Two out of
Five stars
Running time:
78 mins
Watchable, but largely disappointing comedy-drama, despite good performances and an occasionally insightful script.
What's it all about?
Stephen Mangan (Green Wing) plays David, a commitment-phobic, 30-something photographer who is cheating on his long-term girlfriend Lisa (Susan Lynch) with free-spirited Nina (Lara Belmont). However, just as David finally plucks up the courage to leave Lisa, Nina dumps him, leaving him unexpectedly single and wondering where it all went wrong.
David seeks solace from his two best friends: married Michael (Shaun Dingwall) and terminally single Matt (Christopher Coghill), both of whom have problems of their own. And as if things weren't bad enough, David also finds himself in an ill-advised liaison with Michael's flirty sister-in-law, Stephanie (Lydia Piechowiak).
The Good
Finally getting a release after premiering at the Edinburgh Film Festival last year, Someone Else is a well made and sharply observed but ultimately disappointing relationship drama. The main reason for this is that David is such a despicable bastard that it's impossible to have any sympathy for him whatsoever, much less root for him to succeed.
Lynch and Belmont are both good, though it's hard to see what either of them saw in David in the first place. There's also strong support from John Henshaw as David's swinging colleague Paul, who gets the film's funniest lines.
The Bad
Mangan is extremely good at playing bastards and he does his best, but his perpetually hangdog expression eventually becomes depressing and you just feel like giving him a slap. Ironically for a film called Someone Else, the subplots involving other people are actually more interesting, particularly Michael, who's struggling to make his marriage work, and Matt, who's dipping a toe into the dating agency scene.
Worth seeing?
In short, Something Else is something of a disappointment - it's not romantic or funny enough to work as a romcom and it's too downbeat and depressing to really engage as an emotional drama. See Two Days In Paris instead.