An unpretentious Brit-flick distinguished by a great cast, This Year's Love is writer-director David Kane's wry, funny study of six singletons in search of something--possibly love, possibly just sex--that will help them make sense of an untidy world. Aside from the acting, the film's strongest feature is its unflinching realism. The setting is North London's Camden Lock, an area that is in equal parts ultra-trendy and horrendously squalid. The characters reflect the locale: a circle of youthful drop-outs, wannabes and never-have-beens united in their common desire... to surmount loneliness and find that elusive "perfect match". The central figures are newlyweds Danny and Hannah (the wonderful Douglas Henshall and Catherine McCormack) and the film in essence concerns itself with the fallout from the spectacular and rapid disintegration of their marriage. Danny first hooks up with cleaner-cum-nightclub singer Mary (a marvellously self-deprecating Kathy Burke), while Hannah finds lecherous womaniser Cameron (an unwashed Dougray Scott). Cameron's flatmate Liam (Ian Hart) fails to impress posh single mum Sophie (Jennifer Ehle in dreadlocks), who goes on to reject Danny and Cameron in turn, while Liam becomes dangerously obsessed by Hannah then Mary. So the merry-go-round of relationship swapping, unlikely coincidences and bittersweet life-lessons turns full circle. David Kane's comic dialogue is witheringly sharp, the situations (aside from all the coincidental meetings) are well-observed and the characters sympathetically three-dimensional (helped in no small part by the quality of the ensemble cast). The frequently hilarious comedy is tempered by an underlying despair: if it's not exactly Brassed Off or The Full Monty for neurotic, self-obsessed metropolitans, it's a film that's at least happy to exist in the same genre and achieves the same poignant empathy with its characters. The soundtrack is great, too. Imagine that the cast of Trainspotting gate-crashed Four Weddings and a Funeral and the result would be This Year's Love. On the DVD: Short on-set interviews with the principals and a promotional featurette are supplemented by a sequence of unedited behind-the-scenes footage. The film itself is presented in a good-looking anamorphic (16:9) print. --Mark Walker [show more]
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. 'This Year's Love' is a bittersweet romantic comedy about love, sex and heartbreak. If follows six twenty-something's looking for romance and that special someone. An apparently perfect relationship between tattoo artist Danny (Douglas Henshall) and Hannah (Catherine McCormack) ends in tears on the wedding day even before the cake is cut. Back in "singles life", they meet Liam (Ian Hart) a passionate obsessive, Mary (Kathy Burke), a pub singer, Sophie (Jennifer Ehle), rich kid turned rebel and Cameron (Dougray Scott) a good-looking artist and rogue. One by one, their paths tangle and untangle over the course of three years with consequences that are sad, strange and hilarious!
Tattoo artist Danny (Douglas Henshaw) and Hannah (Catherine McCormack) break up on the most inappropriate occasion - their wedding day. Thrown back into life in the single lane, the next few years provide the estranged couple with a number of new partners, including pub singer Marey (Kathy Burke), roguish artist Cameron (Dougray Scott) and the unusually intense Liam (Ian Hart). This Camden set Brit-com features the likes of Mercury Rev, Stereophonics and Garbage on the soundtrack.
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