Very Annie Mary

Synopsis: Set in a small Welsh village, this is a story about Annie Mary (Rachel Griffiths), a simple girl with a good heart who is trying to find her way in the world. She lives with her widowed father Jack (Jonathan Pryce), who treats her as a servant, ridiculing any of her attempts at independence. Jack is a respected member of the community and is famous in the small town for his operatic voice. Things change for Annie Mary when Jack has a stroke and she becomes his full-time carer. All this is set against the backdrop of the community raising money to send Bethan Bevan, Annie Mary’s best friend who is dying of cancer, to Disneyland.

Very Annie Mary is billed as a warm-hearted Welsh comedy. Read: a patchwork of clichés trying to grab the quirky market. The opening scenes of Jack singing opera over the loud speakers of his bread delivery van through the village are wonderful, and hold promise for the rest of the film. This is not to be, however. The acting is mediocre, with the notable exceptions of Griffiths and Pryce who turn in outstanding performances and the direction and the script in particular are weak. The behaviour of the characters either didn’t ring true, or was deadly familiar. There didn’t seem to be a natural flow to the film, and characters and their "antics" seemed to be inserted for no reason other than for their quirkiness value, making the result somewhat disjointed.

There are some comedic moments amongst all the schmaltz: a Pavarotti piece performed by Annie Mary and her friends at a talent contest, Annie Mary trying to run the bakery, and the very gay Annie Get Your Gun sequence.

Griffiths and Pryce are the saving grace of this film. Griffiths’ consummate acting abilities save some scenes from being unbearable. For example, the "uplifting" scene where Annie Mary finally gets up enough courage to sing to her dying friend, almost serenading her from below the window. It worked because Griffiths cut through the sentimentality and made it work.

Very Annie Mary is a mixed bag of a film, and makes apparent the importance of the scriptwriter to the final outcome.

 

 

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