SoulBoy

UK Release: 3rd September 2010

Watched on Orange Film To Go: Wednesday 2nd November 2011

Rating: 15

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music

Runtime: 1hr 24mins

Plot Synopsis: Stoke on Trent, 1974 - Amidst power cuts, strikes and boot-boy aggro on the football terraces, JOE MCCAIN (MARTIN COMPSTON), is bored of a life that’s going nowhere. Enter hair-dresser JANE (NICHOLA BURLEY). Blonde, brassy, and moving to the beat of a whole new world of sound, movement and all-nighter dancing at The Wigan Casino – the home of Northern Soul. MANDY (FELICITY JONES), a cute and spunky artist, is eager to help Joe become the cool “soul boy” he wants to be. Mandy falls for Joe and a love triangle develops with Jane and Mandy, and Joe has to decide who he really wants in his life.

A Quick Review: Soulboy isn’t a bad film it’s just mediocre. Which is possibly worse than being bad as it thinks and hopes it is good when it is pretty lackluster. There’s not much to say about it; it is a safe film, where not much happens and what does is all too predictable. It’s set in the 70’s and you can tell that whoever made this is incredibly nostalgic for the period. The costumes and sets are completely over the top, so much so that it felt terribly unrealistic. 

All in all it was far too mushy with no real backgrounds to the characters, and they weren’t particuarly nice either. Only Felicity Jones stood out as being decent and you rooted for her character but the lead was a little hit and miss. It’s nice enough but I would recommend 100 other films before I recommend this.

Score: 5/10