A Bunch Of Amateurs

Was first out last year, but the local Odeon brought it back for the day, for
their films for pensioners thing they do on Tuesday mornings. So I got me flat
cap on and went.

Burt Reynolds plays a washed up action hero who's now way too old. He orders
his agent to get him a job within 24 hours, or he's fired. His agent sets him
up with an am-dram theatre company in Straford in Suffolk, who had written a
begging letter asking him to do an appearence to help save their theatre. His
agent lets him believe that it's the RSC in the proper Stratford, and by the
time he twigs, the papers have got hold of it and he can't back out.

It could have been Yet Another Richard Curtisesque comedy, but it's actually
quite a bit cleverer than that. The play they have him in is King Lear, and his
story neatly parallels Lear - he too is the washed up old king, deserted by
those who claimed to love him, and as things go from bad to worse for him, he
comes to understand the play he's in better and better.

Burt Reynolds is really quite good, and gives the impression that he could
actually do a pretty good Lear if he tried. Derek Jacobi's great in support,
playing the resentful old ham who feels he should be Lear.

In many ways, it's quite the Brassed Off/Full Monty/Calendar Girls type of
film, with an ensemble cast of British character talent doing the heartwarming
eccentricity thing, but what pushes it into the higher class of the film is the
respectful and intelligent way it treats both Shakespeare and the Amateur
Dramatics tradition; this isn't a "look at the silly awful actors" thing, it's
much more affectionate than that.

I'll give it 8.5/10, and I'd have given it more if they'd given Derek Jacobi a
bit more to do.