First Take: Finding Your Feet- way too many missteps for my liking

SYNOPSIS:

On the eve of retirement a middle class, judgmental snob discovers her husband has been having an affair with her best friend and is forced into exile with her bohemian sister who lives on an impoverished inner-city council estate.

British film is something I feel quite strongly about, so when my local cinema secured this one, I had high hopes, especially as there have been comparisons made to films like The Full Monty. But unfortunately, the large promotional material this film has received was a dead giveaway- as Find Your Feet struggles to, well, find its feet.

The direction from Richard Loncraine is good, not quite perfect in terms of pacing, but is decent enough to make the film easy to watch and understand- however, the script from Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft is ridiculously predictable and clichéd, and while it feels refreshingly different with some good humour, I could call big moments a good 10 minutes before they happened, and considering some of the film’s pointless twists and it’s 1 hour 51 minute runtime, this is where the experience really lacks. It’s shot well by John Pardue, and Mike McEvoy’s score gives this film the Ronseal treatment- doing what it says on the tin.

Performance wise, we have a criminally underused cast, and with Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall, the almighty Joanna Lumley and many other incredible British talents to boot, it’s a real shame to see a film like this disappoint me like this did. All of the subtle issues do add up to a film that is marred by easy to fix mistakes, and while it does have promise (as well as some cracking jokes), we’ve seen stories like this a million times before- but it will certainly do well amongst the older demographic.

THE VERDICT

Brought down by a predictable plot, Finding Your Feet is decent enough for what it needs to be- it will play well, but with the blockbusters coming in thick and fast, maybe this indie British production will get buried between releases.

RATING: 3/5