Saturday, September 17, 2011

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)
The Drummond Will (2010)

Genre: Comedy
Director: Alan Butterworth
Starring: Mark Oosterveen, Phillip James, Jeremy Drakes, Jonathan Hansler, Victoria Jeffrey
Duration: 81 min.
Rating: 6.1  

Summary:
Estranged brothers Marcus and Danny Drummond find themselves on a surprisingly dangerous quest to unravel the mystery surrounding their father's very unlikely wealth.



The Drummond Will is a film from first time UK director Alan Butterworth.  It premiered at the 2010 Woods Hole Film Festival where it won the award for Best Comedy Film.  The film follows brothers Marcus (Mark Oosterveen) and Danny (Phillip James) as they return to the countryside to attend their father's funeral.  They find out that they have inherited an old house and along with it the mystery of a large bag full of cash.  What follows is a sequence of increasingly dangerous and strange events caused by chance and stupidity.

It is a low budget black comedy, shot in black and white to emulate the look of 50's era British comedies from Ealing Studios.  It does have it's funny moments but also feels like it is trying too hard at times to be quirky, especially with all the villagers the brothers encounter, each one weirder than the next.  The performances are also rather weak, betrayed by too many silly expressions and frequent over acting.  To its credit though the cinematography looks very sharp, with the black and white making a fitting choice for the tone of this film.  Also the screenplay is quite good, staying unpredictable and keeping the story interesting even if the characters are not.

Worth a look if you are into dark British comedies, but The Drummond Will is definitely not very memorable and it surely doesn't live up to all the glowing quotes on its poster.

Bonjour Tristesse

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

The Drummond Will (2010)

8 comments:

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I'm thinking bribery and blackmail.

Moviemonstrosityblog said...

coen-esque? i'm in

-E- said...

ah, i was just going to say: "but what about all the glowing quotes on the poster"?

Hoi-Ming Ng said...

The premise sounds ok, but nothing about this movie makes it seem worth seeing. Pass for me.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yep seen better acting at the local improv show

d_4 said...

Yeah, trailer seemed over done and apparently so. I'm sure if I was 10 years younger I'd be all for it.

blahblahblahtoby said...

i fully agree with you on this one. i didn't even make it all the way through. extremely high praise on the poster left me thoroughly disappointed. thought the acting was pretty poor too if i remember correctly.

TimBowen said...

Haven't heard of it, but if you say it's not worth it, I'll take your word for it and avoid it.

Post a Comment