By PETER CALDER
(Herald rating: * * * )
If you're planning to insert Mum into a resthome and bulldoze the family house to put up a block of flats, best not take her to this one lest she get wind of the plan.
That's just what the family has in mind for Thelma Caldicot (Collins) when an unlikely accident frees her of her sexist boor of a husband. Barely managing to conceal her delight she torches, snips and hacksaws his favourite things but this perfectly natural reaction persuades her greedy son (Capaldi) and scheming daughter-in-law (Wilson-Jones) to ship her off to a local old folks' home where the manager (Alderton, Collins' real-life husband) medicates and patronises the residents into glazed submission. Her rebellion starts small (it's initially about the boiled cabbage in every meal) but soon makes the front pages and it's not long before she holds the whip hand.
The film, based on Vernon Coleman's 1993 novel, is fairly standard British farce, whose small-screen pace and style betrays director Sharp's pedigree (his CV includes Minder and Robin of Sherwood).
It's painted in improbably broad strokes - the villains are more villainous than they need to be and the home's dementia cases are only comically vague. Meanwhile a romantic subplot seems a little forced and the cynically manipulative blandishments of the tabloid press are skated over a little too smoothly.
But, as a straight-ahead story, it's all good fun and Collins, dimpled and winsome, is an excellent heroine for a modern escape fantasy. Undemanding and entertaining.
Cast: Pauline Collins, John Alderton, Peter Capaldi, Anna Wilson-Jones
Director: Ian Sharp
Rating: M
Running time: 105 min
Screening: Rialto, Bridgeway
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