Burn Burn Burn ***½ (2015, Laura Carmichael, Chloe Pirrie, Joe Dempsie, Jack Farthing, Jane Asher, Nigel Planer, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Alice Lowe, Sally Phillips, Alison Steadman) – Movie Review

Laura Carmichael (Lady Edith Crawley in Downton Abbey) and Chloe Pirrie star as busom buddies Seph and Alex, who attend the funeral of their best friend Dan (Jack Farthing), who has died of a rare cancer at 29.

Dan’s parents Amelia and Henry (Jane Asher, Nigel Planer) point them in the direction of the computer, where the late Dan has compiled a little video diary, including his last wish that they set out on a road trip to scatter his ashes on the four places that meant most to him. He makes sure he insults and hurts his mother as well as Seph and Alex along the way.

Seph insults her boss and loses her job, Alex returns home form the funeral to find her girlfriend having sex with another woman, so they decide to take the road trip, using Henry’s old car. Seph’s all too nice boyfriend James (Joe Dempsie) is worried, especially as she won’t return his calls.

Seph and Alex take turns driving, with a tupperware box marked ‘Dan’ holding his ashes in the glove compartment. The duo follow Dan’s video instructions and meet a lot of weird folks and somehow come of age themselves as the trip progresses, and finally ends up in the Scots Highlands.

This is a sweet and funny quirky movie that builds as its goes along and grabs you by all your bits by the end. There are a few rough comedy moments for crowd-pleasing purposes, but first time director Chanya Button makes them fit into the mix, and the truthful bitter-sweet bits of the movie are truly appealing. The film’s story is a contrivance, maybe, but it feels honest and true, and you go with it, and stay with it, and by the end you are glad you did. Actress Charlie Covell writes a memorably good first screenplay.

Laura Carmichael is known for Downton Abbey.

Carmichael and Pirrie are the show, a tremendous double act, and everyone else is supporting. Dempsie is appealing and Farthing suitably very brittle. I’d like to have seen more of Asher and Planer, who are very good at the start of the film. but Julian Rhind-Tutt as Adam the hippy the women encounter, Alice Lowe as the tour guide Davina, Sally Phillips as Seph’s nutty boss, all have about the right amount of screen time and are all effective and funny. And Alison Steadman is a standout near the film’s climax as the sad old mother Diana the women give a ride to.

Chloe Pirrie is known for Shell (2012) and Youth (2015).

At first glance, Burn Burn Burn seems to be a reference to Dan’s funeral and ashes. But Jack Kerouac’s lines from On the Road are helpfully quoted in the film and I’ll helpfully repeat them here: ‘The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!”’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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