Andrew Pulver 

Acts of Godfrey – review

A brave but ultimately stagey British film set at a motivational seminar – and spoken almost entirely in rhyming verse, writes Andrew Pulver
  
  

Poetry in motion … Harry Enfield in Acts of Godfrey
Poetry in motion … Harry Enfield in Acts of Godfrey Photograph: PR

You have to admire the ingenuity of this low-budget British film written and directed by musician Johnny Daukes: it is spoken entirely in rhyming verse. Set almost all in one place – a hotel, where a too-nice salesman (Iain Robertson) has been sent on a motivational seminar – Daukes's film is certainly likable, but can't quite get round the static, stagey nature of the material. Much of the action is marooned in the seminar room and hotel restaurant as it flits between one supporting character and another, with narrator Simon Callow provides light relief of varying effectiveness. Things only properly kick off in a frantic farce-like finale; by then the laboriousness of the plotting has taken its toll.

 

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