I'll Be There (DVD)

“I’ll be there” is quite a strange film. Not because its really peculiar, but because it’s a bit like sitting in a welsh kitchen for a couple of hours and listening to some of your neighbours discuss their family trouble. Maybe it’s the whole British film thing: it’s not so very far removed from the completely possible, everyday sort of thing, unlike the complete escapism from reality offered by the bigger budget ...
...like spending an evening in Wales. It felt almost as if I was intruding into Charlotte Church’s life.

It’s not about Charlotte Church herself (allegedly) but the story is clearly written with her in mind. Actually, I think Craig Ferguson wrote it with himself in mind: you can tell from watching it that he always wanted to be a rock star, and this gives him the perfect opportunity to cast himself in that role.

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“I’ll be there” is quite a strange film. Not because its really peculiar, but because it’s a bit like sitting in a welsh kitchen for a couple of hours and listening to some of your neighbours discuss their family trouble. Maybe it’s the whole British film thing: it’s not so very far removed from the completely possible, everyday sort of thing, unlike the complete escapism from reality offered by the bigger budget movies.

Watching this film is a bit like spending an evening in Wales. It felt almost as if I was intruding into Charlotte Church’s life.

It’s not about Charlotte Church herself (allegedly) but the story is clearly written with her in mind. Actually, I think Craig Ferguson wrote it with himself in mind: you can tell from watching it that he always wanted to be a rock star, and this gives him the perfect opportunity to cast himself in that role.

It’s Charlotte’s first acting role, and she does a reasonable job of portraying a character not so dissimlar to herself - only an earlier version from about 5 years ago, when she was still wholesome and good, and not stroppy and hormonal and the wild child she is now. In fact the whole thing is a bit unsettling: I kept wondering throughout the film if she was suddenly going to have an emotional growth spurt, dye her hair, get an unsuitable boyfriend and swear a lot.

Charlotte plays Olivia, a Welsh 16-year-old with an amazing voice – and a grandfather (Joss Ackland) who at the age of 70 still tours with his rock n roll band 'Evil Edmonds and the Beelzebops'. Olivia has of course inherited the musical genes of her grandfather, and more that she isn’t yet aware of. Of course Olivia’s mother doesn’t want her to be a singer: she wants her to take over the family hairdressing business. She herself is the product of a singer for a parent, and doesn’t want her daughter getting into “that world.” There’s a hint of a father/daughter struggle here, about long hours spent apart, about surviving without the required attention from a parent, and so on, but it never really gets satisfactorily explored: it just brushes the surface, which is all it was obviously meant to do. A single parent, Rebecca (Jemma Redgrave) is struggling to make ends meet, working long hours and opening a new Salon to stay afloat, and is uptight in the extreme. She’s also got a very sharp tongue and doesn’t mince her words, even with her own aging father. He’s allowed some fish fingers, but the rest of the band have to sleep outside in the tour bus.

Paul Kerr (Craig Ferguson) is a washed up 80s rock star, who just happens to live in a mansion down the road in Cardiff. Conveniently. In his own words, he’s rich and Scottish, and “couldn’t be happier”. But, he’s got an alcohol problem, and ends up driving his motorbike up the stairs, through a window, and into the fishpond in the garden, which lands him in trouble: the doctor thinks he’s suicidal and she has him committed to a mental hospital.

Reports of his hospitalisation spread throughout the local papers, and Rebecca decides there’s something she’d better tell Olivia, and that now would be the right time: namely that Olivia is the result of a one-night stand her mother had with the rock star back in the 80s when she was a groupie.

Most 16-year-olds might have a fairly dramatic reaction to a piece of news like that. Olivia sheds a couple of tears, is a bit sulky, but remains fairly well-adjusted and begins to build up a relationship with her father. In fact, everything works out rosy: Paul tries to stay sober with the help of his old drummer (Ralph Brown) who turns up on the doorstep, and rekindles his relationship with the daughter he never knew he had remarkably quickly. In fact, they become best mates in a matter of weeks, and then Olivia, a die-hard romantic, decides it might be nice if he got back with her mother…

It’s all a bit daft. Then again, how could anyone be angry with Craig Ferguson?

I’m a fan of Craig Ferguson, but I have a feeling I might be one of only a handful. I know who he is primarily because he’s quite sexy and he’s got a nice gruff Scottish accent, but also because I’ve seen him do comedy. He strikes me as the comedian who never quite made it: his comedy is the slow-quiet-smile sort, not the fall-off-your-seat sort. I’d like to say this film proves there’s more to him: except it doesn’t.

It’s a slushy one: I could almost visualise the disgust of any film buff being made to sit through it. Luckily for me I quite like sentimental pap, when I’m in the right mood. This is more comedy than pap, however, which will save it for the majority of the audience. Rebecca’s camp partner in the hairdressing salon provides the funniest scenes of the film in the mental hospital, and there are plenty of slow-smile or gentle-chuckle moments as the film goes on.
Jemma Redgrave is convincing as the tough Welsh mother, but the rest of the acting is pretty abysmal: Charlotte doesn’t have to act, since she’s pretty much being herself for most of the film, and Craig Ferguson writes himself a part to suit his aspirations: a bit funnier, a lot richer, and a good deal more interesting. There simply isn’t any depth to the story and none of the drama that ought to be there, given the plot. That alone will turn off anyone who is after a good, thought-provoking story. This isn’t it. But it is still an immensely likeable film, just because its original and will make you smile.

Craig Ferguson writes, directs and stars

cert 12A

 

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