★★★★
Ten fisherman from Cornwall are signed by Universal Records and achieve a top ten hit with their debut album of Sea Shanties.
Classification: 12A
To balance out the horrors of real-world events, news organisations will commission what are known as “fluff pieces”, to go out and find local, uplifting stories of small triumph to remind their audience that doom and gloom wasn’t the only respite in this world. Fisherman’s Friends tells the true story of how ten Cornish fishermen were discovered by a talent manager and went on to release an album of traditional sea shanties.
Buried between the carnage of our superhero movies and the gore of our horror flicks here sits Fisherman’s Friends. It’s a feel-good story transformed into a feel-good film, while the story beats are predictable and the pacing drags for a bit towards the end, director Chris Foggin and his stellar cast deliver this tale with real humanity. The standouts being the incredible performances from James Purefoy as fisherman leader Jim and David Hayman as a veteran fisherman and Jim’s father Jago. They serve as the gatekeepers of this village’s traditions to our main character Danny, a talent manager who discovers the group while on a holiday.
Danny serves the story as our “fish out of water” with humour and drama coming from his cultural and social clashes with the fisherman’s way of life. Daniel Mays brings in a believable turn as Danny as his scepticism transforms into a genuine faith in the group. Where some films may fall into melodrama, Mays, Purefoy and Tuppence Middleton who plays love interest Alwyn never allow the conflict to derail the realism the film sets up so well. The weakest performances come from the “London characters”, Danny’s friends and colleagues, however, this only serves the story as it makes the fisherman of Port Issac, Cornwall only more genuine to the audience.
Only a few of the fisherman take centre stage in the story mainly Purefoy’s Jim and Hayman’s Jago and Sam Swainsbury as the youngest of the fisherman, Rowan. The rest are sidelined as comic relief or just in singing roles, their motivation for singing coming from a simple motivation; to strengthen their community. It is a culture clash of how dreams of fame and fortune are not universal, that good honest work is more than enough for a fulfilling life. Director Chris Foggin along with the production design team is really able to bring across a sense of history and tradition within these characters and their town.
Once Fisherman’s Friends gets rolling, it is easy to predict which directions that the story will take us but it doesn’t detract from the enjoyability of this story. It is the strength of the characters and their performers that make this story worth telling, they are archetypes but it is the sincerity that makes them real and not just because their story is biographical. Charming, emotional and heartwarming with a stellar soundtrack, Fisherman’s Friends will leave the most stoic cynic grinning with its a celebration of these shanty singing seamen. Perhaps even a few will be humming “Drunken Sailor” on their way home from the cinema, just like I was.
Director: #ChrisFoggin
Cast: #DanielMays, #JamesPurefoy, #DavidHayman, #DaveJohns, #SamSwainsbury, #TuppenceMiddleton, #NoelClarke.
Release Date: March 15th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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