Film Review: Honest (2000)
Late 1960s London was the place where young people liked to defy tradition, bend the rules and take risks. That included characters very much like the protagonists of Honest, 2000 crime comedy directed by David A. Stewart. Gerry (played by Nicole Appleton), Mandy (played by Natalie Appleton) and Jo Chase (played by Melanie Blatt) are three sisters from East End who earn their living by taking men’s clothes in order to conduct small time robberies. During last of such heists Gerry ends in the offices of avant guard magazine just in the moment when one of its writers, American student Daniel Wheaton (played by Peter Facinelli), finishes his article. Daniel catches her, but as soon as he learns that Gerry is actually a girl, decides not to turn her over to police. Gerry, on the other hand, doesn’t put much effort in running away because she begins to fancy Daniel. As two of them start romantic relationship, other two sisters plan to rob a night club, not knowing that its owner is Duggie (played by Corin Redgrave), powerful boss of the London underworld.
Critics, especially British, weren’t friendly to Honest. Main reason was in their belief that the film was nothing more than cheap attempt to quickly exploit popularity of All Saints, pop music quartet whose three out four members appear in main roles. Another reason for scepticism was that the director was David A. Stewart, Scottish musician best known as part of Eurythmics, and whose directorial work until that time consisted only of music videos. Honest is a film that does indeed have some issues, but they are mostly result of the script by Dick Clement and Ian La Fresnais, duo whose previous work mostly on television. In this film they went a little overboard with their attempts to exploit nostalgia towards 1960s and they mixed motives of Swinging Sixties London with political issues related to Vietnam War and 1968 student protests. To make things worse, Clement and La Fresnais didn’t know how to properly end the film, making it at least twenty minutes longer than it should have been. Thankfully, David A. Stewart handles his direction well and members of All Saints group play their parts much better than their lack of acting experience would indicate. Film has enough humour to compensate some of its flaws and the male part of the audience would probably appreciate scenes in which Appleton Sisters appear without clothes. Although not too smart or too memorable, Honest is sufficiently entertaining film for the audience with lowered expectations.
RATING: 5/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax
Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc
Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
