It's all good stuff! (Minor spoilers)

world_of_weird

Although nitpickers may beef at Tom Conti's comedy Greek accent, this is mostly a heartwarming and immensely enjoyable comedy, and contains more than enough scenes that will make you laugh as well as think. Pauline Collins - and thank your lucky stars that it IS Pauline Collins, and not Julie Walters again - plays Shirley, a bored, forty-something housewife who has lost contact with her friends, her children and whatever drew her and her morose husband (a perfectly understated Bernard Hill) together, and spends her humdrum days talking to the wall or being lectured by her so-called friends, an ardent feminist (an unshowy Alison Steadman) and an inveterate bragger (Julia McKenzie, perfectly capturing a certain level of aspirational suburban humourlessness), or reminiscing about her rebellious childhood (the young Shirley is perfectly played by Gillian Kearney, who has carved out a fine career since). When Steadman wins a holiday for two in Greece and invites Shirley along, she's in two minds about going, but a string of incidents helps her make up her mind - an authentically petty argument with her husband (who only likes chips and egg on a Thursday), the unwelcome return of her brattish, ungrateful daughter, and a candid conversation with McKenzie who gifts her an expensive wrap - and suddenly Shirley's in Mykonos, enjoying sun, sea, sand, Sangria and an unlikely romance with Carlos (Conti), a bar owner whose down-to-earth patter (unrepeatable here!) strikes a chord with the once-wayward housewife. There's also a hilarious bunch of whiny, malcontent British tourists ("Where's the disco?") for Shirley to deal with (her sudden outburst in the hotel dining room is priceless)and a lovely cameo from the veteran British comedy actor Cardew 'the cad' Robinson...but what about Hill, who seems to have found a new friend in Shirley's kitchen wall? Well, you'll have to find out for yourself! So go out and grab a copy of this film as soon as you can, because I really do recommend it to EVERYONE...and I promise you won't regret it. Thirty house points!

score /10

world_of_weird 16 September 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0275293/