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Very Annie Mary (2001)
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Synopsis: The myth of the eccentric Englishman (or woman) is given a cinematic boost by the awkwardly hysterical VERY ANNIE MARY, a tale of a young Welsh woman's stumbling struggle to proclaim her independence and strike out on her own. With an epic sweep reminiscent of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, VERY ANNIE MARY... The myth of the eccentric Englishman (or woman) is given a cinematic boost by the awkwardly hysterical VERY ANNIE MARY, a tale of a young Welsh woman's stumbling struggle to proclaim her independence and strike out on her own. With an epic sweep reminiscent of THE SOUND OF MUSIC, VERY ANNIE MARY examines the bucolic and banal life of 33-year-old Annie Mary (Rachel Griffiths), a perpetually adolescent and tragically klutzy young woman, miserably under the thumb of her egomaniacal opera singing father (Jonathan Pryce). Since the death of her beloved and similarly opera-loving mother when she was a girl, Annie Mary clings to the memories of a childhood musical competition where she was awarded a scholarship to study opera singing in Milan (which her domineering father prevented her from accepting). Haunted by the specter of a future that could never be, Annie Mary mopes around, lost in hopeless dreams of living on her own and finding love. When her father is rendered helpless by a stroke, Annie Mary is forced to take her life into her own hands, which is when her inspired and overenthusiastic effort to reclaim her true self (and her singing voice) begins to send shock waves through her secluded Welsh village. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Rachel Griffiths, Jonathan Pryce, Ioan Gruffudd, Joanna Page, Matthew Rhys
Screenwriter: Sara Sugarman
Producer: Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Reviews
Each person and event is so peculiar that as it goes on the warm humour begins to grate on our nerves.
Worth catching for Griffiths' warm and winning central performance.
It's as sorry a mess as its director's diabolical debut, Mad Cows.
If the predictability of bland comfort food appeals to you, then the film is a pleasant enough dish.
A frustrating combination of strained humor and heavy-handed sentimentality.
So exaggerated and broad that it comes off as annoying rather than charming.
The movie would seem less of a trifle if Ms. Sugarman followed through on her defiance of the saccharine.
By the end, I was looking for something hard with which to bludgeon myself unconscious.
Beware the quirky Brit-com. They can and will turn on a dime from oddly humorous to tediously sentimental.
It is not the first time that director Sara Sugarman stoops to having characters drop their pants for laughs and not the last time she fails to provoke them.
Very Annie-Mary is familiar but winningly funny and good-hearted.


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