Scenes of a Sexual Nature
A gentle, episodic amble through several relationships, boasting a big-name cast and a more jaundiced outlook than your average British romantic comedy
Despite its provocative title and the fact that it's set entirely around Hampstead Heath, don't imagine this will be a writhing circus of steamy loins. Okay, so Ewan McGregor does hang around in his Speedos, winking at muscular chaps he's taken a shine to, but this is balanced out by Dame Eileen Atkins reminiscing on a park bench with an old gent in a Panama hat. It's easy to see how Aschlin Ditta's script attracted so much name talent to this low-budget project, with the entire cast given the opportunity to take turns at centre-stage rather than hanging about in the shadow of, let's say, Hugh Grant. The set up is simple enough; during the course of one afternoon various couples question their commitment and plans for the future, or start raking over the past. Other relationships are nipped in the bud or revealed to be not quite as straightforward as expected. While it's nothing like as bleak as Closer or Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, this may still have couples or first-daters stumbling out of the cinema and wondering if this love thing is really worth it. Particularly chilling for anyone currently single is Gina Bellman's blind date picnic with Hugh Bonneville - initially a nightmare purely for reasons of strained small talk, but quickly hamstrung by paranoia and total incompatibility. Key to the film are Eileen Atkins and Benjamin Whitrow as an elderly pair who meet randomly on a park bench. This is initially rather jolly, with a lively Whitrow coming on strong like some amorous Mr Kipling and offering us a smidgen of 'hope springs eternal' solace amongst the misery all the Club 18-50 couples seem to be experiencing. Inevitably, this entirely fails to resolve itself with the couple jetting off to Rio - the budget wouldn't run to it for one thing - rather it peters out; not, thankfully with pelvic thrusting but with arthritically shrugged shoulders. Ewan McGregor has a relatively small role but appears to be enjoying himself as a promiscuous gay man kept on an extremely long leash (though not literally) by his partner (Hodge). If McGregor was angling to find something to distance himself from Obi-Wan Kenobi, he couldn't have been more successful had he wound up playing Bernie Clifton, which given his ubiquity, may yet happen. If the film has a problem, it's that having initially done a nice job of wrong-footing the audience with its sour attitude, the script doesn't appear to really hold very deep convictions about this grim outlook. In the universe the film creates, one can imagine the characters are all merely having an off day and will probably find lasting happiness in a hypothetical sequel. While some sort of Apocalypse Now finale would of course have been entirely inappropriate, had the film gambled with a darker downward spiral in its various tales, it might have emerged as significantly more memorable. As it is we're supposed to have our hearts bobbed afloat by the sight of Tom Hardy's hapless and increasingly nauseating Ali G soundalike finding himself lumbered with a boisterous dog called Onion. Verdict Enjoyable, brisk and unsentimental but lacking in genuine venom or anything to get too excited about. The film's 'oh well' attitude is summed up by a main theme which sounds like The Kinks lazily covering John Barry's title music for Moonraker. |
