Reviewed by Rachael Kaines
Finding Your Feet, the new film directed by Richard Loncraine (Wimbledon), features an all-star cast in a predictable, but fun flick. Great performances and funny moments make up for a story that loses momentum partway through. Finding Your Feet is an enjoyable, but flawed comedy/drama.
When snooty ‘Lady’ Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers her husband cheating, she makes the move from her upper-middle-class provincial abode to stay with Bif (Celia Imrie), her estranged sister, who lives in a council flat in London. The sisters are complete opposites, Sandra is stuck up and uptight, whereas Bif is easygoing, creative, and social. When Bif eventually manages to drag Sandra to a community dance class she starts to loosen up a bit. Timothy Spall plays Charlie, Bif’s friend who lives on a canal boat, and Joanna Lumley plays Jackie, Bif’s friend and a free-spirited and independent woman.
The script is very lacking in places, but great performances and genuine chemistry between the actors (especially the two sisters) make this a largely enjoyable, at times very funny, and that horrible word — warming — movie. It doesn’t quite manage to move, although it tries very hard, especially nearer the end of the film.
At one point Finding Your Feet turns into an effective fundraising drive for Age UK (Joanna Lumley is an ambassador for the charity), informing the audience that 234 elderly people die prematurely every day in the UK during the winter months. The film deals very well with issues facing the ageing population — rising costs, loneliness, and dementia — in a very genuine and not condescending manner.
Finding Your Feet is absolutely trading in sentiment and the success of films cut from the same cloth, and like these films cut from the same cloth, it is unable to absolutely keep itself together in the final act. It suffers from the same problems as similar films, but is still enjoyable and well acted so can be forgiven for its flaws.
Finding Your Feet is in many ways entertaining. Ultimately the excellent cast of great actors, coupled with a decent amount of laughs and plenty of heartwarming moments make up for the boilerplate script and feeble last act. Take your mothers, take your sisters, aunts, etc. and enjoy this film, despite its imperfections.