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Someone Else

5/10

Stars: Stephen Mangan, Susan Lynch, Shaun Dingwall, Lara Belmont, Chris Coghill, John Henshaw

Director: Col Spector

A quiet little anecdote about David (Mangan), a photographer, who's locked into a relationship with Lisa (Lynch) that he's anxious to escape. A meeting with Nina (Belmont), for whom he instantly falls, provides him with the courage to dump Lisa, but, on his return to Nina she too tells him she has found someone else.

The rest of this competent but precariously slow movie consists of David's futile attempts to strike up another relationship before inevitably trying to get back with Lisa - while most of his friends are finding that special someone else.

Mangan, a cross between Stephen Rea and Hugh Grant, and the reliable Lynch, who has seldom got the leading roles she deserves over the past two decades, are fine. And there's classy Technicolor photography by Trevor Forest. But the progression of relationships is highly predictable up to the bitter-sweet finale, and, even at this brief running time, you could find yourself longing for the fast-forward button every now and then.

David Quinlan

UK 2005. UK Distributor: Soda Pictures. Technicolor.
78 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 1.

Review date: 02 Sep 2007