Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

For his third film director Shane Meadows takes the very best of British social realism, marries it with the plot of a spaghetti western and sets it in Nottingham. For comic value there's a Stetson wearing, country-and-western singing Ricky Tomlinson and for menace, Robert Carlyle revisits Begbie territory as a petty criminal psychopath on the run.

Sound incongruous? Not as incongruous as some of the accents featured, with Robert Carlyle's broad Glaswegian alongside Kathy Burke's finest north London. They're supposed to be brother and sister - it's ok, there's a line inserted into the screenplay that says they are foster siblings. Still, it doesn't quite ring true and this uneasy mix of dialects (add Ricky Tomlinson's Liverpudlian and you can easily be excused for feeling disorientated) reflects a mix of genres which, as the film fluctuates wildly between broad slapstick comedy and heartfelt tragedy, seems to indicate that Meadows could not decide exactly where to pitch his film.

The plot is straightforward. Appearing on a daytime chat show, Shirley (Shirley Henderson) is so surprised by boyfriend Dek's (Rhys Ifans) on-air marriage proposal, she refuses. Watching at home in Glasgow, her ex Jimmy (Carlyle) decides to head south and rekindle their romance. Absconding with the takings from a bizarre mugging on a group of clowns, he hits the trail pursued by his vengeance-seeking partners in the clown robbery. As soon as Jimmy rides into town, all hell breaks loose. With Shirley torn between the two men, it can only lead to a final showdown at dawn between the good guy and the bad heel.

Meadows extracts brilliant performances from his ensemble cast, particularly Henderson, Ifans and Finn Atkins, who plays Henderson and Carlyle's forthright screen daughter Marlene, and whose self-confidence is astonishing for an actress her age. Henderson is outstanding as gentle, sensual mother Shirley, while as sensitive, awkward Dek, Ifans provides much of the laughter and some of the tears. They make an exceptionally touching and true family. But the clowns and Stetsons and the customized Ford Sierra christened "Baby" are played for cheap laughs and detract from all that is very, very good about Meadows' film.

Reviewed by Monika Maurer