Vacuuming Completely Nude In Paradise

After losing his way with A Life Less Ordinary Danny Boyle returns to the acerbic energy of Trainspotting  with this made-for-BBC TV black comedy set in England’s drab industrial Midlands. Directed with brio by Boyle and with an bravura performance by Timothy Spall (in the best work he has done without Mike Leigh, whose 1993 film Naked probably was one of Boyle reference points for this film) as a bitter, sleaze-ball door-to-door vacuum salesman, ably supported by Michael Begley as his chronically hapless apprentice, the film crackles with energy. Jim Cartwright’s hyperventilating script delivers the mordant humour with panache and a certain amount of empathy for its desperate characters whilst Anthony Dod Mantle’s vibrant visuals perfectly draw out the grotesqueries of the material.

FYI: It was accompanied by a not-as-good companion piece, Strumpet.

 

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