Bring on the captions for these Brit Isle films
”
Son of Rambow
”
starring Bill Milner, Will Poulter and Jessica Stevenson
My mom is mostly in charge of the Netflix queue at my house.
That means we get a lot of romantic comedies and movies starring
Nicolas Cage. She takes pains not to
”
accidentally
”
rent a foreign film because she really dislikes reading
subtitles while she watches movies. But every once in a while my
sister and I will sneak something up to the top of the list or my
mom will put something in line that she doesn’t realize is a
foreign film.
Bring on the captions for these Brit Isle films
“Son of Rambow” starring Bill Milner, Will Poulter and Jessica Stevenson
My mom is mostly in charge of the Netflix queue at my house. That means we get a lot of romantic comedies and movies starring Nicolas Cage. She takes pains not to “accidentally” rent a foreign film because she really dislikes reading subtitles while she watches movies. But every once in a while my sister and I will sneak something up to the top of the list or my mom will put something in line that she doesn’t realize is a foreign film.
That was the case with “Son of Rambow” and “A Fond Kiss,” two movies we watched a few weeks ago.
“Son of Rambow” is a British film and English accents of people raised outside of London can be as hard to understand as a foreign language. “A Fond Kiss” is set in Scotland though one of the main characters has a thick Irish accent and the others have a mixed Pakistani-Scottish accent. We ended up watching both these films with captions for the hearing impaired, which pretty much amounts to subtitles. Despite having to read much of the dialogue the films were well worth it.
Son of Rambow
“Son of Rambow” is set in the English countryside in the 1980s, so expect to hear lots of one-hit wonders and really bad outfits. Will Proudfoot (Bill Milner) and his family are members of the Plymouth brethren, a religious outfit that denies everything technological and spends free time at prayer meetings. Will has never been able to listen to records or watch TV. It is his religion that leads to his acquaintance with Lee Carter (Will Poulter), the school’s mischief maker.
Lee has been kicked out of class for misbehaving and Will has been removed from a room so the rest of the class can watch a science video. They end up at Lee’s house after school, and Will watches “Rambo” on video. It is the first movie he has ever seen and soon his thoughts are obsessed with it. The boys soon pair up to make a film, “Son of Rambow.” Will schemes to get out of prayer meetings and Lee filches his brother’s camera equipment.
Throughout the summer their friendship is tested by Will’s religion, a French foreign exchange student and an accident. Oh, and for fans of “Gossip Girl,” Ed Westwick has a role as Lee’s older brother in the film.
A Fond Kiss
Casim (Atta Yaqub) is a Scottish-Pakistani man who lives on the south side of Glasgow when he meets Roisin (Eva Birthistle), an Irish-Catholic woman who teaches at his younger sister’s school. Casim’s parents are in the middle of adding onto their house before Casim’s impending marriage to a cousin from Pakistan. The pair have never met.
The film is directed by Ken Loach, “The Wind That Shakes the Barley” and this earlier movie has the same feel to it. Like “The Wind That Shakes the Barley,” “A Fond Kiss” is about choosing sides and the differences between groups of people who live together. But “A Fond Kiss” deals with love instead of war, and leaves out some of the melancholy.
Roisin is on a temporary assignment at the school, teaching music, and has recently been divorced from a man she married when she was 19. Casim and Roisin quickly bond over a shared interest in music. He deejays at a nightclub and his dream is to someday open his own club with a friend.
Soon the two are spending all their free time together, though Casim has not told his family about the relationship. When he finally tells Roisin about his upcoming nuptials, she is crushed. He is faced with deciding between his relationship with Roisin and his family.
Though the film can be a bit heavy handed at times, and some of the actions of Casim’s family after they discover his secret relationship seem implausible, writer Paul Laverty did a good job of developing the characters. There are bits and pieces about Casim and Roisin’s upbringing and personalities that are revealed throughout the film. In the end, their actions make sense and one is left feeling they made the right decisions.
