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Papadopoulos & Sons

6/10

Stars: Stephen Dillane, Georges Corraface, Georgia Groome, Ed Stoppard, Thomas Underhill, Selina Cadell, Cosima Shaw, Frank Dillane

Director: Marcus Marcou

Good-natured if slow-moving in parts, this feelgood offering has a string of decent performances, but also some alarming continuity slips.

Harry P (Stephen Dillane) falls victim to a financial collapse in the City, which sees banks call in their huge loans - including Harry's little matter of 300 million. Theo (Underhill), his nerdy younger son, who is always studying the Stock Exchange, sadly declares that 'Daddy over-leveraged himself'.

Evicted with his two sons and daughter from the family mansion, Harry's only remaining asset, apart from 25k in the bank, is a defunct fish-and-chip shop, The 3 Brothers, which is co-owned by his surviving (older) brother, the dishevelled and defiantly-Greek Spiros (Corraface).

Devastated to find himself back in the chippie business from whence he came years before, Harry is soon resolved to make the best of things, his decision to sell kebabs as well as fish incurring the wrath of the doner owner (George Savvides) across the road, whose son (Cesare Taurasi) swiftly has an eye on Harry's daughter (Groome).

Meanwhile, Harry is being 'helped' to regroup by his sharkish, divorced business adviser (Stoppard), who says of his ex-wife that 'her forward thinking killed the romance'

Dillane gets Harry about right, while Corraface is suitably rascally and unshaven as Spiros. Stalwart character actress Cadell registers well as Theo's nanny, and the film has some nice touches and inventive moments. Unfortunately, it also has a long and boring scene between the brothers in a van that could have been taken out altogether.

And those slips? There's the same shop 'To Have and to Hold' on both sides of the road, no prices on the fish-and-chip menu board, and more. Shame.



David Quinlan

USA 2012. UK Distributor: Double M Films. Colour by Panalux.
105 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 02 Apr 2013