Stars: Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Bill Nighy, Juliet Aubrey, Bruce Robinson

Director: Brian Gibson

Summary: Strange Fruit regroup to perform at the Wisbech Open Air Rock Festival after splitting up twenty-one years earlier during the glam rock era. The intervening years have treated all of the band members very differently...

A satire of 70's era rock-and-roll about the reunion of Strange Fruit, a band that probably shouldn't have formed in the first place. Connolly (MRS. BROWN), Mike Leigh regular Spall, British chart-topper Nail, and the always-reliable Rea round out a talented ensemble cast in this distinctly bittersweet British comedy.

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This gently satirical British comedy chronicles the quixotic reunion of a late, arguably not-so-great and unlamented 70s rock band, Strange Fruit, with a winning mix of humour and poignancy. The "Fruits", as the survivors call themselves without irony, had disbanded after the tragic loss of one member, the mysterious disappearance of another and the aftershocks of internal rivalries, but 20 years later they warily reassemble for a Dutch club tour, a warm-up for a proposed festival appearance. Between that seemingly hare-brained proposal and the fateful festival, director Brian Gibson, working from a sharp script by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais, captures the absurdities of middle-aged rockers trying to recapture that lost cockiness.

Breathing life into the band is a terrific cast, including Stephen Rea, Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall and Bill Nighy, each managing to juggle deft archetype with believable character traits: Spall's cheerfully crass, flatulent drummer and Nighy's preening, slow-witted lead singer exemplify the approach, grabbing chuckles yet making you actually care about them. Equally impressive is Billy Connolly as the wily roadie, Hughie, at once pragmatic and devoted to his charges. All are well-served by production details and script points that get the group's lost world of late 60s and early 70s rock exactly right, from costuming and stage moves to the long-forgotten bands they name-check--Blodwyn Pig, anybody?

The band's music likewise benefits from inspired insiders, cowriters Mick Jones (Spooky Tooth, Foreigner) and Chris Difford (Squeeze), who hit a nifty combination of bombast (for the silly scenes) and earnestness. When Gibson and his cast risk the story's amiable glow on a darker, more dramatic final act, the music rises to the challenge and the whole project, like its fictional subject, achieves an unexpectedly touching victory. --Sam Sutherland

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Behind The Scenes Featurette, Star Interviews, US Theatrical Trailer, Filmographies
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish
Year:	1998
Release Date:	October 11, 1999
Runtime:	90 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C D R 98061
Keywords:	Comedy, General, Crazy, Still, Wide, Screen
Genre:	Comedy