Finding Your Feet review: Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall and Joanna Lumley lead the cast of this pleasant-enough winter warmer from director Richard Loncraine.
Finding Your Feet review by Luke Ryan Baldock.
Finding Your Feet review
Finding Your Feet is predictable, elderly British guff whose cast tells you all you need to know. It hammers home the most heartbreaking of circumstances in a manipulative fashion, some working betters than others, while adding in drops of inoffensive humour. It’s a film for a very specific audience that know exactly what they like, and besides from a few emotional challenges, would rather events stayed clear and telegraphed.
Opening aerial shots show the absolute epitome of cinematic upper class representation. Massive houses with huge gardens litter the landscape and we are introduced to Imelda Staunton’s Sandra, a housewife celebrating her high ranking police husband’s (John Sessions) retirement. Ready to spend more time together, Sandra discovers her husband carrying on in the wine cellar with an old friend. Sandra has nothing to do but move in with her city bound sister.
Celia Imrie is Bif, and as you might imagine, she is a polar opposite of Sandra. Squashed into a tiny, cluttered flat, Bif spends her time engaging in dance classes, swimming in an outdoor pool, and going on dates. The comedy derives from their interaction, but is rarely funny, and continuously repetitive. Sandra is constantly embarrassed by Bif’s living style, while Bif finds her sister too tightly wound. Of course, they each learn a little lesson from each other, about how you’re never too old, and about responsibility.
Finding Your Feet review
It’s impossible to not feel at least slightly warmed by Finding Your Feet’s naive charm. Sandra’s relationship with handyman Charlie (Timothy Spall), is a high point, thanks mostly to the genuine wit and class of both performers. But unfortunately this becomes spread too thinly with a plot involving an elderly dance troupe that gets a shot at a competition in Rome. At that point the script seems to relish in its opportunity to give the cast a holiday rather than focus on the relationships.
Although pleasant enough, the film gradually hammers the audience over the head with tragedy disguised as heart. One character’s wife is dead, another has alzheimer’s, and other revelations go for the cheapest own brand version of tear jerking. Possibly best suited for afternoon matinees on a weekday in small local cinemas, Finding Your Feet already has its balance, as it doesn’t have to find its audience, since they already know who they are aiming for.
Finding Your Feet review by Luke Ryan Baldock.
Finding Your Feet is released in UK cinemas on Friday 23rd February 2018.
