{image1}"Once Upon a Time in the Midlands," is being billed as a new British comedy film but it hardly feels funny most of the time.
Rather, the film -- directed by Shane Meadows and starring Robert Carlyle ("The Full Monty," "Angela's Ashes," "Trainspotting") -- is an often heart-wrenching, sometimes tender - and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny -- movie.
Carlyle is Jimmy, a petty Glasgow thief who double-crosses his pals in a robbery (they knock over a transit van full of clowns played by British comedians Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves, among others) and flees town for an unnamed town in the British midlands, where he once left behind a sister, a lover and his infant daughter.
That lover and daughter, Shirley (Shirley Henderson of "Bridget Jones' Diary," "Trainspotting," "Topsy-Turvy") and Marlene (Finn Atkins, who debuts), now live with Dek (Rhys Ifans), a meek, retiring wimp, who is also a devoted - if dorky - boyfriend and step-dad.
When Shirley turns down Dek's televised-on-a-chat-show marriage proposal, Jimmy sees it and also sees his chance to jump-start his life with Shirley and Marlene. Instead, he brings havoc to a modest but loving communal lifestyle on an anonymous street in the midlands.
His rekindled interest in Shirley and Marlene shatters their home and their relationship with Dek and when his angry mates turn up from Glasgow looking for him, they upturn the lives of Jimmy's sister Carol (Kathy Burke) and her loveable loser of a country-and-western-singer husband Charlie (Ricky Tomlinson).
One is tempted to call Jimmy something of a changeling, except that's no ever thinks he's innocent or any good in the first place, although Shirley still feels something and that threatens everything in her life.
Willl Shirley make the right choice? Will Marlene agree with her decision? Will Dek finally stand up for himself and his family?
What starts out seeming light a light British comedy, turns out to be something a little deeper and a little more affecting. Everyone musters fine performances, especially Carlyle as the tough as nails loser and Ifans as the bumbling but loving mate.
With no glitz, no glamour, "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" is a slice of life film that captures the work-a-day lives of British everymen, filled with the individual dramas and struggles that consume us all.
"Once Upon a Time in the Midlands" opens Fri., Oct. 10 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
