Scottish Mussel

Hesitant about watching since the rating was so low, but there are some great actors here, so decided to watch for 5 minutes to see if I could get into it. I was pleasantly surprised. Funny and sweet about an important subject. Give it a try!

As a Scot, many of the non-native attempts at Scottish accents were challenging at first (for my money Russell Kane's was the best). Then I just tried to enjoy the film and not worry about how the casting came about as the non-Scottish cast are all enjoyable screen presences.

With that caveat, enjoying the film was easy. The accents improved as the movie progressed and the character dynamics were very sweet.

The location scout(s) did a great job and, as a Scot, the whole ceilidh idea was entirely believable. This is not the tab A into slot B stereotypical "shortbread tin" depiction of Scotland that some other reviews have suggested but if you're not from Scotland then I suspect you'll enjoy the film even more.

The soundtrack reads as a bit lazy but works great with the film and they've bagged some great tracks from some brilliant singer-songwriters.

Of course it would be nice to have more Scottish talent on screen but I'm glad that the movie exists as it is rather than not having been able to have been made at all.

Talulah Riley's direction is confident and never appears to be vain regarding the character she plays and I look forward to her joining a very long list of great female directors.

This is a light "feel good" romantic comedy that's fun to watch and warm-hearted. Plotwise it follows the boy meets girl, boy screws up, boy seeks redemption arc very effectively.

The pacing is perfect, and overall the acting is good with the notable exception of the odd American accent for boy's love rival. Why he has to be American is never really evident, although the character is pretty unbelievable to begin with, so being a foreigner may be the only reason? There are also a lot of characters and again it's not clear why that's necessary, but those are the only flaws. Harry Enfield is particularly well cast as the food truck owning mentor, and running mollusc jokes are well played.

This is not a movie with any serious pretensions and I really don't see why the first reviewer here has to spill so much bile over it. It's not going to win any Oscars and it isn't Serious Cinema (TM) -- did I mention it's fun and entertaining, in addition to being well made and edited? It's not awful, it's just a mostly well-executed light- hearted rom com.

Cannot understand the 1/10 harsh review - 1 means its the worst film you have ever seen which this is not. Presumably its either because he/she was offended by the film being directed, written and acted by a woman who was married to Elon Musk and is giving it the "silver spoon" brush off or either offended at a Scottish movie with mostly English actors in it - who knows but the film is worth a watch with your partner as it is most definitely not just a womans movie as I quite enjoyed it and am a bit of an old romantic at heart myself.

Contrary to what that reviewer thinks I thought most of the acting was pretty good especially from Talulah Riley and Martin Compston. I thought they were great actually and perhaps I am biased because I am from Glasgow but i enjoyed the humour even though a lot of the actors were actually English.

C'mon its got Harry Enfield the legend in it and many other comedy magic actors including James Dreyfus from the Thin Blue Line; nice to see him back again and Spudgun from The Young Ones so presumably the high budget of 5 mill on this one is because it had such an interesting cast.

Its not going to win any oscars but it has some moments of comedy magic in that typical Glasgow way which only us Weegies can fully appreciate especially; the pearl shop seller with his pearl necklace gag - you knew it was coming but it was still hilarious!

Not a bad effort at all from Talulah Riley at all, its just a shame that people want to bash her because she is the ex of Elon Musk which is a shame as she certainly has acting talent that is for sure and for her first directorial debut it was not half bad!

Watched this with my husband and we both really enjoyed the film. What's not to like? Beautiful Scottish scenery, a quirky plot and some laugh out loud moments - usually involving Fraser. It's not going to win any awards but it will leave you with a little smile on your face.