Name: Retro Film Review: Twin Town (1997)
Item: Twin Town
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source: tmdb.org)

Partly out of ignorance, partly out of mental laziness, many Continental Europeans make mistake of addressing Britons as "English". This often results in Continentals being reminded that Europe's biggest island is also home to Scots and Welsh. Both ethnic groups had their cultural identity discovered by world's film goers in 1990s thanks to series of popular British films set in their respective lands. This process, which coincided with Tony Blair's devolution initiatives, began in 1996 with Danny Boyle's Trainspotting - visually impressive, but downright depressing tale of urban Scotland. A year later, Danny Boyle produced Kevin Allen's Twin Town, equally depressive tale of modern Wales.

The plot is set in Welsh city of Swansea. Peace and quiet of its citizens is occasionally rattled by antics of Julian (played by Llyr Ifans) and Jeremy Lewis (played by Rhys Ifans) - two sociopathic brothers who spend their lives taking drugs and indulging in occasional car theft. Their lifestyle is supported by their unemployed but nevertheless hard-working father Fatty (played by Huw Ceredig) who moonlights as a mason. When Fatty gets injured at one of those jobs, his employer Bryn Cartwright (played by William Thomas), local businessman, rugby club owner and part-time cocaine dealer, refuses to pay any compensation. Brothers decide to take matters into their own hands and extort money by staging series of pranks. Cartwright isn't impressed and decides to retaliate with the help of two corrupt policemen - Greyo (played by Dorien Thomas) and Terry Walsh (played by Dougray Scott).

Despite being advertised as such, Twin Town failed to become Welsh version of Trainspotting. Reason is in it having only superficial similarities with Danny Boyle's classic - both films take naturalistic approach towards various forms of social pathology, and both shift their tone from dark comedy into even darker drama. On the other hand, Kevin Allen, not having a literary source to guide him, doesn't seem to make his mind whether to pay some sort of perverted homage to Swansea and its local eccentricities, make serious social commentary or simply to satisfy appetite of the viewers who expect Tarantinoesque black comedy. Despite loss of direction and humour that often crosses the border of good taste, Twin Town is for the most time not merely watchable but quite entertaining. It is mostly thanks to superb cast which includes Rhys Ifans, one of the most recognisable character actors of today. Twin Town is not going to be remembered as a classic or particularly good film, but those with low expectations might end up with something resembling "guilty pleasure".

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on October 22nd 2003)