Amazon.co.uk Review
Peter Capaldi, the writer and director of the vaguely amusing and almost engaging
Strictly Sinatra, seems to have had two recent strains of British film-making on his mind: the Guy Ritchie school of modern mob capers and the post-modern urban Scottish noir of
Shallow Grave and
Trainspotting. Indeed Kelly MacDonald, who starred in the latter, appears in
Strictly Sinatra as a similar rough-around-the-edges love interest.
The film revolves around what happens when hapless Glasgow lounge-singer Tony Cocozza (played by the always capable Ian Hart) crosses paths with the local Mafiosi. Their initial mutual attraction is derived from the ability of the parties to support each others delusions: Cocozza wishes he was Sinatra, they wish they were Sinatras dubious cronies. But Cocozza swiftly realises that he has, as the song goes, bitten off more than he can chew, and proceeds, predictably enough, from doubt to epiphany to redemption to happy ending.--Andrew Mueller