the audience applauded

Such a frustrating disappointment

Best movie of this year hands down!

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Midway through this movie exactly this phrase came to my mind. There are some really lovely moments where (t)his potential shines, something like Hepburn-Grant, wow - oh and the chemistry between the leads should be a little bit better. Yet of course this movie isn't a screwball and if you expect a lot of swinging, you'd be disappointed as well. The gags were foreseeable and all I felt was an air of compulsiveness, as regards marriage, sex etc. When Peter (Jonathan Silverman) mentions that he misses the fighting and nagging, this subsumed exactly my feelings about the script.So please, please, if anybody reads this do me a favour and have Martin Freeman do a real screwball comedy, for I fear he would be excellent - just the right timing. The 6 out of ten is for the acting!

Well, this is downright peculiar, and no mistake. We have what appears to be a perfectly straightforward comedy/drama of morals/manners, whereby after 9 years of marriage, Alvin Finkel and his American wife Sarah find their marriage getting a bit stale, so they try a partner swap with another couple, then separate. Look a bit deeper though, and things aren't quite so straightforward.This film has a definite air of an American reject being set in London instead of New York, with Martin Freeman playing the mildly neurotic smart-arse part which might have been played once upon a time by a young Woody Allen. This feeling is added to by Sarah's grandparents (Jerry Stiller and (I think} Beverly Klein) being very Jewish without there being the slightest indication that Alvin and Sarah are Jewish, apart from their name (not many English Jews called Alvin, incidentally). The grandparents serve no dramatic purpose other than being necessary for the payoff of one of the gags, by the way. Also, at one point, Angus Deayton actually utters the word "gotten". Sorry, but no-one in England says "gotten." So this strange transAtlantic vibe pervades a story which would actually work a lot better if we were able to care about the people in it. I nearly cared about Mandy Moore's Sarah, but I cared not a jot about Martin Freeman's character. And without anything at stake, the dramatic element of the movie did nothing for me.There were places where it was amusing but, broadly, this was a misfire with an identity crisis.

This movie has some really funny moments, considerable charm, and a nice sensibility, all too rare in most modern British films.If you are married (or have ever been in a relationship of more than five minutes), you will be able to identify with the Finkels' problems and be amused by the varied and intriguing solutions they come up with to add some spice to their ailing sex life. There is also a nice contrast with the other main couple and we see how both couples deal with the same problem in rather different ways.The unusual locations in London were used to great effect and the art direction was excellent.PS: After watching this film cucumbers will always make you smile.

I take my hat off to Jonathan Newman for making a British film that isn't all doom and gloom. There are quite a few LOL moments in this movie, not just from the action but from the dialog as well. It has an American feel to it which I like and think is clever as this gives it international appeal. Okay, it's not 100% representative of a real couple living in London but so what? It's a romantic comedy, it's supposed to just entertain you, and that it does. It actually brought a tear to my eye at one point but it was a happy tear, not a sad one. It is just so nice to go and see a British film without leaving the theater completely depressed.