Very Annie-Mary Review

In a Welsh valley town, Annie-Mary, Rachel Griffiths, lives with her widowed baker father, Jack, Jonathan Pryce. Annie-Mary had wanted to train as a singer, but it seems to have been something she never got round to, and now she's stuck in a rut, wears awful clothes, always has a bad hair day, and can't even get any sex if she offers to pay for it. Her best friend, Joanna Page, has cancer and when her father has a stroke it seems as though Annie-Mary's life is nothing but troubles. Filmed four years ago, this odd little movie from writer-director Sara Sugarman, centers on a superb performance from Rachel Griffiths in the title role. Annie-Mary could easily have been a most irritating character, but Griffiths brings out all her wayward charm and off-kilter attitude to life. The film is packed with interesting minor characters, and the director obviously likes semi-surreal visual jokes, of which there are plenty. Very Annie-Mary is certainly a big advance on Sugarman's previous film, the dreadful adaptation of Kathy Lette's book Mad Cows, and it does demonstrate a rather wayward talent. But most of all it reinforces the fact that Rachel Griffith is a simply splendid actress.