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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 251415" data-attributes="member: 23">Happy Since I Met You (continued) The next cut has Frances with four other women of various ages, painting fir cones. I remain unsure how they all connect. They appear to be family, but some might be friends or even colleagues. Is Tracy Ullman meant to be Frances’s niece? Cousin? Daughter of a friend? Pass. The cast is a headily wonderful hotchpotch of familiar faces. In addition to the already-mentioned Walters, Ullman, Kathryn Apanowicz and Eileen Mayers other recognisable faces belong to Maggie Steed, Play School’s Carol Leader, even Jim “BFH” Bowen. Auntie is played by that actress that I thought was Carry On’s Amelia Bayntun but turned out not to be. And then there’s Duncan Preston, making his first of many Victoria Wood-penned appearances. Like Julie Walters he’s billed above the title here. We first meet actor Jim at an enjoyably stiff and awkward dinner party which Frances reluctantly attends and at which they slowly bond over their shared contempt for middle class pretension in general and their hosts’ parties in particular. The montage of the different stages is really funny and makes their inevitable mutual decision to cut and run entirely understandable. We sharply cut to a vegetarian cafe where the two are meeting and there’s a sense this is far from their first subsequent meeting. It’s such an effective way of moving the story forwards. Frances is clearly worried that things are becoming serious and makes an impassioned speech about her independence and not wanting a relationship or one-night stand. In response, Jim turns to the people listening on the next table and asks if everyone got that, and immediately it’s funny to everyone, including Frances. There are meetings in a town centre and a park where they talk quibbles with ex-partners. The way in which information is given feels incredibly real. Even revelations about true feelings are done in a delightfully round the houses way:Preston, at this point in time, makes quite a dashing romantic lead. He’s tall, blonde, with good teeth and he wears a polo neck well.  All the same round about the halfway mark, I started to fear that the second half might be a gooey loved-up romantic piece. Something I would ordinarily avoid. Fortunately, this film takes a less romantic view of things. At times it’s almost cynical, but it feels incredibly truthful at the same time. The second act focusses on the deterioration of the relationship after the honeymoon period, and I’m incredibly impressed at how much information was given in such a short space of time through a number of montages. It could have been too much, but actually worked perfectly. A couple of montages were accompanied by Victoria Wood singing, and her gift for capturing everyday human emotion in a song with incredibly brevity really came into its own here. In particular, the song lamenting the downsides of Living Together, accompanied by visuals of snippets of Frances and Jim’s life together condensed hours’ worth of story into a few minutes. What makes this film stand out is that it’s ultimately a study of a relationship between two flawed and fragile human beings whose relationship is toxic and damaging. Something which arguably gives it common ground with the two preceding plays. There’s no extreme. No infidelity. No good person/bad person. They’re just two people trying to get by. (continued) </blockquote>

Verification: 6 + 4 =