While American film studios
seem intent on rebooting every major film franchise or television program from
our youths, the British film industry in turn have been more or less doing the
same with their eclectic library of classic period dramas. Such are the sheer numbers of remakes of
British classics happening that BBC film critic Mark Kermode even posted a
video on the subject and whether they could be considered remakes or merely
reinterpretations. Having recently remade
Far from the Madding Crowd and My Cousin Rachel, the latest British
classic to get the redux treatment is Whiskey
Galore.
Based upon the 1947 novel of
the same name by Compton MacKenzie before being adapted to the silver screen as
a British comedy two years later, the film loosely draws from a real event
where a shipwreck off the coast of a Scottish Island whose inhabitants have run
dry of whiskey. Upon learning the
shipwreck in fact contains 50,000 unopened cases of whiskey, the residents work
stealthily to sneak the cases out from under the noses of customs and excise
men. The result is a kind of chase
comedy of errors as the townsfolk encounter obstacle after obstacle while
trying to avoid being discovered.
After ten years stuck in
development hell and in keeping with the current trend of remaking nearly
forgotten British classics, Whiskey
Galore has been remade circa 2016, this time by Tara Road director Gillies MacKinnon who reunites with leading man
Eddie Izzard and co-stars Gregor Fisher, Sean Biggerstaff and Naomi
Battrick. The names and events are kept
the same with some slight deviations from the source though director MacKinnon
doesn’t consider the film to be a remake due to the contemporary cinematic
approach. Visually the film is
breathtaking thanks to the Irish countryside locations and performances are
generally good with Izzard doing the most heavy lifting as a hapless Captain
who can’t seem to keep up with the whiskey thieves’ gamesmanship.
Fans of the novel and 1949
film will come away having enjoyed the lighthearted romcom fare while others
may find the proceedings to be too vanilla for their liking. Overall it’s a cute story worth hearing and
an often funny one, and yet at the same time comparatively I found it less
engaging than the aforementioned remakes of My
Cousin Rachel and Far from the
Madding Crowd, which demanded a bit more homework from the viewer. As for American moviegoers, it’s a renter but
maybe one day PBS will include it in their ongoing Masterpiece Theater program.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki