Scottish Daily Record, January 21, 2000

JOSEPH FIENNES and Rhys Ifans are both much in demand after their recent box -office successes, Shakespeare In Love and Notting Hill - so how on earth did they end up in Rancid Aluminium?

As movie vehicles go, this is a Skoda - but without that car's stylish charm.
This vodka-soaked fantasy about an overgrown lad stars Rhys Ifans as Peter, a disillusioned businessman in his mid-30s.
Pete's life is falling apart around him; he's had to take on the firm of his father who has just died and the business is going bust.
His marriage to Sarah (Sadie Frost) is on the rocks because she wants to get pregnant -- but his sperm seems to have packed its bags and left home.
Maybe it's simply exhausted, since Peter keeps a mistress, Masha (Tara Fitzgerald with an accent from nowhere on the planet), and he's also been doing the horizontal dance with his secretary, Charlie (Dani Behr).

But help is at hand and from an unexpected quarter - the Russian mafia led by Mr Kant.
They do a deal arranged by Peter's very dodgy accountant (Fiennes). However everything has a price and Peter becomes embroiled in an international sting and all plans seem to be careering out of control.
However, it's hard to care what happens next to luckless Pete the pain. He doesn't just like a whinge - he hugs it, slaps it on the back, and buys it a pint.
And it says something about a film when one of the best performances comes from Dani Behr. And that something is not good. Not rancid - just dismal.

RATING 5