ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies.

EDINBURGH IN AUGUST can be the most magical city in Scotland. There is drama on every street corner and laughter in every church hall. It can also be a complete nightmare as normal life is suspended and chaos ensues.
  
Writer-director Annie Griffin attempts to capture all the bittersweet flavours of the world;s largest arts festival in her ensemble comedy ‘Festival’. Best known for the Channel 4 series ‘The Book Group’, Griffin is also an Edinburgh Fringe veteran and has written a film dipped in acid but also resonating with authenticity.

This isn’t a sunny, likable romp, but a tale of savage comedy and black despair. It’s like a bawdy romp from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ mixed with the moralising of the 1950s Italian classic ‘La Dolce Vita’.
  
Faith Myers (Lyndsey Marshall) is the wide-eyed innocent who arrives in Edinburgh to perform her one-woman show on the life of Dorothy Wordsworth. The core of the film is a Perrier-style competition to anoint a new king of stand-up comedy.
  
The judging panel includes Radio Scotland reporter Joan (Daniela Nardini) and loathsome comedian Sean (Stephen Mangan). The contenders include airhead Nicky (Lucy Punch), ventriloquist Conor (Billy Carter) and Irishman Tommy (Chris O’Dowd).
  
Inevitably, it’s not how good they are but who they are willing to sleep with that will determine the outcome. ‘Festival’ is certainly an ambitious, original film, but too many of the stories are underdeveloped and leave you feeling as if you don’t known enough about the characters. It also leaves a sour aftertaste, as if Griffin has little affection for any of these people or what happens in Edinburgh every August.
  
General release, cinemas nationwide

Director: Annie Griffin
Stars: Daniela Nardini, Chris OπDowd, Lyndsey Marshal, Stephen Mangan, Clive Russell
Screenwriter: Annie Griffin
Certificate: 18
Running time: 107 mins
Country: UK
Year: 2005 
 

© Allan Hunter, 2005