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Walking on Sunshine review – we're all going on a karaoke holiday Walking on Sunshine review – we're all going on a karaoke holiday
(about 17 hours later)
The long hot summer of 2014 stretches interminably ahead. The air-con of hope has broken and Steven Gerrard's calvary of shame, like Michael Foot's after the 1983 general election, spreads malarially across these islands while every cinema manager in the land broods unhappily about counter-programming and all its complex implications. Many summer blockbusters and big-name vehicles – the "tentpoles" supporting the circus –appear to have been delayed, anticipating sporting glory, or at least interest. Now that blokes are glued to the TV, the argument runs, slumped over 24-packs of lager and pillowcase-sized bags of snacks, films must be scheduled to appeal to the womenfolk. Yet perhaps this sexist assumption is wrong in any case. It could be that both sexes are gripped by the television sport season and film companies just have to dump the iffy product in cinemas and wait it out. Either way, this is a lean period like the one that immediately follows the Oscars.The long hot summer of 2014 stretches interminably ahead. The air-con of hope has broken and Steven Gerrard's calvary of shame, like Michael Foot's after the 1983 general election, spreads malarially across these islands while every cinema manager in the land broods unhappily about counter-programming and all its complex implications. Many summer blockbusters and big-name vehicles – the "tentpoles" supporting the circus –appear to have been delayed, anticipating sporting glory, or at least interest. Now that blokes are glued to the TV, the argument runs, slumped over 24-packs of lager and pillowcase-sized bags of snacks, films must be scheduled to appeal to the womenfolk. Yet perhaps this sexist assumption is wrong in any case. It could be that both sexes are gripped by the television sport season and film companies just have to dump the iffy product in cinemas and wait it out. Either way, this is a lean period like the one that immediately follows the Oscars.
Walking on Sunshine is a movie counter-programmed against the dog days of summer, a jukebox musical fanatically selling a feelgood stereotypical hen-night vibe with miscellaneous 1980s hits. An alternative title could be Now That's What I Call a Commercially Viable Mamma Mia! Follow-up.Walking on Sunshine is a movie counter-programmed against the dog days of summer, a jukebox musical fanatically selling a feelgood stereotypical hen-night vibe with miscellaneous 1980s hits. An alternative title could be Now That's What I Call a Commercially Viable Mamma Mia! Follow-up.
Taylor (gamely played by Hannah Arterton, sister of Gemma) goes to the sunkissed Italian paradise of Puglia for the wedding of feisty sister Maddie (Annabel Scholey), who has apparently dumped her roguishly unfaithful older boyfriend Doug (Greg Wise) in favour of a whirlwind romance/engagement with Raf (Giulio Berruti), a gorgeous young Italian, who seems himself to be on holiday. At any rate, he has no work to do. Also present are supporting characters unhappily played by Katy Brand and Leona Lewis. But Taylor was in Puglia herself a few years ago, and Maddie does not appreciate that Raf and Taylor are already acquainted. Some intense singing and ensemble choreography in holiday-brochure scenarios and locations are on the cards, while this tricky situation works itself out. The whole film is a kind of karaoke holiday.Taylor (gamely played by Hannah Arterton, sister of Gemma) goes to the sunkissed Italian paradise of Puglia for the wedding of feisty sister Maddie (Annabel Scholey), who has apparently dumped her roguishly unfaithful older boyfriend Doug (Greg Wise) in favour of a whirlwind romance/engagement with Raf (Giulio Berruti), a gorgeous young Italian, who seems himself to be on holiday. At any rate, he has no work to do. Also present are supporting characters unhappily played by Katy Brand and Leona Lewis. But Taylor was in Puglia herself a few years ago, and Maddie does not appreciate that Raf and Taylor are already acquainted. Some intense singing and ensemble choreography in holiday-brochure scenarios and locations are on the cards, while this tricky situation works itself out. The whole film is a kind of karaoke holiday.
