a knife sticking out of her. Suddenly, Abigail is telling us: "hey, this is just goofy absurdist nonsense, laugh please!" Well, no, Abigail, you should have set the tone EARLIER. You don't set the tone for a movie in its last 5 minutes, that's not how film-making works. You set the tone at the beginning, and then you stick to that tone. If you can't stick to the same tone then you go back to film school to learn how to.
There are some amusing moments, so it's not as though the entire movie is useless. Plus, it isn't boring. But the cast and characters - and to a lesser extent the dumb twist - bring the quality down noticeably.
57 year-old Sophie Thompson as a mother of three small kids... Ts ts ts... This really annoyed me for some reason. If anything, she appears to be even older than she is, could easily play a 65 year-old i.e. Burns's or Martha's mother rather than their long-time friend. Abigail must be cut off from reality, it seems. Movie types usually are. Still, she ought to know that Sophie is too wretched-looking to pass off as a 40something (which would still be pushing it, kid-wise) and she ought to know that there are probably ZERO 57 year-old women in the world with three small children of their own.
In fact, the bad casting doesn't end there. Even demographically/logically the actors are badly chosen. Emma's homely sister and the fatso playing her husband are far too old to be playing parents of three small children. Did the writer/director Abigail really consider Sophie Thompson young enough to have three kids all younger than seven? She was 57 at the time of the filming!
Dustin Burns is cast as a "hunk" who's "irresistible to women". Abigail is a woman (at least her name would suggest it, though you never know these days), so I gather she must have very low criteria. Or perhaps Burns is her good friend and she wanted to do something for his self-esteem by casting him as a "playboy".
So yeah, the casting is not good. These actors aren't very funny either, though admittedly Abigail's somewhat muddled script has a lot to do with it too.
The plot is all over the place. There is an actual story here, but it's also a quasi anthology - to a smaller extent. The first three "stories" (more like 5-minute vignettes) serve just as an excuse for the final story which acts as the big plot-twist.
Trouble is, I'd already figured out that Burns and Fraser had had an affair. (The exaggerated hostility toward his new girlfriend was a giveaway.) And I knew that the cakes were poisoned, this was obvious too. What I couldn't possibly know in advance is the idiotic sex-change twist. Kelly Wenham is far too good-looking to pass off as a former man. It's so ridiculous that it is neither credible nor remotely funny - as intended. Maybe if they'd cast Rosie O'Donnell I could believe in the sex-change, but then the problem would be: why would Burns want to date such a... thing?
An absurd sex-change is a joke that can be used in a mindless farce, or in an absurdist ZAZ comedy: these types of movies can get away with almost anything. However, TFTL isn't so far gone in absurdity that we can accept almost any kind of nonsense as a suitable plot-device. Not even close. For one thing, the characters are grieving over their friend, and Crook has heart problems. So it's not a farce - at all. It's a horror film with some humour in it. As a result, there are limits to the nonsense Abigail can throw at us.
As if the sex-change weren't bad enough, the movie then completely disintegrates at the very end when Kelly gets up several times despite having a knife sticking out of her. Suddenly, Abigail is telling us: "hey, this is just goofy absurdist nonsense, laugh please!" Well, no, Abigail, you should have set the tone EARLIER. You don't set the tone for a movie in its last 5 minutes, that's not how film-making works. You set the tone at the beginning, and then you stick to that tone. If you can't stick to the same tone then you go back to film school to learn how to.
There are some amusing moments, so it's not as though the entire movie is useless. Plus, it isn't boring. But the cast and characters - and to a lesser extent the dumb twist - bring the quality down noticeably.
57 year-old Sophie Thompson as a mother of three small kids... Ts ts ts... This really annoyed me for some reason. If anything, she appears to be even older than she is, could easily play a 65 year-old i.e. Burns's or Martha's mother rather than their long-time friend. Abigail must be cut off from reality, it seems. Movie types usually are. Still, she ought to know that Sophie is too wretched-looking to pass off as a 40something (which would still be pushing it, kid-wise) and she ought to know that there are probably ZERO 57 year-old women in the world with three small children of their own.