An overlooked classic (Twin Town (DVD))

Member Name: venceremos

Product:	Twin Town (DVD)
Date:	20/09/09 (50 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny

Disadvantages: Snubbed by snotty TimeOut critics

It's really random how some films get a cult following and some don't. I've never understood the appeal of "Withnail and I" for example. Throw your hands up in horror all you want, it's just not funny. No matter how many times you repeat the same tired, unfunny lines. Again and again and again.

One film that deserved a cult following but never got it is Twin Town. I don't know if it brought cold sweats to the staff at Swansea's tourist information office, but they shouldn't worry. It's all in good fun.

Rhys Ifans and real life little brother Llyr play the town's eponymous Lewis twins (who aren't really twins, just close in age) who live on a trailer park with their parents, sister Adie (Rachel Scorgie), and dog Cantona. Head of the household Fatty (Huw Ceredig) is a casual labourer, model warship fanatic and Welsh male voice chorist who can barely keep control of his two sons, a pair of joyriding stoners who give the local police the runaround with their antics. Adie is a "receptionist" at an "executive health spa" (a knocking shop, of course) determined to make enough money to lift herself out of the shipyard poverty she finds herself in.

Fatty and his pals Dai Reese (Brian Hibbard, lead singer of the Flying Pickets) and Chip Roberts (Morgan Hopkins) take a cash in hand job off small time gangster Bryn Cartwright (William Thomas) to fix the roof of his rugby club. Fatty ends up falling off the ladder, breaking his leg and being taken to hospital. Visiting Bryn, the twins ask for compensation, but the villain dismisses them with only enough money for them to buy enough "sticky sticky" to "fuck off back to Noddyland". Then begins a series of tit-for-tat revenge attacks between the twins and Cartwright, and also involving Cartwright's business partner, the bent Scottish copper Terry Walsh (Dougray Scott) and his similarly shady but mild-mannered colleague Greyo (Dorien Thomas).

The tearaway joyriding and thieving antics of the twins set the tone for the excellent humour of this film. If you're the sort who writes letters to the local newspaper about how gangs of young people enjoying themselves in public form an intimidating blight on the streets of Britain, then you won't find this film funny. That's not the film's fault. You're the one to blame for being so miserable. The rest of us without pokers up our arses will find a rich vein of irreverent humour here, one of the hallmarks of British film-making at its best, and certainly up there with Trainspotting.

The plot is intricate yet simple to follow, and the acting showcases the deep pool of talent Wales has to offer in this art, still sadly underused by British filmmakers. There's also a sense of community, in that all the major players about Swansea seem to know each others' business, perhaps unrealistically in place so large, but I experienced it for myself when I lived in the somewhat smaller Aberystwth for four years, and in that sense it's true to real life.

Further treats to enjoy are the well-judged soundtrack which includes Petula Clark (seriously), the Manic Street Preachers and Catatonia, and an excellent little performance from Keith Allen as a Welsh shepherd.

The last act of grim revenge is so righteous, and so justifiable, that there's ultimately a feelgood factor to the whole work, albeit by then the comedy has taken a back seat for a little while. Ultimately, you too will feel good about having enjoyed this film, as it does to "Withnail and I" what the Lewis twins did to Bryn Cartwright's daughter.

Summary: See it and you'll find out