Living in Hope Review:

The Film

University is meant to be the best time of your life. For most of the lads living in Hope House, Bristol's halls of residence, they are sure going to try and make it so. Posh (Harper) is the upper-class ladies man of the group, who wants to experience Uni to the max. Footsie (Foster) is the first person from his village to go to university and is determined to do well, despite all the distractions. Harry (Edwards) is a cockney desperate to fit in and willing to lose his accent to do so. Liam (McMahon) longs to go back to his childhood sweetheart in Ireland and finally Animal (Thorpe) will do anything to get into the Uni rugby team including running through the streets naked with burning toilet roll hanging from his arse. Together they are about to become legends in annals of Bristol student history.

There has never been a movie that has really captured University life in Britain and Living in Hope is going to be the first.

The movie starts really well. Anyone who has been or is currently at Uni will recognise the excesses of fresher's week. The making of new, life long friendships, the girls, the drink, the club initiations and the constant parties are all here and very well represented. All very promising but then the middle act ruins the movie. The five are thrown together by a tragic event that transforms the movie and takes away all of the good work that has gone before it.

As the drama increases the limitations of the cast become all too apparent. We know this is a small budget movie made for less than £1 million but the actors don't seem to be able to cope with the more challenging elements of the story, only when the comedy is brought back in does any kind of stability return to the ensemble. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of promise here but you can tell that this is many of the actor's feature film debuts, as they seem abit overawed by the experience. Tom Harper as Posh and Paul Foster as Footsie are the standouts of the bunch, as they have most of the screen time even thought we are supposed to be seeing the events from Robin Edward's Harry's point of view.

The movie's low budget also gives the film a very televisual feel. It feels more like a TV pilot or extended first episode of a series than a feature film. At only eighty-four minutes this feeling is reinforced as you just start getting to know the characters and their situation when the film starts to head towards a lacklustre climax.

Living in Hope had a lot of potential and while the first act catches the true essence of University life, the rest of the movie pales in comparison. There is abit to enjoy here, especially for those who have been in further education but the characters and situations are not strong enough to make this essential viewing for those seeking a movie bible to life their Uni life by.

Star Rating = * *

Picture & Sound

Presented in non-anamorphic widescreen in a full screen 4:3 format, the picture is very squashed if you don't select wide on your TV aspect setting. The quality of the picture is good however for a movie with such a small budget. The sound is also decent though it is only presented in Dolby Digital 2:0 stereo but the dialogue and sound are very clear.

Extras

Interviews (45:18 mins)

Video interviews with director John Miller, writer/producer Guy De Beaujeu and stars Tom Harper, Liam McMahon, Paul Foster and Robin Edwards. Each of them talks about how they got involved in the movie and what the film means to them. John Miller and Guy De Beaujeu show a genuine passion for the film, as you'd expect and they have some assuming and informative stories about the production, especially details about the financing, the creativity of low budget filmmaking and the cameraman and the plane.

Film/Biographies

Detailed text biographies and filmographies for stars Tom Harper, Liam McMahon, Paul Foster, Naomie Harris and Robin Edwards.

Memories of Living in Hope

Star Liam McMahon writes about his experiences making the movie and his fears about the bungee jump.

Theatrical Release Press and Production notes

Thirty-seven pages of text covering the entire release and production of the movie.

Super Toys Section (7:01 mins)

An interview with soundtrack writer Nicolas De Carlo and a music video with clips from the film.

Movie Trailer

The full theatrical trailer for the movie

Websites

Links to the movie and Super Toys websites

Bonus Disc

Also included is the full Super Toys original soundtrack for the movie.

Overall

The inclusion of the bonus soundtrack makes this a good value DVD. For any fan of the movie, this makes it a must purchase. The cast interviews and the amount of information in the theatrical and press notes also add to the value of the package making the extras actually increase the overall film experience by opening your eyes to low budget film making.

Star Rating = * * *

Jamie Kelwick

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