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Hampstead

6/10

Stars: Diane Keaton, Brendan Gleeson, Lesley Manville, James Norton, Simon Callow, Jason Watkins, Alistair Petrie, Rosalind Ayres

Director: Joel Hopkins

A pleasant, if unexceptional time-passer set against sunny days (and the odd rainy one) on and around London's Hampstead Heath. Despite charismatic leads, it's not quite as full-bodied or emotive as the director's previous Anglo-American romcom Last Chance Harvey.

Keaton, still looking at 70 much as she has always done, plays an American widow whose philandering husband has left her up to her ears in dept. From the start, though, you're stuck with the idea that she should just sell up and downsize: a two-storey flat overlooking Hampstead Heath? Must be worth a bloody fortune.

Anyway, one day, wielding binoculars from her attic window, she spots Donald (Gleeson), a middle-aged, bearded man bathing naked in a woodland lake. Naturally the two are destined to meet, and do so after she sees him being attacked by yobs near his woodland shack - the sequence is just allowed to evaporate - and calls the police.

The 'shack' proves to be a comfy self-made home surrounded by vegetable garden (supplemented by fish from the lake), but the authorities are determined to evict Donald, as well as pulling down the disused hospital which forms part of his outlook.

Subsequent developments seem more than a tad contrived just to spin things out, with Gleeson a touch ill-at-rease with a comedy role in a romantic romp vaguely in the Ealing tradition. Still, the film has a pleasing, fresh feel, and guest star Callow enjoys a few choice moments as a caustic judge.

David Quinlan

UK 2016. UK Distributor: entertainmentOne . Colour by deluxe.
101 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 12A.

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

Review date: 16 Jun 2017