Stars: Rachel Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew Rhys, Ruth Madoc

Director: Sarah Sugarman

Summary: Annie Mary, a woman in her early thirties, living in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales is forced to make changes in her life when her father suffers a major stroke. The future of the family business is left in her hands and so she hatches a plan to raise money the only way she can...

The myth of the eccentric Englishman (or woman) is given a cinematic boost by the awkwardly hysterical VERY ANNIE MARY, a tale of a young Welsh woman's stumbling struggle to proclaim her independence and strike out on her own. With an epic sweep reminiscent of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, VERY ANNIE MARY examines the bucolic and banal life of 33-year-old Annie Mary (Rachel Griffiths), a perpetually adolescent and tragically klutzy young woman, miserably under the thumb of her egomaniacal opera singing father (Jonathan Pryce). Since the death of her beloved and similarly opera-loving mother when she was a girl, Annie Mary clings to the memories of a childhood musical competition where she was awarded a scholarship to study opera singing in Milan (which her domineering father prevented her from accepting). Haunted by the spectre of a future that could never be, Annie Mary mopes around, lost in hopeless dreams of living on her own and finding love. When her father is rendered helpless by a stroke, Annie Mary is forced to take her life into her own hands, which is when her inspired and overenthusiastic effort to reclaim her true self (and her singing voice) begins to send shock waves through her secluded Welsh village.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Captivating and heart-warming, when it was released in 2001 Very Annie-Marywas greeted as the latest in a long line of small, quirky British comedies. In fact, Very Annie-Maryis a proudly Welsh film, celebrating the eccentricity of a small town in the valleys where the inhabitants certainly suffer deprivation but are by no means isolated from the outside world. They simply plough their own furrow. None more so than Annie-Mary herself, a 30-year-old woman trapped in gawky adolescence by the death of her mother and subsequent years of repression by her father, the Pavarotti-obsessed town baker (brilliant Jonathan Pryce). In a plot slightly reminiscent of Little Voice, she has lost her prize-winning singing voice, apparently forever.

Played with resolute intensity by Rachel Griffiths, Annie-Mary is hardly odder than her fellow townsfolk. But when her father has a stroke and she is thrown on her own awkward resources to fulfil both her personal dreams and those of her mortally sick friend Bethan, she finds unique comic ways to cope with disaster. Redemption comes with the return of her ability to sing.

The excellent cast includes cameos from Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys as the gay couple who run the sweet shop and Ruth Madoc as a libidinous widow. Everyone delivers all-stops-out performances in even the smallest roles. The promising script is loaded with one-liners; but its constituent parts promise more than they eventually deliver. --Piers Ford

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Behind The Scenes, Interviews, On Location, Theatrical Trailer, Directors Commentary, Audio Description
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2000
Release Date:	April 14, 2003
Runtime:	99 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	C C D 9535
Label:	Film Four Distributors
Keywords:	Mary, Annie, Comedy, Very, General
Genre:	Comedy