DVD Review: Once Upon A Time In The Midlands

03/24/04

The British seem to be particularly fond of clueless criminals, and they seem to have a particularly good handle on how to blend laugh-out-loud humor with serious dramatic material. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is a charming example of both those talents at work, and the result is a film that draws you in for a good laugh and keeps you hooked until the end. The ball gets rolling when the hapless Dek (Rhys Ifans) proposes to his girlfriend Shirley (Shirley Henderson), and gets turned down. That's bad enough, but what's worse is that he popped the question while on a national tabloid TV show. It seems that pretty much everyone was watching... including Shirley's old boyfriend Jimmy (Robert Carlyle), who sees this as an opportunity to pick up where he left off. Needless to say, everyone's lives get into quite a tangle, as Shirley, Dek and everyone else are forced to deal with old wounds and new feelings. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is interesting in that it starts out with fairly broad comedy, based primarily around the characters and their peculiarities. But as the story goes on, the characters become more and more rounded, and the film subtly shifts more into the dramatic mode. We care about what happens to these people; we may laugh with them or wince when they get into an embarrassing situation, but in the end we want what's best for them. Director and co-writer Shane Meadows clearly has a strong hand with story development, bringing it to a conclusion that feels both natural and satisfying. Early in the film, it's a bit confusing as to who the characters are, as we're introduced to a tangle of friends, children and other relatives all at once, but if you pay attention (more like concentrate on deciphering their accents) it's not that hard to figure things out as the story proceeds. Just focus on that the key characters: Dek, Shirley and her daughter, and Jimmy. Once Upon a Time in the Midlands is presented in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio, and has been anamorphically enhanced. The picture quality is solid throughout the film, with natural-looking colors and a clean print. One minor quirk is that on a couple of occasions where a sign is displayed in the film, we get a French subtitle translating the sign even though the subtitles are turned off. This only happens a few times, but it did distract me. The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack for the film is unfortunately slightly substandard. The dialogue is flat and often sounds quite muffled, which is particularly frustrating in a film whose characters have thick accents; it's difficult to follow some of the dialogue. The volume is also not well balanced; the music-only scenes are much too loud compared to the dialogue scenes, and if you've cranked up the volume to try to compensate for the muffled quality of the dialogue, you'll end up jumping for the remote control when the music blasts on in another scene. The special features are limited to a selection of trailers for other Sony Pictures Classics films. No deleted scenes, behind the scenes footage or commentary are to be found on this disc. French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles are available. Once Upon A Time In The Midlands embraces every aspect of what commitment and family means and why those sentimental things that people feel uncomfortable with have a purpose and a reason. If you?re into British dry humor then this is definitely one for your collection. -Jason Thomas
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