Faintheart

Faintheart is a 2008 British comedy film, directed by Vito Rocco and starring Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner and Jessica Hynes. It concerns a lead character involved in the historical reenactment of medieval battles; and is the first film to be created using active input from an online site.[1][2]

Faintheart
Directed byVito Rocco
Written byDavid Lemon
Produced byPeter Carlton
Nick Love
Rob Morgan
Lee Thomas
StarringEddie Marsan
Ewen Bremner
Jessica Hynes
Tim Healy
Paul Nicholls
Bronagh Gallagher
Phil Lester
CinematographyDavid Katznelson
Edited byNeil Smith
Music byMike Batt
Production
company
Distributed byVertigo Films
Contender Entertainment Group
Release date
  • 27 January 2009 (2009-01-27)
Running time
92 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The film was a result of collaborative effort from Myspace, Vertigo films and Film4. The resulting group, MyMovieMashUp, sought to harness the talents of the online community and to enable them to be involved in the film-making process.[3] Various cast and crew members were picked from the MySpaceUK website to work on the project, a unique tactic in the film-making industry.[4] Although the casting and soundtrack were assembled with the help of Myspace, the screenplay was written by UK-based writer David Lemon.[5]

Professional Viking re-enactors from UK-based company "The Vikings" formed part of the cast alongside Britannia Romano-British society.[6][7] A specialist stunt team from East 15 Acting School took part in filming the large battles under the fight direction of Richard Ryan.

Plot

Richard is separated from his wife and son because she is tired of playing second fiddle to his medieval war re-enactments: The Broad Swords. He is trying desperately to win her back by recreating the atmosphere in which their relationship began, but she has moved on, and is dating the school gym teacher.

His son is equally geeky but blames his father for this, as it results in his being bullied at school.

Meanwhile, his gaming friend Julian, who owns a comic book store, is having his own romantic problems, but finds Maggie, a woman with an equal love of Star Trek: The Next Generation which sets him on the right track.

Richard has a lowly job in a DIY store and his manager has little sympathy either with his hobby or home problems.

After a heart to heart discussion with his "Viking" colleagues he has a change of heart. He cuts off his long hair. He apologises at the grave of his father-in-law where he meets his mother-in-law. But when his son's young girlfriend expresses an interest in watching the re-enactment he returns to his love, rescuing his swords from the dump.

His wife realises the gym teacher looks good but is ugly inside.

Richard joins in a huge public display battle between Vikings and Normans. The fight is side-lined by the gym teacher appearing, resulting in a duel between him and Richard. When the son intervenes his wife takes a bow and arrow and forces the teacher to retreat to the cheer of the crowds.

Cast

Critical reception

The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "this is not a bad movie, exactly, but it aims curiously low, and is faintly pointless; and while the actors cope well with the material, they are finally just cardboard characters in a balsa-wood plot."[8] Sky Movies gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "it's a totally unexpected hoot...Director Vito Rocco and credited writer David Lemon have done a terrific job in creating one of the most consistently funny and winning Brit-coms of recent years."[9] The IGN review by Chris Tilly was positive.[10]

References
  1. Peterkin, Tom (15 June 2008). "Faintheart, world's first MySpace movie, to debut at Edinburgh Film Festival". Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  2. "Faintheart | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  3. "Want to be a star? How MySpace made a movie - Features - Films". The Independent. 29 December 2008. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  4. "Film Network - Features - Faintheart: set visit". BBC. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  5. "David Lemon". IMDb.
  6. "Britannia". Durolitum.co.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  7. Ian Muirhead. "The Vikings!". Vikingsonline.org.uk. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  8. Xan Brooks (23 January 2009). "Film review: Faintheart | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  9. "Faintheart - Sky Movies HD". Skymovies.sky.com. 20 January 2009. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
  10. Tilly, Chris (30 June 2008). "Edinburgh 2008: Faintheart Review". IGN. Retrieved 17 June 2020.

Further reading
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