Rating: B
Dir: Richard Anthony Dunford
Star: Nicholas Pople, Caitlin Cameron, Denise Wilton, Sammy Attalah
I feel like I don’t “do” romantic movies, in the sense I’m pretty much never going to select one actively to view. The numbers back this up. Of the reviews on this site, 2,221 are in the horror category. Romance? This will be number sixty-three – and a good few of those are horror/romance, like Dracula: A Love Tale or Cat People. But I will review pretty much anything a filmmaker sends to me. It’s nice to get out of your comfort zone now and again, even if my idea of a date movie is Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair. Fortunately, I’m married to a woman who agrees – with the important proviso that snacks shall be provided. Which is how we arrived here, with a story mostly set around table #12 at the Rainbow Inn on Mill Lane.
It is basic, to the point of sparseness. Boy Evan (Pople) meets girl Rhian (Cameron), on the most awkward double-date ever, and everything that happens thereafter. They first encounter each other at table #12. He proposes at table #12, in an ill-conceived plan which ends up in the Heimlich manoeuvre (top). Other stuff happens there too. I was reminded of the role the pub played in Shaun of the Dead, and kept expecting Rhian to go off on Evan about it: “I need something more, more than spending every night in the Winchester Rainbow Inn. I want to do more interesting stuff. I want you to want to want to do it.” Evan doesn’t even need to book a table at Fulci’s – y’know, the place that does all the fish. That’s true love.
However, it is still pleasantly British and low-key. These are not the perfect individuals of Hollywood love stories. Both Evan and Rhian look like real people, and along with a self-deprecating sense of humour, goes a long way towards selling the genuineness of their relationship. Nor is it an instant attraction, accompanied by lightning bolts and angels’ trumpets. Indeed, to start with they don’t like each other very much. But fate – and perhaps Lynn (Wilton), the long-serving “bar wench” at the Rainbow, who is an almost angelic presence throughout – have other ideas. It’s all very pure in its heart, and chugs along, more or less as you’d expect, for much of the first hour.
Then fate shows up again, and the film changes direction sharply. Sure, it’s clichéd, in a way which echoes one of the classic entries in the genre. But I found much of what follows, both uncomfortable and effective. I realized this was because I had quietly found myself invested in what happens to Evan and Rhian, courtesy of the earlier scenes. It feels like they care, and so I did too. The low-budget here is occasionally obvious, not least in the Rainbow never seeming to have more than four customers – and that includes our couple. However, this doesn’t get in the way of what is a simple tale, told in an effective manner.
[The film is streaming now, on platforms including Fawesome and Tubi]