Review: Fisherman's Friends (2019)

Based on a true story, the film follows a music agent on a stag do in Cornwall, who discovers a group of ten singers in a small Cornish town...

What do you want from a film? Do you want every film to make you think? To gasp in wonder at the visuals on display? Or watching a masterclass in acting? Not every film wants or can do that. Sometimes all the film wants to do is tell a relatively straightforward story and entertain you while it tells that story.

And quite often, those films are so much better.

Fisherman's Friends is not a film that makes you think, or gasp at the visuals or have an award winning acting performance at its heart. What it does have is writers (Piers Ashworth, Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft) who have written a solid script and direction from Chris Foggin that tells the story in a straightforward manner, but one that allows his ensemble cast to shine.

Daniel Mays plays Danny, the agent and he is very good as the city boy, who falls for the music of the band and the village life as well. The band, incluuding James Purefoy, David Hayman, Dave Johns and Sam Swainsbury are all first rate and the interaction between them is great fun. Tuppence Middleton plays Alwyn, the daughter of one of the singers, who while set up as the love interest for Danny gives real heart in the role. Noel Clarke has a small role as Troy, who is Danny's boss and asked him to sign up the band as a joke, only for it to backfire.

While the film is based on a true story, that story as told here is very predictable indeed. Each story beat it hits, you know what's going to happen as a result, right up to the ending, which does manage to combine the predictable feel-good aspect with a quiet, emotional moment. It's a film that also shows the power of friendship and loyalty over success, as the band membersh ave work and the local lifeboat to maintain which take priority over singing.

The singing in the film is bloody good indeed. I think, based on the soundtrack album, it's the actual band who sing not the actors, but whoever does it, I really liked the music.

Fisherman's Friends is, as I said earlier, not the sort of film that critics or awards voters will go for, much like 2014's film Pride. But you can be damned sure, much like Pride, Fisherman's Friends is a film that will have you smiling, laughing and feeling a tad emotional too, because it tells it's story in a no-frills, straightforward manner and as a result. it is more honest and heartfelt than any number of films you can mention.

I really enjoyed it.

Rating: 4/5