What a strange title to give a film about some of the ugliest characters you'll ever come across. This film could have been put out by those who felt for centuries that "theater folk" are people to stay FAR away from - their nasty name-calling, their preying on the young, their perversions, their plain meanness - can't be rubbed away as easily as the darkness drawn by any numbered make-up.
Whew, what an ugly UGLY group of people. I shivered. You'll want a bath after this one.
The acting, sets, costumes were first rate - particularly Nicola Pagett, Hugh Grant, Alun Armstrong, Peter Firth, and the girl playing the lead (whose name now escapes me). It was wonderful to see Pagett in a film again (she was superb not only in Upstairs Downstairs but as the greatest Anna Karenina yet seen in the 10 hour series). I was also pleased to see Rita Tushingham in too small a part as the aunt.
If you like watching bullies gather together in playgrounds to attack, kick, and tear apart the clothes, confidence, limbs and self-esteem of the smallest and youngest, you may however find this appealing. For me, this is one of the darkest and most depressing films I've ever seen.
Whew, what an ugly UGLY group of people. I shivered. You'll want a bath after this one.
The acting, sets, costumes were first rate - particularly Nicola Pagett, Hugh Grant, Alun Armstrong, Peter Firth, and the girl playing the lead (whose name now escapes me). It was wonderful to see Pagett in a film again (she was superb not only in Upstairs Downstairs but as the greatest Anna Karenina yet seen in the 10 hour series). I was also pleased to see Rita Tushingham in too small a part as the aunt.
If you like watching bullies gather together in playgrounds to attack, kick, and tear apart the clothes, confidence, limbs and self-esteem of the smallest and youngest, you may however find this appealing. For me, this is one of the darkest and most depressing films I've ever seen.