I saw this when it first came out, and could barely remember it except for the fact I enjoyed it and that Bruce Robinson's performance really stood out, enough for me to remember his character five years later when I could barely remember anyone else (doesn't help that we watched the film first time round as part of a midnight marathon of films so I was spaced out from lack of sleep).
Then I got my hands on the DVD and watched it... and found myself wondering how I could have forgotten it.
Without spoilers, the plot is simple: A rock band formed in the late 60s, peaks in the early 70s. With tremendous potential and a huge following, the band is torn apart by the tragedic death of their lead singer, Keith, by drugs. Two years on, they've got themselves a new lead singer, Ray, whose glamorous, larger-than-life rock-star lifestyle and ambitions clash with the quieter, broodier, more ballard-loving song-writing base guitarist, Les. With Keith's brother, lead guitarist Brian, the acknowledged heart, soul and genius of the band, set to follow Keith to the great rehab in the sky, the band exits the limelight in an ignoble lightning explosion that mirrors the flames that engulf the band from within.
Simmering with anger and bitterness, the band, complete with its two faithful roadies, Hughie and Brian's girlfriend, Karen, seperate and go their seperate ways, never to contact each other again... ... Until 20 years later, the son of the promoter of their last ever gig, approaches Tony, the keyboard player whose life has deteriorated into refilling condom machines in resort bathrooms, and asks Strange Fruit to reunite for an anniversary gig of their last infamous festival. Tracking down Karen, now a frustrated hotel clerk, with a divorce behind her and sulky teenage daughter looking over her shoulder, he convinces her to climb on board. Together, they begin the long, hard process of tracking down the rest of the band members in the hopes of reforming Strange Fruit for one last gig to prove to the world they really did have what it took to be great.
But their unresolved grudges threaten to tear them apart before they can even begin, and when they finally track down the last missing member, Brian, to a single impersonal fax stating he died 5 years beforehand and bequeathed his Royalties to a cancer foundation in America, the band are left with no option but to recruit young and naive guitarist, Luke as a replacement. With time running out, the heart of their group dead and old wounds festering like sores as they career from one disastrous gig to another, can the band really bury the past before the past buries them?
All the way through you can see exactly why the band fell apart and the issues that prevented them from ever jelling as the team they needed to be in order to achieve the heights they all knew they were capable of reaching. But slowly, as the film progresses, you begin to see what brought them together as a band as well. As they struggle to learn how to recapture the glory, they gradually begin to understand what it is they've really lost. You can empathise with all the characters. Bill Nighy produces the best comic performance, but Stephen Rea, Juliet Aubrey and Bruce Robinson reveal the emotional core that shows how these people were so inescapably bound together regardless of whether they loved or hated each other.
This is an excellent film. Worth watching at least once and in my opinion, worth watching multiple times.
Then I got my hands on the DVD and watched it... and found myself wondering how I could have forgotten it.
Without spoilers, the plot is simple: A rock band formed in the late 60s, peaks in the early 70s. With tremendous potential and a huge following, the band is torn apart by the tragedic death of their lead singer, Keith, by drugs. Two years on, they've got themselves a new lead singer, Ray, whose glamorous, larger-than-life rock-star lifestyle and ambitions clash with the quieter, broodier, more ballard-loving song-writing base guitarist, Les. With Keith's brother, lead guitarist Brian, the acknowledged heart, soul and genius of the band, set to follow Keith to the great rehab in the sky, the band exits the limelight in an ignoble lightning explosion that mirrors the flames that engulf the band from within.
Simmering with anger and bitterness, the band, complete with its two faithful roadies, Hughie and Brian's girlfriend, Karen, seperate and go their seperate ways, never to contact each other again... ... Until 20 years later, the son of the promoter of their last ever gig, approaches Tony, the keyboard player whose life has deteriorated into refilling condom machines in resort bathrooms, and asks Strange Fruit to reunite for an anniversary gig of their last infamous festival. Tracking down Karen, now a frustrated hotel clerk, with a divorce behind her and sulky teenage daughter looking over her shoulder, he convinces her to climb on board. Together, they begin the long, hard process of tracking down the rest of the band members in the hopes of reforming Strange Fruit for one last gig to prove to the world they really did have what it took to be great.
But their unresolved grudges threaten to tear them apart before they can even begin, and when they finally track down the last missing member, Brian, to a single impersonal fax stating he died 5 years beforehand and bequeathed his Royalties to a cancer foundation in America, the band are left with no option but to recruit young and naive guitarist, Luke as a replacement. With time running out, the heart of their group dead and old wounds festering like sores as they career from one disastrous gig to another, can the band really bury the past before the past buries them?
All the way through you can see exactly why the band fell apart and the issues that prevented them from ever jelling as the team they needed to be in order to achieve the heights they all knew they were capable of reaching. But slowly, as the film progresses, you begin to see what brought them together as a band as well. As they struggle to learn how to recapture the glory, they gradually begin to understand what it is they've really lost. You can empathise with all the characters. Bill Nighy produces the best comic performance, but Stephen Rea, Juliet Aubrey and Bruce Robinson reveal the emotional core that shows how these people were so inescapably bound together regardless of whether they loved or hated each other.
This is an excellent film. Worth watching at least once and in my opinion, worth watching multiple times.