1st Night

An engaging film with a smashing cast, good photography, and a great script by John Mortimer - never a writer to ignore, and sadly no longer with us. There are too few films like this on offer, and this isn't one to miss. Bringing Opera to the big screen must have been a tough number to pull off, and this manages to bring a sublime taste of Mozart to an hilarious, entertaining story about real people. The cast - particularly Richard E Grant, Nigel Lindsay and Sarah Brightman - are a total delight throughout. It's fizzy, slightly farcical at times (no bad thing), always amusing and diverting. In a world dominated these days by hugely expensive but ultimately cheap blockbusters, this is a welcome antidote to the usual British grit, grime and "realist" ghastliness that we tend to expect in reply to Hollywood. Anyone who saw Michael Frayn's 'Noises Off' would just adore this... and it's far cheaper to see than the price of a theatre ticket...