ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE MIDLANDS (15, 104mins)
It's grim up north, especially for loser in love Dek (Rhys Ifans), who is humiliated on national television when his girlfriend Shirley (Shirley Henderson) rebuffs a surprise marriage proposal on The Vanessa Feltz Show.
The ripples from Shirley's refusal are felt far and wide: By her sister Carol (Kathy Burke) and estranged husband Charlie (Ricky Tomlinson); by her fiercely independent daughter Marlene (Finn Atkins); and by layabout old boyfriend Jimmy (Robert Carlyle), who rides back into town hoping to win Shirley back.
Sure enough, Shirley responds to Jimmy's advances, and allows him to move back into the family home with her daughter.
However, Marlene shows unwavering loyalty to Dek and refuses to be won over by Jimmy's nice guy routine, when it's clear he doesn't like children.
Jimmy also doesn't count on Dek's stubbornness, or the arrival of three heavies from Glasgow who are out to collect an outstanding debt from him.
As Shirley comes to the realisation that she may have chosen the wrong man, Jimmy and Dek square up to fight for the woman they both love.
The movie is a (tinned) spaghetti western set in the Midlands with an ever-changing tone that's incredibly unsettling - you're never sure whether to laugh at, or with the characters.
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