Sparkle (2007)

Excellent but underrated film

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Some films just feel like everyone's going through the motions, with the cast on autopilot and nary a surprise anywhere. Check this one out for starters... the individuals in it feels unfinished, as if the writer started exploring their personalities but gave up halfway through. They behave in very odd ways, with no satisfactory answers given why and no great thought as to their motives. They fall in love at the drop of a hat, are sneaky and devious one minute and yet kind and considerate the next, and OF COURSE there has to be two gay uncles dishing out advice on love. YAWN.And don't get me started on the event which ultimately repairs the relationship between our central duo... it's the first time I've seen a couple overcome the myriad of difficulties they have over a dodgy dance cover sung by the bloke's mother. Who needs a marriage counselor when you've got a middle aged X factor reject? When the pair made them goo-goo eyes at each other over the dance floor while his mummy warbled on, my breakfast almost made an unwelcome reappearance.Still, it's not all bad news. The actors are certainly game, and throw themselves into their parts... as limited as they are. And there is the odd funny line that they manage to squeeze under the radar. It's an inoffensive, relatively harmless way to spend 100 minutes. Just don't go expecting any major insights on love, life or karaoke, or you're likely to be disappointed. Massively. 5/10

i love this movie.even though this was a simple no point movie i live Stockard Channing and think she does an excellent job in whatever shes in. this movie, although not the conventional love story, will steel your heart and have you wanting more.Although i hardly know any of the British actors in this film except the man who plays uncle Luke i thought all were phenomenal.its was a funny down to earth film that I'm sure if we don't relate to it someone we know can.i also advice you to check out some of her other films as well as the other actors you might like them.you should watch this movie it will make you laugh =]. Also i think that it could be a great date movie just not on the first one.

I sometimes get the feeling that the only reason people make films like this one is so that people like me, who like to go to the cinema at least once a week, will have an alternative to the cgi/slasher/American pie formulaic garbage that fuels the multiplexes. In other words fairly pleasant, fairly harmless movies, like Venus, Shameless, Junebug, Waitress etc that fill a gap but, like Chinese food, leave you craving something more substantial within the hour. Hunter and Hunsinger scored a mild success with Lawless Heart and return to the same general area and clearly figure that if outrageous coincidence was good enough for Shakespeare it's good enough for them thus we get a chain of events in which Bob Hoskins, on the strength of an meeting Shaun Eveans for an hour or two and taking a shine to his mother, Lesley Manville, offers Evans the use of a flat in London which leads to Evans finding work as a waiter and catching the eye of PR honcho Stockard Channing with whom he is soon doubling as a gigolo where he in turn catches the eye of a girl his own age who, surprise, surprise, turns out to be Channing's daughter; Channing has never disclosed the name of the father and as Dorothy Parker said you could have knocked me down with a fender when he is finally revealed as Hoskins' brother. With story lines like these you need decent thesping and on the whole that's what we get with the glaring exception of leading man Shaun Evans compared to whom an amoeba with Learning Difficulties would eclipse Errol Flynn in both charm and charisma. Luckily Evans is surrounded by Manville, Hoskins, Anthony Head and Amanda Ryan all of whom help to make the time pass pleasantly enough.

Just seen this film on Dublin Film Festival and it's beautiful. OK, I would not call it a masterpiece, there aren't really any deep feelings or thoughts in there, it is just a comedy. But it is so beautifully shot. I happened to see quite a few films recently that aim high but fall flat with their shallow performance, jerky camera movements, etc. This film is a nice break from that. It flows from scene to scene smoothly and naturally. It's like a good music by wind instruments. If everything plays in unison, you can almost physically feel the beauty of the music flow. Same here. Everything fits together so perfectly: camera work, montage, acting.Acting is excellent. Entirely believable and funny. Especially from Amanda Ryan and Shaun Evans. (Uncle Tony was very funny as well.)So, don't expect any incredible depth, but if you want to have a bit of fun (possibly on a date, as there is lots of romance in there as well) then this film is well recommended.