Christine Powley reviews Finding Your Feet, showing at Rialto and Metro.
Celia Imrie is an actor I am always pleased to see in a cast list, but I normally end up wondering why she was not given more to do.
Finding Your Feet is the story of Sandra (Imelda Staunton), a woman whose manicured life in Surrey blows up on the eve of her husband's retirement. She escapes to the shelter of her older sister Bif, played by Imrie, who lives in a run-down council estate in North London and is as happy as a clam.
Imrie takes the meaty part of freewheeling Bif and runs with it.
On the face of it, Imrie and Staunton are unlikely casting as sisters, but a scene where older sister Bif gives Sandra a telling off about her snotty attitude leaves you in no doubt that they are family; at least in this movie.
As Sandra starts to loosen up and find her way in Bif's world, she is drawn to Charlie (Timothy Spall) who lives on a canal boat and attends Bif's pensioner dance group.
Sandra is recently traumatised but Charlie has been dealing with a domestic tragedy for more than a decade and it may stop him from finding fresh happiness.
Old-people romantic comedies are no longer a novelty and Finding Your Feet is light on originality. However, it has some wonderfully tart dialogue that provides genuine belly laughs; the courage to look the sadness of old age full in the face; and, best of all, sterling performances from the three lead actors, who all manage to have you caring for their characters.
FINDING YOUR FEET
Director: Richard Loncraine
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Timothy Spall, Celia Imrie, Joanna Lumley, David Hayman, John Sessions, Josie Lawrence, Sian Thomas
Rating: (M) ★★★★★