In its goofy way, Walking on Sunshine is not the cringe-fest you might imagine, and I found it in some ways more relaxed than Mamma Mia!, though a more representative 1980s jukebox musical would feature the Smiths' Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now and it would be nice to see Lewis in a dour moment on the beach belt out Pipe Bomb by Einstürzende Neubauten. At least this film doesn't have to tie itself in knots accommodating hits from just one band, and screenwriter Joshua St Johnson might have hit on an interesting idea: go on holiday now and you'll find the jukeboxes in obscure beachfront bars really are crammed with madeleines from the 1980s – these hits could well be the soundtrack for a modern break.In its goofy way, Walking on Sunshine is not the cringe-fest you might imagine, and I found it in some ways more relaxed than Mamma Mia!, though a more representative 1980s jukebox musical would feature the Smiths' Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now and it would be nice to see Lewis in a dour moment on the beach belt out Pipe Bomb by Einstürzende Neubauten. At least this film doesn't have to tie itself in knots accommodating hits from just one band, and screenwriter Joshua St Johnson might have hit on an interesting idea: go on holiday now and you'll find the jukeboxes in obscure beachfront bars really are crammed with madeleines from the 1980s – these hits could well be the soundtrack for a modern break.
The way Scholey and Wise play the exasperated romance between Maddie and the still-smitten Doug isn't bad; they get one honest laugh after performing the Human League's Don't You Want Me. "What do you not understand in 'I don't want you?'" she asks, and Doug pertly replies: "The word 'Don't'."The way Scholey and Wise play the exasperated romance between Maddie and the still-smitten Doug isn't bad; they get one honest laugh after performing the Human League's Don't You Want Me. "What do you not understand in 'I don't want you?'" she asks, and Doug pertly replies: "The word 'Don't'."
But as with all jukebox musicals, there is the same direly repetitive, celebratory emphasis on bar or restaurant singalongs, in which for variety's sake, people can pour irrepressibly out into the street. And there is the occasional unavoidable clench of weirdness. When Taylor arrives at the airport and the customs officer asks if she had travelled there for business or holiday, and she bursts loudly into the opening line of Madonna's Holiday, for a microsecond you suspect she is in fact there to attend some specialist treatment centre for Tourette's syndrome. But as with all jukebox musicals, there is the same direly repetitive, celebratory emphasis on bar or restaurant singalongs, in which for variety's sake, people can pour irrepressibly out into the street. And there is the occasional unavoidable clench of weirdness. When Taylor arrives at the airport and the customs officer asks if she had travelled there for business or holiday, and she bursts loudly into the opening line of Madonna's Holiday, for a microsecond you suspect she is in fact there to attend some specialist treatment centre for Tourette's syndrome.Later, she and Raf have a tense moment on the beach, suffused in the gorgeous and yet bittersweet glow of a sunset and they crash into the Bangles' Eternal Flame, that karaoke nightmare of huge octave leaps, and here it attains a strange dirge-like quality.
Later, she and Raf have a tense moment on the beach, suffused in the gorgeous and yet bittersweet glow of a sunset and they crash into the Bangles' Eternal Flame, that karaoke nightmare of huge octave leaps, and here it attains a strange dirge-like quality.
It is strange to think that in the 1980s, in which these songs were conceived, there was no EasyJet or Ryanair; places such as Puglia were not as readily accessible. In the same way, in the 80s, if you wanted to listen to Bananarama's Venus, there was no YouTube or iTunes to gratify your whim instantly. You had to go to a record shop and buy the vinyl single, or wait for Gary Davies to play it on Radio 1. So this film is a very postmodern selection – it comes to life rarely.It is strange to think that in the 1980s, in which these songs were conceived, there was no EasyJet or Ryanair; places such as Puglia were not as readily accessible. In the same way, in the 80s, if you wanted to listen to Bananarama's Venus, there was no YouTube or iTunes to gratify your whim instantly. You had to go to a record shop and buy the vinyl single, or wait for Gary Davies to play it on Radio 1. So this film is a very postmodern selection – it comes to life rarely.
• Read an interview with Greg Wise