Spoiler warning. How to make a British art-house movie and get the critics gurgling with sheer pleasure: 1. Start with a funeral. Any writer worth his/her salt knows that this is the biggest cliche in the book and you should never start with a funeral, for ****'s sake. Don't listen to 'em. Start with a funeral. Never fails. 2. End with home movie/video footage of the deceased, accompanied by uplifting music. Can't beat it. 3. Mess around with flashbacks. They love it. 4. Mess around with points-of-view. Even better. Makes you look as though you are above such banal concepts as "linear storytelling" and the like. 5. Get loads of decent Brit actors like Nighy and Henshall. Can't go wrong. 6. Make sure you have a few shots of pretty scenery. Whether it's gritty London streets looking achingly beautiful, or deserted East Anglian beaches looking achingly beautiful, get 'em in there, and slap on the uplifting music. 7. Don't worry about seeming cliched or banal or predictable or unoriginal. No one gives a **** about stuff like that, do they?
Review of Lawless Heart
