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Faintheart is a 2008 British comedy film, directed by Vito Rocco and starring Eddie Marsan, Ewen Bremner and Jessica Hynes. It concerns a lead character involved in the historical reenactment of medieval battles; and is the first film to be created using active input from an online site.^{[citation needed]}[1][2]

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Faintheart
Directed by	Vito Rocco
Written by	David Lemon
Produced by	Peter Carlton Nick Love Rob Morgan Lee Thomas
Starring	Eddie Marsan Ewen Bremner Jessica Hynes Tim Healy Paul Nicholls Bronagh Gallagher Phil Lester
Cinematography	David Katznelson
Edited by	Neil Smith
Music by	Mike Batt
Production company	Vertigo Films
Distributed by	Vertigo Films Contender Entertainment Group
Release date	27 January 2009 (2009-01-27)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

The film was a result of collaborative effort from Myspace, Vertigo films and Film4. The resulting group, MyMovieMashUp, sought to harness the talents of the online community and to enable them to be involved in the film-making process.^{[citation needed]}[3] Various cast and crew members were picked from the MySpaceUK website to work on the project, a unique tactic in the film-making industry.^{[citation needed]}[4] Although the casting and soundtrack were assembled with the help of Myspace, the screenplay was written by UK-based writer David Lemon.[5]

Professional Viking re-enactors from UK-based company "The Vikings" formed part of the cast alongside Britannia Romano-British society.[6][7] A specialist stunt team from East 15 Acting School took part in filming the large battles under the fight direction of Richard Ryan.

Plot

Richard is separated from his wife and son because she is tired of playing second fiddle to his medieval war re-enactments: The Broad Swords. He is trying desperately to win her back by recreating the atmosphere in which their relationship began, but she has moved on, and is dating the school gym teacher.

His son is equally geeky but blames his father for this, as it results in his being bullied at school.

Meanwhile, his gaming friend Julian, who owns a comic book store, is having his own romantic problems, but finds Maggie, a woman with an equal love of Star Trek: The Next Generation which sets him on the right track.

Richard has a lowly job in a DIY store and his manager has little sympathy either with his hobby or home problems.

After a heart to heart discussion with his "Viking" colleagues he has a change of heart. He cuts off his long hair. He apologises at the grave of his father-in-law where he meets his mother-in-law. But when his son's young girlfriend expresses an interest in watching the re-enactment he returns to his love, rescuing his swords from the dump.

His wife realises the gym teacher looks good but is ugly inside.

Richard joins in a huge public display battle between Vikings and Normans. The fight is side-lined by the gym teacher appearing, resulting in a duel between him and Richard. When the son intervenes his wife takes a bow and arrow and forces the teacher to retreat to the cheer of the crowds.

Romantic comedy concerning Richard and his efforts to win back his wife, whilst taking part in weekend re-enactments of Viking battles. At the same time he is bullied at work and his son is bullied at school because of his father's hobby.[2]

Cast

• Eddie Marsan as Richard
• Ewen Bremner as Julian
• Jessica Hynes as Cath, Richard's wife
• Bronagh Gallagher as Maggie
• Tim Healy as Geoff
• Paul Nicholls as Gary
• Jodie Packwood as mischievous schoolgirl
• Anne Reid as Barbara Wallace, Richard's mother-in-law
• Joseph Hamilton as Martin
• Chloe Hesar as Emily
• Richard Ridings as Collin
• Gary Sefton as Vince
• Kevin Eldon as Alan
• Sandra Voe as Julian's Mum
• Matthew Leighton as Kim
• Tom Smith as Danny
• Phil Lester as Tim
• Oscar McDevitt as Pete
• Rasmus Hardiker as Comic Book Fan 1
• Edward Tudor-Pole as Lollipop Man / Death Metal Singer
• Tim Potter as Headmaster
• Aliese Kellner-Joyce as Office Worker
• Colin Webb as Policeman
• George Hill as Boy With Owl
• Chris R. Wright as Simon
• Calum Chalmers as Kevin
• Steve Ryland as Comic Book Fan 2
• Nick Ball as Graham
• Jason Excell as Death Metal Band Bassist
• Graeme Brookes as Pub Landlord
• Joseph Ripley as Photographer
• Rosalyn Scanlon as Office Worker

Critical reception

The Guardian gave the film two out of five stars, writing, "this is not a bad movie, exactly, but it aims curiously low, and is faintly pointless; and while the actors cope well with the material, they are finally just cardboard characters in a balsa-wood plot."[8] Sky Movies gave the film four out of five stars, saying, "it's a totally unexpected hoot...Director Vito Rocco and credited writer David Lemon have done a terrific job in creating one of the most consistently funny and winning Brit-coms of recent years."[9] The IGN review by Chris Tilly was positive.[10]

References

Further reading

• https://web.archive.org/web/20080924225914/http://www.cambridgefilmfestival.org.uk/films/2008/faintheart/reviews/ (Reviews, Cambridge Film Festival)
• Sheila Johnston (5 July 2008). "Is 'Faintheart' just a gimmick?". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 July 2008.
• Tom Peterkin (15 June 2008). "Faintheart, world's first MySpace movie, to debut at Edinburgh Film Festival". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 19 June 2008.
• Devin Leonard (11 July 2008). "MySpace goes to the movies". CNN. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009.

External links

• Faintheart at IMDb

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