A TRIP BACK IN TIME – TO THE BOAT THAT ROCKED!

The Boat That Rocked is one of the newest creations of the team that brought us such classics as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Noting Hill. And although it is a “fun” film in many ways it definitely lacks the star quality of its more famous siblings.
Not that the film is lacking in stars, in more senses than one : Phlip Seymour-Hoffman gives a superb performance as the inevitable “Brash American” set among “The Brits” without being in the least bit cliché or annoying ( or at least annoyingly cliché) Bill Nighy is your typical “Brit on the ocean waves” with just the right Bohemian overtones, Rhys Ifans is… Well no other word for it absolutely “yummy” as Gavin and Tom Sturrdige is the perfect “naïve young beau”
Reading back on my previous paragraph I find that I seem to have hinted at what I find “wrong” with the film – it’s a cliché. Although it starts on a very interesting point – history of Pirate Radio Broadcasting in the U.K (a concept I was not personally aware of incidentally) and in the meanwhile offers an absolutely wonderfully nostalgic soundtrack of 60’s rock and pop classics, the actual storyline itself is nothing new. Young beau arrives among rebels. Defies authority bravely. Succeeds at last minute where all seems to be failing terribly. Gets girl in the end. * Yawn*.
But, as can be expected from the team that creates such classics – and such great actors - the film has a saving grace apart from its soundtrack (that is so good it deserves a second mention). It’s funny. It does, I have to stay, stray once or twice into a realm the American Pie franchise has exploited in my opinion once too often but other than that it is embarrassingly Britishly, wonderfully funny. I gurantee you an entertaining and depending on your generation VERY nostalgic couple of hours if you make the time to watch it. Just don’t expect it to change your world. Or stick in your mind for more than 2 days…