Twenty Four Seven ***½ (1997, Bob Hoskins, Danny Nussbaum) – Classic Film Review 479

Bob Hoskins enjoys himself enormously in a tailor-made role as Alan Darcy, an inspired visionary who sets up a boxing club for a bleak English Midlands town’s dissolute youth. His diaries chart the lads’ comic efforts to regain their fitness and their self-respect.

As comedy turns to tragedy, co-writer-director Shane Meadows’s 1997 warm-hearted if cliché-ridden movie works over-time to win you over, and so do Hoskins and the lads. And, by and large, they do.

The good-looking, black and white film’s evident sincerity and the stalwart turns overcome a mini-budget (courtesy the BBC) and an avalanche of familiar ideas and sentimentality. It does come out a winner, but it’s only a win on points not a knockout.

Danny Nussbaum as Tim, Justin Brady, James Hooton, Darren Campbell, Karl Collins, Anthony Clarke, Johann Myers, Mat Hand and a very young James Corden (aged 19, in his debut, as Tonka) are among the boys. Meadows’s co-writer is Paul Fraser and Ashley Rowe is the cinematographer. Meadows appears as Man with Saucepan on Head, billed as Lord Shane Meadows of Eldon. Annette Badland and Bruce Jones play Tim’s mum and dad.

Strong language and some scenes of violence.

Sadly on 8 August 2012, Hoskins announced his retirement from acting after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011 and on 29 April 2014 he died from pneumonia, aged 71. He appeared in films such as The Long Good Friday (1980), Mona Lisa (1986), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Mermaids (1990) and Hook (1991).

(C) Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 479 derekwinnert.com

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Director Shane Meadows appears as Man with Saucepan on Head, billed as Lord Shane Meadows of Eldon.