You can tell this was filmed in 2019. Jamie feels like a pre-pandemic LGBT movie musical, if ever there was one.
The heart and charm of the stage musical is not apparent in this adaptation. It feels like an ode to narcissism and self-obsession, rather than a tribute to self-expression. Maybe this film would have had resonance fifteen years ago, but it feels so out of sync with the current zeitgeist. The more it tries to be inspiring, the more on-the-nose and garish it becomes, and the more I want to crawl back into my metaphorical closet...
The main fault of this film is the direction. It lacks vision. It's trying to be a 2000s British feel-good movie one minute, then the next it's a parody of a Netflix teen drama. Either way, with the number of stereotypes it perpetuates, it feels like an LGBT story more concerned with pleasing its straight audience than its gay one. If it had rooted itself in a time and place - 2010 Sheffield - examined that culture, and honed in on the mother-son emotional centre, then it could have been something interesting.
It's not a bad film, per se. It just doesn't know what note it's trying to hit... But, alas, the doe-eyed beauty of Sarah Lancashire's performance broke my heart and Work of Art will always be that bop...
6/10.
