Sunshine on Leith

Trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74WEwUnmH-Y

I'm a bit of a musical connoisseur - is the most homosexual thing I've  ever said. To be fair though I have probably seen more musicals than your average straight 22 year old man and a lot of my favourite films feature the characters bursting into song. So here's a smash hit musical that I'm sure to enjoy, a tale of two soldiers coming home from war and adjusting to life all set to the wonderful tunes of...The Proclaimers. And here's my problem.

There's a time and a place for the Proclaimers. The end of weddings, chanting drunkenly on nights out etc. When it comes to trying to tell beautiful stories of life and love though, naaaat so much. The Proclaimers also have a limited library of music which forces the narrative to awkwardly fit round the song lyrics. For 'Letters from America' to work at all they need to force one of the characters to move to America. For 'Oh Jean' to work there needs to be a character called Jean whose life just happens to fit the lyrics of the song. It just feels so awkward and I don't think it flows at all- changing the story here and there to set up the lyrics to the next song.

The songs themselves also appear really suddenly and out of place which can be a big problem with musicals taking you out of the film and characters lives every time they start singing a Proclaimers song at the end of their sentence. It's not even made well with the characters' lips not even moving in time with the lyrics. I said a few weeks ago that Filth was an example of a film being stylish and well made. Well Sunshine On Leith is the exact opposite. Terribly made and the feeling of being very corny.

There were parts I accepted as being okay. The opening scene is almost well done and a rare case of where the lyrics fit whats going on in quite general terms. 'It's Over and Done With' or whatever the song is called is cheesey as anything but it is pretty fun and works with the whole crowd of people singing it. That's how Proclaimers songs are sung best- by mobs of pissed up people.

The finale is also enough to gauge a smile, partly due to '500 miles' being used as a super serious love song.

The Proclaimers themselves also make the worst cameo to happen in film history. If you could see them in the background or do something clever it'd be good but as it is they walk out a pub half way through a song and more or less look directly into the camera and scream 'LOOK WE'RE IN THE FILM TOO BECAUSE IT'S OUR MUSIC, LOOOOOOK!'.

Call me anti-Scottish but this is like watching Children In Need when it cuts away from the celebrities and star performances happening in London and you instead get Sean Batty singing a funny song about weather for money. A lot of people seem to be getting some enjoyment from it but it's definitly not for me. If anything it's a bit of stupid fun that atleast tries to make the songs of the Proclaimers into a legitimate story. Even writing that sound ridiculous though.

4/10