The idea of a western film set in working class Britain (Nottingham of all places especially) sounds like a very fun thing to do, it's so unconventional that it just seems like it would work, but unfortunately this just isn't it. It plays out more as a straight love story with Western music and that was a bit disappointing to me.
It's not without merit though, there is a pretty funny take on the famous Western trope of a final standoff and Shane Meadows does a good job of capturing the mundane and using it to the advantage of the characters. In fact, he always captures those working class characters perfectly and with such realism whether that's the youth of This is England or even the masked killer of Dead Man's Shoes and this is no exception with Robert Carlyle recapturing the over the top villainy of Francis Begbie and Rhys Ifans' hapless lover. We all know people like that even when they are in more far fetched situations, which can be applied to any Shane Meadows character I feel. It's not the love letter to Westerns or even the Midlands that I expected and is easily my least favourite of Meadows' films so far, but it's alright for the most part.
The idea of a western film set in working class Britain (Nottingham of all places especially) sounds like a very fun thing to do, it's so unconventional that it just seems like it would work, but unfortunately this just isn't it. It plays out more as a straight love story with Western music and that was a bit disappointing to me.
It's not without merit though, there is a pretty funny take on the famous Western trope of a final standoff and Shane Meadows does a good job of capturing the mundane and using it to the advantage of the characters. In fact, he always captures those working class characters perfectly and with such realism whether that's the youth of This is England or even the masked killer of Dead Man's Shoes and this is no exception with Robert Carlyle recapturing the over the top villainy of Francis Begbie and Rhys Ifans' hapless lover. We all know people like that even when they are in more far fetched situations, which can be applied to any Shane Meadows character I feel. It's not the love letter to Westerns or even the Midlands that I expected and is easily my least favourite of Meadows' films so far, but it's alright for the most part.
