Morris: A Life With Bells On (12A) (From The Northern Echo)

Morris: A Life With Bells On (12A)

5:56pm Thursday 24th September 2009

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Stars: Charles Thomas Oldham, Derek Jacobi, Naomie Harris, Ian Hart, Dominique Pinon, Sophie Thompson, Aidan McArdle, Harriet Walter, Greg Wise
Running time: 101 mins
Rating: ★★★

MORRIS men: you either love them as a bit of jolly old England or find them a bit silly as they faff around waving handkerchiefs and big sticks and a lot of jingling bells. Charles Thomas Oldham’s film – he’s writer, producer and leading man – doesn’t set out to laugh at Morris men, using the mock documentary format to follow the ambitions of Derecq Twist (Oldham) as he introduces Extreme Morris to the nation.

It puts him and his Millsham Morris men at odds with the establishment, in the person of Quentin Neely (Derek Jacobi) of the Morris Circle, and to the US where he falls in with a hippish software millionaire (Greg Wise) and finds love with his assistant (Naomi Harris).

Director Lucy Akhurst achieves the right balance of comedy and drama, and despite what was presumably a less-thangenerous budget the film has a glossy look that makes the English countryside look ravishing.

Regional premiere on Sunday, 2.45pm, York City Screen

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