In a brief period after Tony Blair had trounced Tories at the polls and brought back Labour Party to power, United Kingdom looked like a country representing everything Clinton’s United States was supposed to be. At least this was the impression given by British Blair-worshipping artists and intelligentsia trying their best to advance concept of “cool Britannia”. This movement was most visible in British cinemas, where dour social dramas and dark thrillers of Thatcher era suddenly gave way to featherweight romantic comedies worthy of Classic Hollywood escapism. One of the films characteristic for the period is Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence a.k.a. The Very Thought of You, 1998 comedy directed by Nick Hamm.
The plot begins in London when bridge playing instructor Laurence (played by Joseph Fiennes) visits his neighbour Dr. Pedersen (played by Ray Winstone), for whom he thinks he is a psychiatrist. During the marathon session Laurence describes three days of traumatic events that began on the other side of the world. Martha (played by Monica Potter) is young and attractive woman from Minneapolis who had enough of her monotonous job. She impulsively buys an airline ticket for London where she is supposed to start new life. In next twenty four hours series of random events bring her to Laurence and his two best childhood friends – music producer Daniel (played by Tom Hollander) and struggling actor Frank (played by Rufus Sewell). All three men are smitten with her and, although they don’t know they compete for the same women, suddenly turned into romantic rivals.
At first glance Martha follows all the Hollywood cliches of romantic comedy, including rather implausible set of coincidences that lead to all kinds of misunderstandings. Script by Peter Morgan, renowned playwright who wrote the script (later known for his awarded biopics and as creator of The Crown), however compensate for lack of originality with interesting and well-rounded characters. This is especially so with Daniel and Frank, played by good character actor Tom Hollander and Rufus Sewell, who recently tried to switch from playing traditional romantic leads. They are much better than Joseph Fiennes who, despite his best efforts, lacked proper chemistry with Monica Potter, relatively unknown actress who displayed great charm and talent tailor-made for exactly this type of films. Those who see her performance here would start asking why she wasn’t allowed to compete with Julia Robert, Meg Ryan and Sandra Bullock for the crown of Hollywood’s romantic comedy queen. But even her efforts wouldn’t have been enough to make this film good without director Nick Hamm experimenting with non-linear narration and Rashomon-like treatment of the same event from different perspectives. Hamm also made a good decision to shorten this film to hour and half of running time, making it more digestible for audience. The end result is not too deep but effective piece of entertainment that is as “cool” as “cool Britannia” was supposed to be.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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