How About You   Starring: Venessa Redgrave, Imelda Staunton, Brenda Fricker, Joss Ackland and Hayley Atwell High Fliers RRP: £12.99 HFR0110 Certificate: 15 Available 08 November 2010

When Ellie (Hayley Atwell) goes to stay with her older sister Kate (Orla Brady), for the Christmas holidays, she finds that her sister's care home is failing. Although most of the residents have left to spend time with their families, the elderly group known as ‘the hard core’ have remained. These are the residents whose fighting and general disposition is driving other residence away and consequently threatening to put the home out of business. When a family problem arises Ellie is left in charge, having to deal with their excessive demands and nihilistic outlook on life, which pushes thing from bad to worse until driven to the point of distraction Ellie explodes and tells ‘the hard core’ a few home truths...

How About You (2007 - 1 hr, 27 min, 10 sec) is a feel good Irish festive film directed by Anthony Byrne. The screenplay, by Jean Pasley, is based on a Maeve Binchy short story.

There are few films which provide roles for older actors, so it is great to see a movie which can boast the talents of Joss Ackland, Brenda Fricker, Imelda Stauton and Vanessa Redgrave. The film is dedicated to Joan O'Hara (Alice) who died before the film’s release.

There are no real surprises in the film and anyone who sits through the first fifteen minutes will be in a good position to guess the ending. Four old people who have lost their lust for life stuck in a house with a young woman, who has everything to live for. I’m sure that you’d not be surprised to discover that the film has a happy ending.

What Pasley’s script does do is round out the characters, their lost hopes and bitterness which have led them to living alone in a crowd. Donald Vanston (Ackland) lives with his regret that he spent so much of his life in drink that he pretty much missed his marriage, only giving the bottle up when his wife was dying. Georgia Platts (Redgrave) is a faded and forgotten star living in the past, rather than in her present and Heather and Hazel Nightingale (Fricker and Stauton) have a bittersweet sisterly tale of losses, mostly caused by their father.

The acting as one would imagine is impeccable, with the actors breathing real life into their characters. True the plot has few surprises, but then this is the sort of heart warming and simple tale which suits Christmas viewing so well, as the disparate group grow into a family, of sorts.

The disc which was supplied was a DVD file, so I have no idea what the final product will look or sound like. The copy provided had a very clear picture with strong detail and a stereo audio track, it contained no extras.

So if you’re looking for a good family film it's worth checking out this.

7

Charles Packer