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Very Annie Mary [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Captivating and heart-warming, when it was released in 2001 Very Annie-Mary was greeted as the latest in a long line of small, quirky British comedies. In fact, Very Annie-Mary is a proudly Welsh film, celebrating the eccentricity of a small town in the valleys where the inhabitants certainly suffer deprivation but are by no means isolated from the outside world. They simply plough their own furrow. None more so than Annie-Mary herself, a 30-year-old woman trapped in gawky adolescence by the death of her mother and subsequent years of repression by her father, the Pavarotti-obsessed town baker (brilliant Jonathan Pryce). In a plot slightly reminiscent of Little Voice, she has lost her prize-winning singing voice, apparently forever.

Played with resolute intensity by Rachel Griffiths, Annie-Mary is hardly odder than her fellow townsfolk. But when her father has a stroke and she is thrown on her own awkward resources to fulfil both her personal dreams and those of her mortally sick friend Bethan, she finds unique comic ways to cope with disaster. Redemption comes with the return of her ability to sing.

The excellent cast includes cameos from Ioan Gruffudd and Matthew Rhys as the gay couple who run the sweet shop and Ruth Madoc as a libidinous widow. Everyone delivers all-stops-out performances in even the smallest roles. The promising script is loaded with one-liners; but its constituent parts promise more than they eventually deliver. --Piers Ford


If you don't have a sense of humour - don't watch.
Review date: 2008-08-05 Rating: 10 out of 10

Very Annie Mary is funny, touching, and is scary in places only because there are characters in the film that are so true to life it's uncanny. If you have ever had any connections with the South Wales Valleys, take a look at this and be entertained. The cast names read like a welsh 'Who's Who' and have been listed in previous reviews, but look out for Joanna Page (Gavin & Stacey) as Lil Bethan Bevan and Ruth Jones (G&S) who has a bit part of a woman buying bread! I bought sweets as a child in the same shop used by Hob & Nob, and the choir in the film sang at my wedding. A truly precious film.

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Reviews


What a gem!!
Review date: 2007-03-12 Rating: 10 out of 10

This is definitely one of my favourite films of all time. It surely ranks up there with the very best British films like Four Weddings, The Full Monty, Saving Grace and Billy Elliot. I have lent my rather battered copy of the video to several friends, all of whom were delighted with it. I'd recommend it to anyone with a sense of humour who wants to see a funny film with real heart. I love the constant fund-raising efforts by local groups which just go on in the background (like a Giles' cartoon), and the frequent references to 'poor little Bethan Bevan'! The funniest moment for me, though, is where she leaves her father carelessly plonked on the edge of the bed after he's had his stroke, and he just slides off onto the floor! Wonderful! And I always cry my eyes out at the end. It's so beautiful, without being over-sentimental or crass. I'm off to buy the DVD now to update my collection!

If you know the Welsh valleys, you'll love this film.
Review date: 2007-03-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film is hilarious, sensitive and exquisitely acted.
It is not weird, it's barely even quirky as long as you understand and can identify it within it's own context; The Welsh Valleys.
I myself have lived here for many years bringing up my family in a village not that dissimilar to Ogw, and therin lies the secret of this film; it's unerring accuracy. To anyone who knows Wales and knows the valleys the characters in this story are so endearingly relaistic that one finds oneself recognising people and identifying with one incident after another.
Yes Sara Sugarman is playing upon stereotypes here, but that is because they are stereotypes for a reason: because they're true! Rachel Griffiths puts in an outstanding performance as Annie Mary Pugh, and anyone who says that her accent detracts from the film is missing the point entirely. Besides; she doesn't sound like a New Zealander pretending to be Welsh, she sounds like she has a unique accent to go with her unique character - just like everyone else. The film is in English after all, not Welsh.
I watched this with local-born friends a few miles away from one of the set locations, and none of us felt that at any point was this film patronizing or that it suggested that life here/there is 20 or 30 years or so behind the times. I look out of my window and I see valleys just that green, shops with just that same panelling, a bread van and a Chapel community equally vibrant and a respect for the Eisteddfod that borders upon worship.
Do people really think that such great actors as Jonathan Pryce, Ruth Madoc, Ioan Griffiths and Matthew Rhys et al would sacrifice their integrity by all playing roles which cast a negative hue upon their heritage?
No. And they don't.
This film is sublime.

Weird, but endearing
Review date: 2006-08-14 Rating: 6 out of 10

Very Annie Mary is definitely one of the weirdest films I've seen and has some of the weirdest characters, including Annie Mary in the major role, but at the same time it certainly has its appeal and leaves a strong impression. Makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you wonder. The story sounds simple when reading the summary, but you have to watch the story to see what can lie behind "simple" things. Like Annie Mary seems simple, simply simple-minded with not much to say or to think or to feel - but it's only the surface. You can see that Annie Mary has her own dreams, feelings, desires and is willing to fight for them, even if she does not / cannot do it like "normal" people do.
Rachel Griffith was great in this role, evoking all kinds of cathartic emotions: pity, liking, strong dislike sometimes and respect.

Sometimes I still don't know what to think of this film, but I certainly won't forget it in a long time to come.

The valleys are not this green!
Review date: 2006-07-30 Rating: 4 out of 10

This a a quirky film which promises much but delivers disappointingly little. Not enough is seen of a fabulous location in the South Wales valleys and this is ultimately a pretty patronising and stereotypical view of life there. They may be the 'valleys' but even so I don't think they are 20 or 30 years behind the times as suggested here. The film cannot seem to decide what it is all about. It is not funny enough to be comedy, not strong or interesting enough to be drama, not artistically adventurous enough to be fringe. A promising story is also spoiled by bad casting. The main character is played by Rachel Griffiths who sounds like a New Zealander and never quite manages a convincing Welsh accent. Perhaps this is why Annie Mary seems so stilted. She is certainly irritating and much too weird to invoke sympathy. Her father played by Jonathon Pryce is dark and sinister. His motives are inexplicable and his appeal to women unfathomable. There is no attention to continuity and so much is inexplicable that you can only assume the director was aiming for magic realism... although she doesnt say so when interviewed. To be fair, there are one or two moving and funny moments but on the whole the film was unbelievable and pretty daft.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Matthew Rhys
Rachel Griffiths
Ioan Gruffudd
Jonathan Pryce
Kenneth Griffith

Creators:
Rachel Griffiths (Primary Contributor)
Jonathan Pryce (Primary Contributor)
Barry Ackroyd (Cinematographer)
Sara Sugarman (Writer)
Robin Sales (Editor)
Damian Jones (Producer)
Graham Broadbent (Producer)
Lesley Stewart (Producer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Koch Lorber Films
Manufacturer: Koch Lorber Films
EAN: 9781417200160
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 1417200162
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Colour, Dolby, DVD-Video, Enhanced, Widescreen, NTSC,
Release date: 2004-03-09
Universal product code (UPC): 741952300991
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 104 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001
Language: English (Original Language)

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