''Lucky Break'' is a 2000 British comedy film starring

James Nesbitt William James Nesbitt (born 15 January 1965) is an actor from Northern Ireland. From 1987, Nesbitt spent seven years performing in plays that varied from the musical '' Up on the Roof'' (1987, 1989) to the political drama ''Paddywack'' (1994) ...

and directed by

Peter Cattaneo Peter Joseph Cattaneo MBE (born 1 July 1964) is a British filmmaker. He is most known for directing the comedy film ''The Full Monty'', for which he won the MTV Movie Award for Best New Filmmaker. Life and career Cattaneo was brought up in ...

Plot

James 'Jimmy' Hands and Rudy 'Rud' Guscott are two friends who used to play "Cops & Robbers" when they were young. Now adults, they plan to actually rob a bank, but the robbery goes wrong and Hands flees the bank leaving Guscott trapped behind the security shutters. Hands is caught and arrested not long later. After being sentenced to do time in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

, Hands and Guscott make a daring escape plan as the prison is scheduled to put on a theatrical show of ''Nelson: The Musical''. Hands and Guscott plan to use the show as cover their daring break-out attempt. During rehearsals, the inmates are unable to find a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

for the show, until one inmate, Cliff Gumbell (

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' ...

) volunteers and impresses them with his amazing piano skills. Hands is cast as Nelson (against his will) and Guscott is cast as Hardy, much to Guscott's dismay as his character kisses Nelson as he dies. The escape plan proves difficult to proceed with, as one of the guards becomes very suspicious of Hands. Further complications arise when one of the more dangerous inmates threatens Hands to help him escape, as well as Hands warming to a prison employee named Annabel. During a prison visiting day, Gumbell is devastated to learn that his son is spending more time with his uncle, and that his wife is very disappointed being married to a criminal. Unable to live with the shame, Gumbell commits suicide in his cell. The night of the show arrives and the escape plan is put into action. However, the dangerous inmate is tricked into going over the 30-foot prison wall and falls down the other side, where he is captured. Hands and Guscott are about to escape when Hands reveals his intentions to stay because of his feelings for Annabel. Guscott reluctantly lets Hands go and escapes with two other inmates, one of whom has a friend who arrives in a plane to help them escape. Back in the prison, one of the guards resigns from his job over frustration of the inmates escaping and becomes a car park warden. Hands is later released from prison and starts a new life with Annabel.

Cast list

as James 'Jimmy' Hands / Lord Nelson in Show *

Olivia Williams Olivia Haigh Williams (born 26 July 1968) is a British actress who has appeared in British and American films and television. After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years followed by three years at the Royal Shakesp ...

as Annabel Sweep / Lady Hamilton in Show *

as Cliff Gumbell *

Bill Nighy William Francis Nighy (; born 12 December 1949) is an English actor. Nighy started his career with the Everyman Theatre, Liverpool and made his London debut with the Royal National Theatre starting with '' The Illuminatus!'' in 1977. There he ...

as Roger 'Rog' Chamberlain / King George III in Show *

Lennie James Lennie Michael James (born 11 October 1965) is a British actor, screenwriter, and playwright. His work includes playing Morgan Jones in the television series, '' The Walking Dead'' and in its spin-off, '' Fear the Walking Dead'', and starring ...

as Rudy 'Rud' Guscott / Hardy in Show *

Ron Cook Ronald G. Cook (born 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s. Early and personal life Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of a school cook and a car wo ...

as Mr. Perry, the Guard *

Frank Harper Frank Harper (born 12 December 1962) is an English actor and film producer. He is best known for his "hard man" roles, such as Billy Bright in '' The Football Factory'' (2004) and Dog in ''Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998). Career F ...

as John Toombes * Raymond Waring as Darren *

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

as Graham Mortimer *

Julian Barratt Julian Barratt Pettifer (born 4 May 1968) is an English comedian, actor and musician. As a comedian and comic actor, he is known for his use of surreal humour and black comedy. During the 2000s he was part of The Mighty Boosh comedy troupe along ...

as Paul Dean * Peter Wight as Officer George Beorge Barratt *

Celia Imrie Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952) is an English actress and author. She was described in 2003 as one of the most successful British actresses of recent decades. She is best known for her film roles, including the '' Bridget Jones'' f ...

as Amy Chamberlin *

Peter McNamara Peter McNamara (5 July 1955 – 20 July 2019) was an Australian tennis player and coach. McNamara won five singles titles and nineteen doubles titles in his career. A right-hander, McNamara reached his highest singles ATP-ranking on 14 March ...

as Ward * Andy Linden as Kenny *

Ram John Holder John Wesley Holder (born 1934), known professionally as Ram John Holder, is a Guyanese-British actor and musician, who began his professional career as a singer in New York City, before moving to England in 1962. He has performed on stage, i ...

as Old Billy Morris

Production

Anne Dudley Anne Jennifer Dudley (née Beckingham; born 7 May 1956) is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genr ...

collaborated with

Stephen Fry Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring ...

to write and produce songs for the send-up musical "Nelson".

Reception

The film holds a 48% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 44 reviews with the critics consensus: "Lucky Break fails to do anything new with The Full Monty formula". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, it holds a 48% rating based on 22 reviews, indicating "Mixed or average reviews". Dave Kehr of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said that "Mr. Cattaneo restricts himself to the smiling blandness that has become the stock in trade of British comedies made for export, turning in a film that is forced, familiar and thoroughly condescending". Michael O'Sullivan of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' wrote "Apart from the deja vu all over again, ''Lucky Break'' is no worse a film than ''

Breaking Out ''Breaking Out'' is the fifth studio album by Buddy Guy. It was released in 1980 on JSP Records. Recordings The original album tracks were recorded at Sound Station, Chicago, IL, in September 1980 with session musicians. They recorded two more ...

'', and hat filmwas utterly charming". According to Derek Elley of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', the film is " ained to the floor by a script that isn't particularly funny, direction that goes for realism rather than stylization and an almost complete lack of comic timing".

References

External links

* {{Peter Cattaneo 2000 films British comedy films 2000 comedy films British prison films Film4 Productions films Films directed by Peter Cattaneo Films scored by Anne Dudley 2000s English-language films 2000s British films