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FaintheartFaintheart's 2009 release marks a new method in the way films are created and distributed. In 2007 Myspace invited directors and writers to put forward their story proposals which users of the site then voted on. Part of the funding was supplied by Myspace, and members of the cast and crew were also recruited from the online community. Boldly innovative as this is, the film itself follows a solidly established structure and benefits from an equally solid cast. Eddie Marsan, who as the racist driving instructor in Happy-Go-Lucky was the creepy anti-Poppy, walks a steady line between broad comedy and doleful dignity. Ewen Bremner and Tim Healy provide unostentatious backup while Jessica Hynes - drifting away, it seems, from the outright comic roles that defined her early career - is the straightwoman and provides Faintheart's emotional ballast. Blending in seamlessly is Chris R Wright, an internet newbie recruited via Myspace, whose David Brent-ish boss at the hardware store belies the fact that he comes without any previous acting experience. Director Rocco's own sympathy is clearly for the beleaguered underdog. Modest as Faintheart is, it's sprinkled with genuinely heart-warming moments, the best of which is a cheeky King Arthur sequence in which Richard retrieves the sword he's thrown away on a municipal dump. Katie Melua contributes a specially composed tune, but this pales against a titanic soundtrack of guilty rock pleasures by Viking-friendly heavy metallers Saxon, the Michael Schenker Group and Tenpole Tudor, whose mighty 'Swords Of A Thousand Men' provides the opportunity for a shameless Wayne's World moment. Clearly put together with love, but also an efficient sense of what will work given the budget and the story's context, Faintheart succeeds as a sweetly convincing romantic-comedy as well as a film about the extent to which fantasy can - and cannot - be relied upon to shore up real life. As the film's own provenance as an open access project on the net demonstrates, you don't have to be living in a movie to make it in the movies. Verdict Put away your eight-sided dice and go seek this immensely likable, sparky little comedy about fantasy, reality and love conquering all. |
