The Actors

Strange effort part funded by the now-defunct FilmFour and DreamWorks amongst others, supported by the Irish film board. Basically two actors trying to act their way out of trouble.

Let's start with the good news. Child actress, very good, convincing. Lena Headey as Dolores, stunning, smouldering, good performance, I'll come back to her in a moment. Dylan Moran as Tom, good enough. Michael Caine as fading actor O'Malley, quite good, believable. Michael Gambon as Barreller, mostly quite good though sometimes he did look a bit too much like, well, Michael Gambon. Plot a bit perfunctory, Tom (at O'Malley's suggestion) pretends to be someone who Barreller owes money to and collects it instead. Things then start going wrong.

So what's the problem?

Though there are laughs along the way, some of it I found too horribly embarassing to watch, and at one point even to listen to (I put my fingers in my ears for a minute or two). It does have a romantic sub-plot, but it isn't central enough to call this a romantic film. I should also say that some of the material involving Dolores, towards the end, is dodgey for 15 year olds, and this should really be considered X-rated. In the states it's a 17-cert (R rating) not a 15 as in the UK.

I liked the throwaway ending, but though I wanted to enjoy the film, really I did, too much of it was neither funny nor entertaining. Sorry but it didn't do it for me, in spite of favourable external reviews.

The Actors is never going to win any awards for originality, ingenuity or cinematography, but what it does do is to entertain without ever remotely taking itself seriously.

Michael Caine (The Quiet American), Dylan Moran (Black Books), and Michael Gambon (The Singing Detective) star as 2 actors who are down on their luck, and one apparent gangster (Gambon) who the actors will try to exploit. Of course the scheme doesn't quite work out as planned, and the yarn spins out thereafter.

All the players appear to enjoy themselves tremendously. Gambon and Caine especially give the impression of enjoying this light relief as a little break from their more 'serious' roles. And Moran is just excellent in comedy anyway as proven by the British TV comedy, Black Books. Forget what the critics say, this is a blast assuming you don't expect an intellectually stimulating comedy.

Thumbs up.

In following Dylan Moran's star from the charming misanthrope bookstore owner in the surrealist sitcom Black Books, I could see his comic potential begging to be utilised in theater or larger cinematic avenues. This first big screen outing in a starring role (he had a cameo as Rufus the thief in Notting Hill) had oodles of promise, but like the strained Steve Coogan vehicle, The Parole Officer, has too many creases which should have been ironed out in preproduction.

The plot is so convoluted that I shan't bother repeating the finer details (the script has every character do that for us), and the laughs are sourced from show business in-jokes. Michael Caine is a pompous has-been running a production of Richard III - updated to Nazi occupation (one of the few genuine laughs, a satirical jab at Ian McKellen), in which everyone is forever doing the Hitler salute every time they take the stage. Convincing Dylan that acting should be a conceptual act unto itself, the two plot to steal money from some fairly harmless gangsters by way of their acting prowess. Confusion ensues (both on screen and in the audience), there's a romantic sub-plot between Dylan and the daughter of one of the gangsters blah blah blah and Dylan gets to dress in odd clothes and do funny accents. Michael Caine delivers some choice lines, and Dylan's comic timing is on the money, so why isn't it any good? It does have a certain charm that you would expect from Film 4, but it also has a precocious little girl acting as compass in a muddled and irrelevant plot - a no-no in screen writing 101. Exposition overshadows everything else. You just want to see Moran and Caine acting as comic foil to each other the way the were at the beginning, but when they're together toward the end, the the pairing has lost its charisma.

The Actors is an amusing, albeit underwhelming effort. Should it come on telly during a rainy Tuesday afternoon, then have at you. Otherwise you would be better off watching your old Black Books videos, or renting Withnail & I.

Anthony O'Malley is an old actor who has long since said goodbye to his best days. A lacklustre performance in a terrible version of Richard III that nobody wants to see. One of his support cast is the unsuccessful and jobbing actor Tom who is equally in need of some form or career or income boost. In order to help develop his villain, O'Malley has been hanging around a rough pub in the docks with a criminal called Barreller and, in doing so he has learnt that Barreller owes another party money – a party he does not know. So O'Malley makes a proposition to Tom – that Tom will present himself as an agent for this "other party", collect the money and split it with O'Malley. The first act is simple and well executed but quickly the two find themselves getting deeper into lies.

At the time of release I must confess that the trailer did nothing to make me want to see this but, by the time the television premier rolled around I had forgotten this and decided to tune in for the presence of Dylan Moran whom I find very funny in certain things. Sadly this was not one of them and laughs were pretty thin on the ground throughout. So instead I settled into the plot, which at first seemed to offer some interesting scenarios before quickly collapsing into a series of disguises and unconvincing ideas that don't really work. It isn't "bad" per se but it certainly isn't any good. It produced enough forward movement and amusing ideas to hold my interest but it rarely did anything to justify doing so and I was generally disappointed with the fact that it failed to do much.

The characters are not that well developed and the sort of pathos I hoped would add value to the material and there isn't that much for the actors to work with. This lack of depth means Michael Caine can't do much with his character and has no laughs to help him out – thus seeing him finally dressed as a woman is yet another low in a career of highs and lows. Moran struggles with the lack of good comedy to work with but still makes a good fist of his various characters and is amusing if not funny. Gambon collects his check and turns in an average performance while Headey looks sexy but doesn't have much else to do. Iverson also lacks material but she gives a nice performance and avoids being an annoying cute kid type of actor.

Overall this is a fairly average film that offers some fun early on but generally just becomes messy and poorly delivery the more it goes on. The cast are so-so mainly because they lack the laughs (Moran) or the depth (Caine) that they needed to turn in good work. It all does enough to be watchable but it doesn't do anything particularly well.

Right, for a start, I liked it. It was funny, It was farcical; Michael Caine and Dylan Moran threw themselves into their roles with such obvious glee, that I found it impossible not to be swayed by this film despite its many obvious flaws. The musical score just didn't seem appropriate; a number of the scenes appeared irrelevant and a little clunky; it just is not perfectly crafted and does appear cobbled together at times. But, and its a big but, its just funny. It just is - Michael Caine is wonderful as the neverhasbeen, entirely self absorbed O'Malley. While Moran handles his (definately more challenging) role with an almost nonchalent ease - a superb actor and one to watch in the future me thinks. In summary, and despite its flaws, if you don't laugh at this nice little film then your a bigger cynic than me - and you have my pity!