Sunshine on Leith

I was staying with relatives. After an enjoyable family party, they suggested watching a DVD. From a pile of those I hadn’t seen, they suggested watching this one. None of us knew anything about it, other than that it included music from the band The Proclaimers. The front cover said it was the ‘feel-good’ film of the year in 2013, and it promised to be something a little different from the average rom-com.

‘Sunshine on Leith’ opens with some rather disturbing images of war, and I thought I might not like it… but the action quickly moves to the lives of two young soldiers (George McKay and Kevin Guthrie), returning to Edinburgh from a spell of duty in Afghanistan. One of them is in love with the other’s sister…

There are several subplots to this film, and I found it a bit hard to keep track of who was whom, as there were several characters, including large numbers of extras. There’s a new romance, an anniversary party for one of the soldiers’ parents (I never did remember which was which) and a disastrous proposal. There are several scenes set in pubs, and there’s also a traumatic side-story about an illegitimate daughter, recently discovered, which threatens to break up a happy marriage…

While the topics and settings are completely different, I was reminded more than once of the film ‘Mamma Mia’ featuring songs by Abba. It felt as though several of the scenes were set up in order to introduce a song, rather than because they added to the story - and, in classic musical style, everyone drops what they’re doing and the extras, who were hanging around drinking beer or just walking along the road, suddenly join in with well-executed choreography.

It was nicely done, and the finale - the one song we all knew - was very enjoyable. However not all the storylines were really resolved, and there were too many gut-wrenching moments for it to be a ‘feel-good’ film, as advertised. Still, it was a nice bit of escapism, worth seeing once.

The rating is PG, which I think is about right, although I doubt if it would appeal much to children. There’s a small amount of violence, nothing explicitly adult and not much implied.

Review copyright 2017 Sue's DVD Reviews